On April 19th, the 8 Canadian Meeting Professional International chapters will collectively celebrate National Meetings Industry Day (NMID). This homegrown initiative will be celebrating its fifteenth anniversary this year. The primary goal is to raise awareness of the meetings industry in Canada, and communicate the value of the industry to the broader business community.
As we all know, meetings take place every single day around the world, and meetings are a regular part of getting things done. Whether you have a meeting of 10 or 1000 people, that gathering is a meeting, and someone had to plan it. Our members are passionate about our industry, so it's exciting that as Canadians, we can celebrate this day together in our own individual chapters knowing that all of the other Canadian chapters are doing the same thing.
Part of the ongoing strategic vision within our chapters is to build a rich global meeting industry community, and Canada has been the leader in creating economic impact studies that show how the economic growth in the meetings industry impacts our entire country. In 2008, the meetings industry in Canada generated $35 billion dollars in GDP, which significantly impacts the entire economy when you realize that we have a population of just over 34 million people. With the help of the MPI Foundation Canada, we will be collecting data this year for an updated Canadian Economic Impact Study in time for National Meetings Industry Day in 2013.
So, Happy National Meetings Industry Day Canada!, and thank you to our members for all of the hard work you do on a daily basis to keep our industry moving forward!
For anyone who would like to follow some of the activity of the day's events on Thursday, make sure you follow #nmid on Twitter, or you can also visit the NMID website, www.nmid.ca, to see what kind of events are taking place across the country.