In this issue

Quick Links

December 2019

President's Report

Greeting and Happy Holidays!

The season of “thankfulness and giving” is upon us. As I observe the changing of the leaves from the green of summer to the beautiful fall colors of red, yellow, brown and orange, I am thankful for life, for health and for strength. Let me take this opportunity to say I am thankful for each member of our North Carolina chapter of SGMP. We are all busy in our respective lives and numerous everyday roles. Thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedules to attend the bi-monthly meetings and to read the emails that are sent to you. Our board members work hard behind the scenes to keep our chapter running. Thank you all for the diligent work that you do in helping to keep the chapter on track.

In the hustle and bustle of your holiday shopping and parties, take the time to cherish those around you. Don’t get so caught up in the “season” that you stress yourself out and miss the true gifts of time with the ones you love. Enjoy the Christmas season and all that it brings as you reflect on 2019!

Many blessings upon you and your families. I look forward to seeing you in the New Year!

Erica Quillet
NCSGMP Chapter President

Board News

Meet our newest Board member Jacqueline Ward! Jacqueline will serve in the Planner Director position.

Jacqueline is currently the Director of Continuing Legal Education and Special Events at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She has over 20 years of progressive experience in the management of conferences, programs and special events for private and public organizations. She earned her CMP in 2004 and according to the Convention Industry Council (CIC), she is one of 93 CMP’s in North Carolina and South Carolina. Ms. Ward is also, a member of MPI and MPI Carolinas Chapter, Association for Continuing Legal Education (ACLEA), UNC’s Events Life and SGMP. She is also a certified Cvent professional. She joined SGMP to network and to share her expertise and experience with like-minded professionals.

NC SGMP Chapter Board

With the arrival of the new year, we will have new members to our chapter board. We are still seeking a Planner to fill the position of Secretary for this term. Below is a list of duties for this position. If you are a planner and wish to help steer our wonderful chapter, please contact Danielle Rivenbark who heads the Nominations Committee. She can be reached via email at [email protected].

SECRETARY

 The Secretary shall be a Government Planner or Contract Planner member.
 The Secretary shall be responsible for the proper notification of Chapter Board meetings to board members.
 The Secretary shall record the proceedings of the Chapter Board and any meetings, or sessions as shall be requested by the Chapter Board.
 The Secretary shall maintain the chapter’s official records and the chapter’s Policy and Procedures Manual.
 The Secretary shall maintain a log of the voting actions of the meetings.
 The Secretary shall assure that all official and historical records of chapter are maintained and preserved.
 The Secretary shall submit minutes for review and approval from the Chapter Board in a timely manner.
 The Secretary shall submit approved minutes to the Chapter President in a timely manner for inclusion in President’s monthly chapter summary report to SGMP Headquarters.
 The Secretary shall write and mail general correspondence, including, including thank you notes.
 The Secretary should adhere to national standards of minute taking.

Director Lori Schwarze, a long time North Carolina Chapter member and Planner Director will be moving to a new chapter as of January 1, 2020. We wish her well in her new chapter. She will be greatly missed. Lori has been our Communication Chairman. Kimberly Wycoff has graciously agreed to be our new Communications chair. This includes handling the chapter’s social media presence. She would greatly appreciate any help in this area. If you are social media savvy, contact her today to help in this area. The chapter has both a Facebook and LinkedIn account. [email protected]

Lori’s position of Director (Planner) has been filled by Jacqueline Ward.

The current NCSGMP board:

President
Erica Quillet – NC Conference of District Attorneys

1st Vice President
Camden Byrd - ICF

2^nd Vice President
Joel Smith - Wilmington and Beaches Convention and Visitors Bureau

Secretary
Open

Treasurer
Garrett Wood – Cabarrus Convention and Visitors Bureau

Past President
Danielle Rivenbark – East Carolina University

Director (Supplier)
Myron Jones – Fayetteville Convention and Visitors Bureau

Director (Planner)
Jacqueline Ward – University of North Carolina

Director (Supplier)
Kimberly Wyckoff – Doubletree by Hilton Brownstone

Upcoming Meeting

Active Shooter/Assailant Training
Thursday, January 9, 2020
Holiday Inn RDU, 930 Airport Blvd., Morrisville, NC

March 12, 2020 – DoubleTree by Hilton Crabtree. The topic is TBD.

SGMP National Education Conference

Registration is now open for the 2020 National Education Conference to be held May 19-21, 2020 in St. Louis, Missouri.

Gather with government meeting professionals from across the U.S. to:

CONVERGE on St. Louis, which is ready to host an awesome NEC!
CONNECT with new SGMP members, along with your long-time friends and colleagues!
COLLABORATE with our dynamic speakers and fellow attendees to step up your knowledge and expertise!

In addition to a welcome reception, sponsored by Explore St. Louis, the conference will offer two keynotes, multiple breakout sessions and pre-conference events designed to keep you at the top of your game. Both CGMP and CMP continuing education hours will be offered.

New this year! A special opportunity for exhibitors and supplier members for the 2020 NEC: Enjoy a $200 savings on your 2020 NEC registration/exhibit fees when you register by January 31, 2020 and payment is received by February 29, 2020.

Membership Report

Currently our chapter has forty-five (45) members. Our membership is comprised of the following:

Number of Planners - 30
Number of Suppliers - 13
Number of Retirees - 2
Total members – 45

We have not seen many of you this past year at one of the monthly meetings. We would love to network with you in January. Invite a meeting or event planner. Some planners do not realize they qualify to join SGMP because they are independent owners or do not work for a state government agency. Our goal is to increase our membership and member engagement by 10%. Invite someone to our January 9^th meeting in Morrisville!

Continuing Education

Are you taking advantage of SGMP webinar offerings? Here is a list of upcoming webinars offered by the national office. To register visit www.sgmp.org

Upcoming Live Events:

Tuesday, December 17, 2019, at 1 pm ET – Winning Government Contracts and beta.SAM.gov - Chris McLaughlin
Tuesday, January 14, 2019, at 1 pm ET – How to Get Hotels to Say Yes to my Business – Brett Sterenson
Tuesday, February 25, 2020, at 1 pm ET – Event Technology Trends in 2020 – Lindsay Martin-Bilbrey, CMP
Thursday, March 19, 2020, at 1 pm ET – Inclusive Meeting Design – Antwone Stigall, CMP, DES
Tuesday, April 28, 2020, at 1 pm ET – Crafting an Event Marketing Plan that Today's Attendees Will Respond To – Kristen Ferrer and Aimee Kaufman
Wednesday, June 24, 2020, at 1 pm ET – Seating – Kathleen Ryan, CGMP

Just For Fun

On-Site Badge Printing... I'll never go back to pre-printed name badges (if I can help it)

by Danielle Rivenbark

I recently ran a large conference. The largest I’ve ever been a part of organizing. There were just over 900 people in attendance. Because this conference was so large, we were afforded some flexibility with our funds to be able to properly support the conference. Of course, for me this meant getting fun toys! And fun toys meant technology! Not only did we have a conference app, but we were able to get on-site badge printing. Let me tell you, check-in has never been smoother.

We utilized a company called Boomset for the software and Choose2Rent for the hardware. The interface of Boomset is incredibly easy to use. Building a name tag required a simple drag and drop with text resizing. You can mass upload session information that showed a participant their pre-conference schedule as well as their ticket type, which allowed them entry into various events that required additional fees. The participant mass upload was just as easy and completely editable once the upload was completed.

On-site the hardware included, 1 router, 6 iPads, and 3 printers, plus a technician, who certainly earned his keep! The setup was simple and we were up and running within 40 minutes.

We utilized Boomset to customize the Welcome screen for participants. From the time the participant pushed start until the time the badge printed 10 seconds may have passed and that’s being generous. After the badge printed, the most common reaction was, “Is that it?” followed by, “That was so easy!” We even got a tweet that read, “@NCDLI2019 self-service registration desks - how come no one has thought of that before! I love it. #nolineups #ncdli2019”.

And what happened when a participant wanted to change the name of their company? Or their name was misspelled? They simply talked with one of our staff standing by, who logged into the Boomset app, made the change, and pushed reprint on the badge. There was even a setting that could allow participants to change this before printing!

The use of this technology has revolutionized the way I think about running registration for events. There was a significant reduction in the number of staff needed on-site for the purposes of registration. This allowed us to pay attention to other things that required assistance. You know, things like, the internet isn’t working, the presenter is having issues with the microphone, the room is too hot/too cold. Typical event manager issues to solve. :-)

The technology of course came with a price tag. However, I would make an argument that the approximately $4 you’re spending per name badge to have the technology is drastically reducing the staff time it takes to print name tags and stuff them into holders prior to your event. Not to mention that you don’t get a chance to reprint them, produce clean looking name tags for walk-in registrations, or eliminate the registration lines.

We hope to purchase some of the hardware to use at our events permanently. Again, to free up our staff to do other things, reduce staffing on-site, and make registration easy for participants. It was a win-win for us.

Entertainment

Holiday Punch Recipe

Made with pineapple, cranberry and orange juice! Easy to make and such a delicious combination! This holiday punch is perfect to make for Christmas!

INGREDIENTS
4 cups pineapple juice
4 cups cranberry juice
4 cups orange juice
2 liters lemon-lime soda
1 cup fresh cranberries (optional, for garnish)
orange slices (optional, for garnish)

INSTRUCTIONS
Chill all ingredients thoroughly. Combine the pineapple juice, cranberry juice, and orange juice in a punch bowl. Just before serving, add the lemon-lime soda and stir to combine. Add cranberries and orange slices for garnish.