REC RECAP

ISES NORTHEAST REC - A SUCCESS!

This year's REC did more than Connect Education to Innovation - it connected
people in a way that no other conference has done before. For the first
time, attendees joined together to discuss reinventing the industry. At
the Sunday Morning Welcome Address, Judy Brillhart spoke about going, "back to basics:" seeking new knowledge through the educational sessions and taking a "fresh" approach to the way we all do business. Special greetings and a proclamation from NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg were given by NYC & Company CEO, George Fertitta "ISES Northeast REC Day" and highlighting the importantance and impact of the special events industry. The proclamation was accepted by Kevin White, CSEP and ISES Northeast Regional RVP, Judy Brillhart shown above.

This concept carried through to Tim Sander's keynote and the Monday morning panel discussion. In his keynote, Sander's (shown in the middle with Liz Glover Wilson, left and Jennifer Claire Scott, right) said, "We are strangers in a strange land...
again." For the first time ever, we are being condemned by the media, who are feeding false information to the general public and our government. This calls for our industry to not only rethink our marketing, but to rethink our actions. Attendees learned about going green, analyzing the economic benefits of our business, bettering communication with our own employees, and most importantly, about publicizing and marketing the changes we are integrating into our
business practices.

In the Monday morning panel discussion moderated by David Carey, Group President for Condé Nast,
(shown at ppodium, right) panelists discussed how this economic situation is an "emotional issue" that therefore must be tackled on an emotional level. We must publicize the emotional and psychological impacts of the public events and festivals that we are involved in, promote ourselves through detailed press releases, tackle the emotional side of this issue-focusing on the jobs that the Hospitality and Special Events Industry provide-and, in the words of Kevin White, "Get an ego!" This is the time to be proud of what we do!

Panelist Joel Dolci of Dolci Management and More, CEO New York Society of Association Executives commented that there is a "fundamental shift" going on, and now, more than ever we must communicate, "What [the Special Events] industry is... and does... Who we are, what we are, and what we do." The expansiveness of our industry was represented by the REC attendees: vendors, venues, caterers, DJ's, producers, planners, designers. Like no other REC before, the discussions prompted by the Conference focused on looking to the future: the short term, and the long term.
After Monday's breakfast, as the last business cards and hugs were exchanged
and final photos for Facebook were taken, we realized that the innovation of the industry will come from what we do now that the conference has ended: from taking what we've learned from the educational sessions, keynotes, and our numerous private discussions, connecting with one another after we've settled back in our offices, and starting to enact change.