Nancy Miller, CMP, was awarded the Meeting Professionals International (MPI) Lifetime Achievement Award.
1. What does this award mean to you?
I am delighted to be 1 of 55 people in the MPI global community of 60,000 that has the distinction of receiving this award. I am extremely honored to be a member of this exclusive group.
2. How did you get started in the industry?
After graduating college with a degree in psychology (and limited job prospects), I accepted an offer to work for a company who franchised Hilton hotels. In the course of the next 5 years, I learned the hotel business through “on the job” training and was part of a team which opened the Natick, Tinton Falls and Williamsburg Hilton Hotels and National Conference Center.
In 1982, I responded to an ad in the Sunday New York Times advertising for a newly created position as meeting coordinator at Warner-Lambert, a Fortune 100 company. Their products included Schick razors, Tetra fish food, Entenmann’s baked goods, Listerine, Lubriderm, Trident, Chiclets, Halls cough drops and Parke-Davis pharmaceuticals (to include Lipitor) to name but a few.
I was hired into the Travel and Aviation Department and was the first person to carry a meeting’s title in the company. My role and responsibilities expanded throughout the course of my career to include responsibility for the Board of Director’s meetings; Annual Meeting of Shareholder’s; Security Analyst Meetings and all senior management events.
3. What is your favorite part of working in the meetings + events industry?
There are so many things I enjoy about our industry to include travel, interacting with a variety of people, the opportunity to be creative and the satisfaction of helping to facilitate learning and relationship building through a successful meeting.
4. If you could give advice to yourself when you were just starting out, what would that advice be?
- Work in a large organization where you can experience lots of different types of meetings, events, people and career opportunities.
- Join an association for networking, learning and job opportunities (i.e. MPI)
- When hosting a meeting, always have a “back up” plan –things happen and if you have plan ahead you can respond quickly. The only event where I haven’t found a suitable “back up” is a rained out golf event. Golfers want to play golf and there is nothing that will substitute.
5. What is one memorable story that stands out throughout your career?
It would be impossible to name “just one” so I wanted to share a few that come to mind. Each one provided a learning experience that was never forgotten.
- One of my first meeting requests was for a meeting in Rochester. After I completed the booking in Rochester, New York I came to find that there is also a Rochester, MICHIGAN (which was the city they desired for this meeting). Thankfully it came to light far enough in advance to correct my error.
- I was given a rooming list of meeting attendees and instructed the hotel to use the alphabetically list to assign 2 people for each double room. The meeting host had NOT listed “Mr.” or “Ms” and it never occurred to me (or the hotel) that we were putting men + women together! Thank goodness one of the first people to check in let us know that her roommate was a male!
- When hosting a high visibility meeting at a major NYC hotel I found out to late that it was built over a subway line that during rush hour, produced electromagnetic waves that totally disrupted our AV signals. We had to shut down all our AV monitors and provide printed handouts to the attendees.
- Two of the highlights of my career were working both the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and New York Marathon.
6. How has MPI been helpful throughout the years to you?
MPI has introduced me to…….
PEOPLE (CEO’s of ATT JC Penney, Exxon Oil, Joe DiMaggio, Tony Randall, Brian Gumball, Colin Powell, etc)
PLACES (London, Paris, Barcelona, Brussels, Milan, Rome, Athens, Montreal, Bermuda, etc.)
THINGS (such as Technology and SMM)
They have all contributed to an exciting, rewarding and successful career.
