 Hey guys, it's Leanne. And a couple weeks ago, I had the great, great pleasure of sitting down with one of my MeetingsMean Business Canada Communication Committee colleagues, try saying that six times fast, MMBC's Teresa Gatto, who also works with Ottawa Tourism. And what I loved about this conversation with Teresa is I was able to catch her off guard. She prides herself on being scripted and planning things down to the minutia. But today's tea time chat was anything but that and it allowed Teresa to really express herself and share her great, great passion for the Meetings Industry. So I do hope you enjoy my chat with Teresa. We do talk a lot about advocacy, the work of MMBC, what you can do to contribute to our great industry, and maybe some tips and tricks on how to get through this tumultuous time. So stick around for my chat with Teresa. So now, did you have to cancel any sun vacation plans because of COVID? So what we've been doing, we did cancel our vacation plans. We didn't have any major sun plans per se, but last year we went to Sharks and Shores. So trying to find, you know, a place to go for to keep my nine year old occupied with lots of things to do. I'm sure you've got the same with your two boys, right? Two boys, yeah. Yeah, two boys as well. So we did and actually they called me because I think that they were very excited to get people to cancel, unfortunately, because they were overbuffed. And they were still allowing people to go, I think, but they needed people to cancel in order to socially distance everybody. So we were scheduled to go, I think, at the end of end of July, beginning of August, so they were still open, but a lot of parts of their facility were closed. So we were okay to cancel this year, but we ended up doing some additions to our backyard and I ended up staycationing in our in our backyard. And how did you find that? Like, did you enjoy the experience of not being able to go anywhere but actually stay in your hometown? Yes and no. I mean, it's, you know, not having, you know, the time frame to travel, you just go into your backyard. But you certainly miss the hustle and bustle of, you know, going out and being somewhere and experiencing something different and unique, right? So I love to travel personally, you know, did a lot of travel with work last year in Europe and that kind of thing. So I think you really miss those experiences and, you know, your backyard vacations, staycations are okay, you know, for this year, I think it'll do. But just being able to go and meet new people too when you're when you're out and about and traveling and experiencing new places. You know, so it's kind of timely because I was on Facebook this morning on one of the event groups on there. And so Connect, which is a large gathering of event professionals and hotel partners in the US, they're meeting this week in Florida, I believe. Anyway, 1000 people apparently at this Connect event. Some people from my company, which is how I learned about it. And there's been a lot of pushback from event professionals about they weren't doing enough to protect people at the event. And so, so now I have to wonder Teresa, I have to wonder if we start meeting and we almost get events shamed, because we're attending events and, and the people now planning the events are they going to be shamed if they don't do everything by the book to try and keep people safe. So I feel for event planners I feel for the Connect team that's dealing with all of the feedback, good, bad and indifferent. Because all they wanted to do is bring people together to and and now there's so many in the community. Yeah, basically saying it's an event fail and which is devastating for the events industry right now we need event successes. We, yeah, those, you know, we will have to do it right, you know what I mean, and I think that, you know, it's been said, you know, a couple different times that we're in a marathon, you know, this is going to take time we have to do it when the time is right. And, you know, we have to be able to demonstrate that we can meet safely. I mean, I think that onus is on us as an industry to be able to demonstrate that, but the time does have to be right so that we are mindful of the optics around that because, you know, we all want everybody traveling again and we want the the conferences to happen again we want the hotels full the convention center full we all want that tomorrow. But that can happen there needs to be a little bit of a process and obviously a plan and a strategy behind how we make that happen moving forward. I mean, I think what we have to maintain and what we need to continue doing is following public safety guidelines and the government and and really align ourselves, you know, with with what those restrictions are and what those safety protocols are. And you know that is very different right now between the US and Canada. I think so we were executing things a little bit differently and so we need to align ourselves and stay focused with that and I think from an advocacy standpoint what we need to be doing now is very similar to what MNBC is doing and having a seat at that table and like what Clark's presentation was to the House of Commons and just providing that education piece about having a seat at that table that the importance of our industry and the advocacy and the economic impact to be able to have a seat at that table to help develop the policy so that when we are able to meet again, we, we are able to be part of what that policy is and help develop what those regulations are to so hopefully that we can get that sooner rather than later but it has to be done right. It's not something that we can just rush into and do tomorrow, but ensuring that we have a seat at that table I think it's key right now to make sure that our industry is top of mind, because it is is affecting so many businesses within our industry. I think for a lot of us, it's the hesitation to just get on a plane, whereas if we wanted to go to event for you if you want to go to event at an Ottawa hotel you trust in the hotel facility staff to take care of you like they're doing everything possible to keep you safe when you're within their doors and you're just in your car you're not in a plane. Well, perceptions is something you know that we always we always struggle with especially in our industry you know people think we're an industry of party planners and you know they don't realize exactly what it is that we do you know we try. We've been talking about this for four years you know how do we get our messaging outside of our four walls were very good at talking to ourselves. So how do we break past that perception and I think you know, I remember saying on one of the calls when we were talking about planning for global meetings industry day this year. So earlier on in the year when we were trying to determine. How do we get our story and our message out there and how do we make it media worthy. Right. So what's going to get people to pay attention to what it is that we're doing that we are a $33 billion industry where we maintain 229,000 jobs right. How do we make that important to somebody outside of our four walls because we we are all very passionate about that and we can talk about that we know that. And so I remember saying on the call, you know it's almost like we need to look at this backwards, you know what happens if our industry did not exist. What happens if the bad engines, you know, but what's all your fault. You know what would happen if business events didn't happen, you know, and who would be affected who would be out of work and it's unfortunate that unfortunate and a silver line within this pandemic that this is something that is coming out and it's coming to the forefront is the impact of our industry and how important we are to employing and securing jobs and so many different people. It's just the economic footprint of one delegate that goes to a conference I think about any conference that you've you've been to right from the moment when you step out your front door you're taking a taxi to get to the airport. Maybe you're buying a coffee or something at the concession at the airport while you're there. You're hopping onto the plane you're getting into a taxi in the destination where you're at. You're shopping in the stores you're staying in the hotels you're eating the food at the convention center so it in the supply chain within the convention centers and the hotels. They're getting food from farmers. These are all people who are not not providing those services right now because there's no demand for it because we don't have people coming into destinations for conference and events. Connecting those dots for people that I think is this little bit of the silver lining right now with what's going on in our world is hopefully that people do realize that the housekeepers the front staff the concierge none of those people are working right now. And they will be working again when we can demonstrate that we can meet safely and I think we all have a part to play in that. Can you just share a little bit about how people can and should be sharing their stories about people who are meeting face to face. Absolutely you know we've had some stories coming in obviously right now, depending on what the government regulations are in each individual province. Right now there isn't too much coming in from from Ontario because of where our numbers are at. But we have, you know, over the last few weeks prior to the latest regulations coming through, you know people have been sharing stories about how they're adapting and how they are doing things differently in the hotels or how they are monitoring and controlling you know how many people are going in to venues at a time like it was 100 people like it was 100 people per hour that were able to go in there 50 per hour. And so those stories have been shared to us and we're collecting those and we're sharing them now on our face are all of our social media pages. We've a brand new LinkedIn page for mnbc as well so please everyone follow along to keep to keep a rest of everything that's going on and what we are sharing, we are sharing those stories to help create awareness and education. To everybody in our industry without outside of our industry but as well as hopefully government is able to see those as well as we tag, you know, take those people into the conversation. But the more the more that we get those stories out there the louder our voices the more that we are able to get that to the forefront, so that we can demonstrate that we can meet safely again. You can share them at stories at meetings mean business Canada.ca. Perfect and that link will also be in the YouTube description for this video so if you're watching this on YouTube right now, jump down to this description and you'll find that submission address. It's also the goals and objectives of an in person meeting itself and I'm wondering if a spin off from our current stories gathering campaign is a collection of stories of people who are seeing their organizations or seeing their mandates not meeting objectives because they couldn't meet face to face that that is food for thought you don't have to answer. So what what would you think of that because that's got to be happening. If you're not meeting in person. I don't care if you're a dentist or if you're going to divorce for the world education or World Economic Forum, you're missing your goals, you're missing on your objectives. So where are those stories. That is a very good point you know because you know like you're saying beyond the economic impact and what we do what is bring people together. And what do we bring people together to do right we provide that platform the venues the hotels to encourage that communication right and right now you know face to face isn't happening. You're not replaced face to face and what happens in those interactions. You know when you sit down you're breaking bread with somebody. You're looking in there in their eyes you know there's trust that is built with that that is very different. I mean even just you and I speaking right now virtually you know it feels different it's not the same. It will do for now, but it's not the same right so we bring people together and so when you think about you know large corporate groups that we work with they come in to do product launches. They come in to you know hype up their team for the beginning of the year and get that kick started and and you know share their goals their objectives that's their part of their communication plan. So you're right those those things those messages aren't happening anymore and is that same message being received in a virtual platform. We don't know that but that is a good a good thing for us perhaps to explore and I think Clark alluded to this to one. When he spoke on the Illuminates podcast as well that that this is something that we that we need also need to consider. It's it the trend and I'm and we're calling it here Teresa the trend is an extreme loss of intellectual capital, because we're going to lose all of those be a junior or senior sales managers and planners were losing them to other companies so not only are we looking at the loss of intellectual capital, but almost a return to the 80s where everyone is junior again, and we're building up a brand new slew of CMPs and we're, we're going to have to invest heavily in education to make all of these typically younger people are are coming into the industry armed with information, as opposed to when you and I started, well at least for me I am sorry I don't need to roll you into this but when I started back in the day their words wasn't those education programs and so we all had to kind of go through the CMP program to get educated. But all of that capital all that intellectual capital gone. It's all in other industries now and good on us for an industry creating some cross training where people like ourselves can maybe even get jobs in other industries be it in operations or project management or I mean planners can use planners can contact trace for a living I mean like we've got so many other options, given the skill sets that we grow being in this industry. But now the con is we're going to lose all of those people and hopefully there's enough money to bring them back. Well, and of course I mean and that's it and you know hopefully they do come back and you know where there is an opportunity there you know trying to you know keep everything positive and trying to look at the bright side of things because there's always both sides but you know perhaps there's there's skill sets and things that people are learning if they are leaving the industry in the short term that they can bring another new fresh perspective or learn something new coming back into our industry that can only make us even better and stronger. Coming, coming out of this because we will come out of this we will survive. It may look different, but we will come out of this and I was thinking to back to a call when you're talking about skill set and what it is that we do like as an industry know the planners in our industry are are very good at risk management and thinking on their feet and coming up with solutions we are a solution driven industry. And you know planners are you know they're just so amazing and how quickly they can think and you know I'm sure you can speak from experience as well and resolve things on the spot and and have control of things too. And I remember thinking back to a conference I attended in Seattle and I've seen this at other conferences too but for some reason that really stood out to me in this particular conference. And I remember thinking this planner has full control of where everybody enters the room, how they navigate through the exhibit space and where they exit. So that is something that we already have in our toolbox in our industry that we do well. And we can apply that now to how we meet moving forward with the safety protocols with the social distancing. We have control over that in working in partnership and collaboration with the venues in the hotels who are extremely open and flexible to having those conversations. Because we want people to meet again, we can do that so it's up to us to demonstrate that and to show that that we can do that safely. Well and it's it's I'm so glad to use the word mass gathering because there was a mass gathering that was planned very safely not too too long ago in Halifax and I hope they don't mind me telling this story. The hockey team in Halifax the moose heads had a game with 2200 fans that were all socially distanced so they could stay within their family cohorts but then socially distanced from all the other families and cohorts in the arena. And so I've been thinking about that one because that's a lot of people and that is probably even more people than a good chunk of the conferences we host in Canada. Why can't we go to an arena. I mean they did it. They can get in trouble like why can't we host a conference at Roger Center. Well and that's why we just thought it is absolutely and that's why we just need to continue having that seat at the table and I think that that's what you know mnbc and tyac and tyo and are having those conversations and they're doing a very good job at that and it's just staying in the government's ear and right now it's really the provincial government because they're the ones that are are giving out the regulations and scaling things back and moving things forward. So we want them to be aware of what it is that we do what our know how is what our background is what we've been doing for years and why we are good at it. And that is what needs to be the message that needs to continuously be hammered home and I don't think it's just one time you know it has to come from a whole bunch of different angles so for those people that are sitting at home wondering OK our industry is you know it feels like it's falling apart right now what can I do how can I help well you can have a voice so let's use it. You are a very active person and you volunteer in a number of capacities. You've been hit by the same pandemic that everyone else in the world has been hit by. But you have a great energy and a great enthusiasm and I'm wondering how how you get through your day today how you take care of you so that you can give your best to everyone that you meet in a day. But I'm so addicted to volunteering and just getting involved and that honestly helps rejuvenate me a little bit too because it gives me a sense of belonging and the sense of purpose. I really enjoy being a part of something bigger than me and then working with people on things that are not self serving for either one of us right so just being able to to be in the trenches and you know the business comes after that right like the volunteering you're doing for a totally different different purpose and those relationships and friendships that I've developed over the years because of all of that. It's just it's huge right and that becomes the support system to right so you have that support system within the industry as well and you have those additional friendships to. Yeah you you said it I think volunteering has more to do about relationships and it actually does about the work at hand although we're all furthering the mandate of whatever we volunteer for but you're right it's about relationships. What I love the best is that yeah as much as you say yes to things especially when it comes to volunteering and industry related things. You also have the power and the ability to say no like you did to your son's teacher and that's I think that that is what I'm going to take away from this is being my biggest tip is. There are some things that we just need to say no to and make room for the things that will truly energize us and benefit us right. But advocating for our industry is something I am so passionate about and back from you know the time serving with the MPI Toronto chapter board. I was actually part of the business events industry coalition of Canada which it was formerly meetings in Canada. And back in the day we were talking about you know organizing at Gima I was what was it called the National meetings industry day. And so working what I really liked about that was we were able to collaborate and bring all the industry associations together because it's very very comments that you know nothing can be done anything really truly successful you don't do on your own. There is a group of people that surround you that are with you to support you to collaborate and to think differently and it takes all those those thought leaders around a table in order to enact change. So that was very appealing to me and I learned so much from all those industry leaders so I tried to stay you know I was able to be on the board at that time because of my my MPI Toronto chapter role. And then just tried to stay involved over the years with MNBC in an advocacy role because I believe in what we do so much in the impact that we have on our industry but also on so many other industries that don't even realize that they are actually in fact part of part of our industry as well. So I think I'm really trying to be present in the moment and what's happening and you know looking ahead you know way far in the future I see a light at the end of this tunnel we will come out of this pandemic. We may look differently but you know everyone is using this time I'm hoping people are using this time to learn new skills and develop new accreditation I'm actually going to be taking the PCMA digital event strategist course in a few weeks. I think that begins at the beginning of November and it really to just I've always wanted to just always get into the minds of our planners as well and as a supplier. That was why I took my CMP course because I wanted to understand the things that the planners and clients that I'm working with what it is that they live and breathe on a day to day so I wanted to understand that better so that's the same mentality that I have with this course coming up is I want to understand that and I love learning something new. So for me I'm a huge advocate of professional development learning new things. So you know really trying to see what courses are available internally at work. I'm working on and you know worth with different professional development opportunities internally as well. For our entire team we're working with HR on that just because this is the time if we have a little bit more time and then let's use that for self improvement because at the end of the day that is only going to help what we do on a day to day basis and help make our industry stronger overall. Thank you Teresa I enjoy your company so much and I really enjoy working with you and you and I are going to talk lots in the weeks ahead. But thank you for joining me today and for sharing your wisdom with with the audience. You're welcome. Have a great day everyone. Take care. Bye bye.