President’s Message

Building Trust in Changing Times

Brandon Crumpton

Key Signature Entertainment MPI-CC President I sincerely thank you for accepting me as your new president. So far you have heard me speak about how our chapter and its members are resilient and know how to move forward. At the July meeting I shared that my focus this year is on you our members and what direction our chapter needs to start heading in to meet the needs of meeting and event professionals in a post-COVID world. I’m sure you’ve already noticed a few changes this year. We’re going from six meetings a year to four. We’re going to try a one-day meeting in October. These are necessary changes we need to try to help keep our chapter together structurally and financially. What I mean by this is that members are looking for something different now.

We are also still slowly and successfully pulling ourselves out of the financial setback that 2020 created for our chapter. What that all means is that we have to start thinking differently. It’s very easy to just set back into our old ways, but growth will be hindered by this. Growth comes from being uncomfortable, and I’m sure you’ve all heard this before. Our natural instinct is to stick with what we know, but that may not be what takes us to the next stage of evolution in our chapter or industry. It’s also ok to step aside and let others lead. I definitely do not have all of the answers, so I put trust and support in our board of directors to make the decisions for our meetings and chapter. I also know and accept that we won’t get everything right and that is ok. We’re going to try a few things and see what works. It’s all about learning and processing what you, our members, need from us. I’m just asking for you all to be a little ok with a few changes just to see where it takes us. Also, to remind myself and each other that being uncomfortable during change is a good thing.

We are going to do our best to keep our members up-to-date with what the chapter is working on. We’re going to receive your feedback and adjust accordingly. We’re going to invite you to participate in this journey of experiments and change. We’re going to show the same care for our chapter as previous leaders and boards. We’re going to need your support and trust that we are all working in your best interest.