Frankfurt. Following its recent Council meeting in Frankfurt the Joint Meetings Industry Council (JMIC) has agreed to move forward with a new phase of development following the completion of an initial three year program that was designed to achieve consensus on key industry issues, develop agreed industry messages, align value measures and develop communications systems and materials. The second phase will focus on implementing the results of the first phase in advancing industry awareness, refining value measurement and further improving interactions within the international industry community.
“For a very long time JMIC was simply a medium for exchange amongst international meetings industry associations, but spurred on by a realization that we had a major job to do in increasing awareness of our issues and values, we undertook to develop a more formal program of activities and see how we could work more effectively together”, said JMIC President Philippe Fournier. “This program, which included two industry-wide conferences on the important issues of value measurement and industry communications was completed at the end of last year and essentially achieved what it was intended to do. Now, we have used these experiences and achievements to assemble a next-phase development program that will take what we have accomplished and put it to work in advancing our profile and effectiveness into the future”.
The program will include new activities and is the result of a survey of JMIC member views and preferences. Key objectives for these activities include;
It was agreed to maintain JMIC’s flexibility of action and to direct all available resources to programs rather than administration.
“It is clear that our first phase of development took us a long way toward the realization of being able to deliver a more consolidated approach to defining and promoting the industry and its values”, added Fournier. “However, we still have a long way to go and we are mindful of the constraints we have as an organization trying to do a lot on a limited budget. We believe that the program now set out – particularly in terms of generating an overall perspective and set of resources that we then encourage members to utilize – is the best route to achieving both consistency and impact in addressing our objectives.”
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