Conversation

Greetings to you from beautiful Florida, where life always seems a little brighter!

What an exciting time of year! As you know, I am wearing many hats and probably my favorite one has "parent" written all over it. These days, my daughter Deborah keeps me on the toes - what a whirlwind of activities - from prom to final exams to graduation. My pig-tailed girl has developed into a brilliant and beautiful seventeen year old young woman, who graduated last Saturday from high school with the IB Diploma (International Baccalaureate) in her pocket.

On the professional side, I am happy to share that MPI (Meeting Professionals Internationals) has appointed me to become an Industry Advisory Panelist. What an honor to join industry peers to help measure and report industry trends to better serve the professional community of meeting and event planners.

News also from the business arena, where we wanted to reach out to clients who are often in the rough and tumble when it comes to determining event marketing strategies and budgets. So we added a new consulting service called "Meeting Alignment and Meeting Design click here to our palette of services, helping clients to determine what type of meetings make (business) sense for them.

We are launching with this issue our new ezine Face2Face with "insight on meetings and events at large, as life is one big happening." As a meeting planner, I realized early on that as much as I am in the traveling, planning and organizing business, I am mainly in the people business. And that's what my passion is - bringing people together, facilitating result-driven interaction, creating platforms to connect, which still happens most effectively face to face. That's what Face2Face is all about - bringing people together over issues evolving around "meetings and events at large, as life is one big happening." It's about human interaction and communication, about connecting on various levels. It's not meant to be the final word on anything, but rather a conversation starter.

I hope you will enjoy this issue of Face2Face and look forward to starting a conversation and to connecting with you. To send me your comments click here

Till our next Face2Face time,
My best to you always,
Elvira Amankwa, CMP

Reflection

Just as "a picture says more than thousand words," your body language speaks volumes before you even open your mouth. In my business as a meeting planner, I have witnessed this over and over again. In fact, research by psychologist Albert Mehrabian has shown that human communication occurs 7% in spoken words, 38% by tone or inflection, 55% by non-verbal aspects such as facial expressions, posture and gestures.

Impression

Still Rising
by Dalia Fahmy, One+, April 2009

One of the top reasons executives say event marketing is so effective is because it brings customers and companies face-to-face. And that, in turn, helps foster relationships more effectively than any other form of interaction.

Face to face meetings also work wonders for consumer product or service companies trying to build brand loyalty. Many of these companies refer to "event marketing" as "experience marketing," because the events allow prospective customers to live and breathe the brand.

Recommendation

It's shocking to realize that 60% of retirees will have to cut their lifestyle by a quarter or more just to have enough to survive, according to a report from Ernst & Young LLP*. Survive?! What about thriving and enjoying the best of things in retirement?!

Impact Creations

Elvira Amankwa, CMP, is the President of Impact Creations. Impact Creations provides global integrated meeting and event solutions for private and public companies, trade and industry associations, as well as non-profit organizations. Certified in meeting planning, we design, plan and execute top-notch conferences, seminars, association meetings, exhibitions, tours, incentive trips, social functions, and board meetings with an integrated approach, also offering support services in public relations and marketing. By maximizing the client's return on investment, Impact Creations delivers strategic value for all stakeholders involved.

Disclaimer

Impact Creations LLC does not endorse the accuracy and quality of services or products featured in the "Recommendation" column of this publication. The matter featured in the "Recommendation" column might not be suitable for every reader, and each reader is thus urged to obtain independent personal advice from a qualified and knowledgeable advisor regarding the suitability of the matter for the reader before acting on any offer.