Meeting Professionals International Honors David Michael Rich with
Prestigious RISE Award for Meeting Industry Leadership
Award honors marketing strategy pioneer for lifetime contribution to the industry
Detroit, MI (July 2010) – Recognizing the increasing adoption of formal strategy methodology among meetings and event marketing executives as a means to improve marketing programs and generate greater business results, Meeting Professionals International (MPI) has named David M. Rich, Senior Vice President, Worldwide Strategy for George P. Johnson Experience Marketing (GPJ) as its first ever RISE Award winner for Meeting Industry Leadership. Rich founded and currently leads the industry’s first and foremost strategy practice at GPJ, championing the discipline as a means to unlock higher marketing ROI and performance.
MPI’s annual RISE Award honors those rare individuals who by visionary work and creative insight have positively changed the global meetings and events industry community. The award will be presented in a special ceremony at MPI’s largest annual event, the World Education Congress, July 2010 in Vancouver.
“The impact of David’s leadership in the strategy area touches on nearly every aspect of the meetings and event marketing industry, allowing brands to compete more efficiently, integrate their marketing efforts, measure their event investments and accelerate sales,” said Bruce MacMillan, CEO of MPI. “The RISE Award honors his ongoing contributions in this crucial area.”
Some of Rich’s most well-known contributions to the field of marketing strategy include:
• Creating the Strategic Experience Mapping model. This audience analysis model creates a truly customer-centric roadmap, which in turn is used to shape the optimal event experience, select live and digital experience formats, develop creative ideas, and align all elements to organizational objectives.
• Innovating the Portfolio Analyzer software. A groundbreaking enterprise software package based on Rich’s pioneering work in portfolio planning, the PA tool equips corporate marketers to turbocharge their ability to adjust their event mix to precisely align with their business objectives as well as the sequence of touch points that audiences need to have in order to move them to specific behaviors efficiently as possible.
• Advocating for the intersection of online and physical meetings, events and experiences. As web-based communications increasingly complements the meeting and event experience, Rich continues to lead with research and best practices around the use of the web to create truly integrated online-physical meetings and events.
“It’s been incredibly gratifying to see how strategy is increasingly being talked about as a must-have discipline with the community,” says Rich. “The RISE Award is a great honor, and I take it as recognition of the fact that strategy has been and will continue to be a transformative practice for our industry.”
A former two-term president of the New England chapter of MPI and international director, Rich has been an active leader within the global MPI organization and the industry at large, working with a wide range of industry groups and associations on a long history of work and research initiatives to advance a more strategic approach to meetings and event marketing.
About George P. Johnson Experience Marketing (gpj.com)
GPJ is a worldwide experience marketing agency that creates great ideas and brings them to life through integrated live and online experiences and environments, helping them cut through marketplace noise, differentiate from the competition and create lasting relationships that directly impact the bottom line. Ranked by Advertising Age as the “#1 Event Marketing Agency” and consistently placing among the world’s top marketing agencies, GPJ provides its services through 26 offices around the world. The agency’s clients won 37 awards in 2008, five Ex Awards in 2009 and took home both the Grand Ex Award as well as the Best 100% Virtual Ex Award in 2010.
Media Contact:
Tom Maher
Director, Marketing Programs
PR and Corporate Communications
George P. Johnson
617-535-9820
tom.maher@gpj.com