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The Meetings Mean Business Coalition (MMB), a cross-industry communications and advocacy initiative, is a platform for industry professionals in every corner of the globe to better advocate for the power of face-to-face meetings. A newly created licensing agreement allows partners in countries and regions outside of the United States to use MMB branding, messaging and research to form one strong, cohesive voice for the industry. 

The Business Events Industry Coalition of Canada (BEICC), founded in 2009 to advocate on behalf of the Canadian meetings industry, is the first to execute the MMB licensing agreement and has rebranded as Meetings Mean Business Canada (MMB Canada). The MMB Canada board is actively reaching out to key industry stakeholders across all sectors of the Canadian Meetings Industry to transform the coalition into a proactive, well-funded advocacy movement with strong connections to federal, provincial and municipal governments.

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The Federation of Congress Organizers and Allied Organizations of Latin America COCAL (its acronym in Spanish), has been a member of the Events Industry Council (EIC) and a strong supporter of the MMB coalition since its beginnings,  supporting its mission and activating advocacy initiatives through Latin America and the Caribbean. “The meetings and business events stakeholders in private and public sectors, are working together in Latin America to elevate the message on the importance and relevance of the industry. COCAL brings together 16 countries to promote the message and the real value of our industry” said  Pablo Weil, president of COCAL.

“We are honored to have Heidi Welker join us as a speaker for this year’s conference as part of our initiatives for Global Meetings Industry Day (GMID) 2019 this coming April.”


The MMB Canada 2019 Chair, Heidi Welker, spoke at the annual COCAL Congress, in Panama on March 15th, 2019. This session provided insight on the MMB and its licensing benefits the Canadian business events industry realized in its efforts to be recognized as an important contributor to the Canadian economy.

Speaking about the session, Heidi Welker, said, “I think success for business events is the same regardless of the country you live in. By example, for us in Canada success means we have the resources and assets in place to effectively inform public policy and mobilize Business Events industry participants. Success means that certain policy decisions never get made because they would be harmful to our industry. Success means that when an economic crisis or some other unforeseen incident occurs, everyone is able to respond with a unified, consistent message. Success means we become the go-to resource for educational institutions training future leaders, for policymakers looking to knowledgeably talk about our industry, for elected officials to better understand the importance of the Business Events industry to Canada. Success means that we become a unified source of curated data regarding the Business Events industry in Canada.”

And finally, success means that we remain laser-focused on the importance of Business Events, face-to-face meetings that have tremendous economic, social and community-building benefits for Canada., We are delighted to share knowledge thru COCAL in Latin America. 


 To learn more about Meetings Mean Business Canada, view the current supporter list, and add your organization to this growing coalition, please visit our website here https://www.meetingsmeanbusiness.ca/supporters.  

The Business Events Industry Coalition of Canada (BEICC), founded in 2009 to advocate on behalf of the Canadian meetings industry

The Meetings Mean Business Coalition (MMB), a cross-industry communications and advocacy initiative

“We generate $33 billion annually in direct spending, employ over 229,000 jobs directly attributable to business events, and generate $19.3 billion in direct GDP.”

What Do Meetings Mean? Meetings Mean Business

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