A Message from Nikki Benner, 2021-22 MPI PHL President

MPI Philadelphia Area Chapter,

The Covid-19 global pandemic continues to impact our industry and our Association. As we face an uncertain future for meetings and events, now more than ever our industry relationships and professional friendships provides the support and encouragement each of us needs to face these challenges.

Our 2021-22 President’s Theme is “Realize Your Potential”. To realize something means to become fully aware of it, to understand it clearly, and also to give a physical form to something; we say something is fully realized when something has been accomplished or a goal has been achieved. “Your” is simple – it means something that belongs to you; yet we can also write this as “you’re”, a conjugation of the verb “to be”, something intrinsic to you that you are. Potential is something that can become actual; in physics, it is the energy that an object possesses relative to other objects – when a boulder sits at the top of a hill, about to roll down, it possesses potential energy, and once released, that boulder will begin to pick up speed as it rolls down that hill.

With these layered meanings in mind, I encourage everyone to “realize your potential”, or, to “realize you’re potential” – each of us has the strength, energy, and talent to use the challenges of this pandemic to think creatively about the problems our industry faces and to use your participation in MPI Philadelphia to implement “out-of-the-box” ideas that you might not be able to try in your “jobby-job”. Trying new ideas with the Chapter will give you an interesting case study that you can take back to your professional life, develop and strengthen existing talents, or provide hands-on learning of new skills that will round out your professional resume.

I am honored to be the 2021-22 MPI Philadelphia Area Chapter president, and it is a pleasure to serve the meetings industry, this chapter, and you. Please do reach out to me or to the Board of Directors to discover opportunities within MPI PHL that will help you achieve your personal and professional goals, and help you Realize Your Potential.