Member Spotlight - Greg Wilhelm

Please welcome Greg Wilhelm to MPI St. Louis. Greg is the Theatre Production Manager at Maritz and has been enjoying his fairly new position there for the past nine months! Greg joined the St. Louis Chapter three short months ago and is excited to become more involved as he has served on different committees and boards in the past.

Being a St. Louis native and growing up in Wildwood, Greg started running audio and playing drums for his church during his high school years which quickly progressed into running the technical aspects of many meetings and trips for the St. Louis area youth groups. As the years progressed, Greg's experience and event level continued to grow which led him to Florida for a while to work the event's side for resorts and casinos on a multi-million-dollar level platform.

When asked what he enjoys most about his job, Greg replied "hearing a client describe what they want for their event and then seeing their face (light up) when I show them how much more we can do to really push the event over the edge."

Greg's primary focus at Maritz has been corporate meetings at their onsite theaters, but they are beginning to add more social and theatrical events to the Maritz calendar.

When asked what words of wisdom he has for others in the industry, Greg replied "no matter how simple the event is, be prepared for absolutely everything you can think of to go wrong. In my experience the only things that happen to ruin an event are things that you aren't ready for. So be ready for everything so that you can easily handle your event if things start to go wrong."

Greg enjoys spending his free time with his wife of a year and a half, Nicole, and their 4-year-old Doberman Boxer mix named Buckaroo Bonzai or "Bucky" for short. However, he still hasn't forgotten his first love - playing the drums and still plays them when he can. You can also find him hanging around a fire pit with his friends somewhere in South County on the weekends.

In his short time as a member, Greg has already expressed large interest in hosting local chapter events at their theater and wants to showcase their full production potential. Greg is eager to become as involved as possible within the chapter and believes "having access to such an amazing network of meeting planners in St. Louis" is the greatest benefit to joining MPI.

Please give Greg a warm welcome to MPI St. Louis!