Happy 2025! It’s mid-January as I write this, which no doubt means that we’re all starting to gear up for another busy Spring meetings season. I am your new president of the MPI Texas Hill Country Chapter, effective January 1. We have such a fantastic slate of members on this year’s Board of Directors, and I encourage you to attend the 2024 End-of-Year Celebration and 2025 Board Installation on January 23 to meet everyone. 

Without giving away too much of what I’ll say in my remarks at the Celebration Gala, I’ve chosen Together We Thrive as the 2025 theme. 

We’re nearly five years post-pandemic, but some days it still feels to me like we’re operating as we did during COVID. Planners have more on their plates than ever before. So many planners and suppliers left the meetings and hospitality industry – whether by choice or not – that we’re missing much of the “middle” layer of experienced professionals, and that’s going to result in a succession problem. The folks who call the shots at hotels in particular are permanently (?) worried about risk, and the meetings economy favoring suppliers means that meetings are very expensive to host. 

Meeting planners and sales managers are stuck in the middle of that scenario, each charged with representing our employer’s best interests. Many days it feels adversarial. 

That’s why I chose Together We Thrive. I worry that we’ve forgotten as an industry that we all need each other. Without all of our supplier friends, planners can’t deliver quality meetings, and without meeting planners, the outstanding products and services that our suppliers provide sit unused. 

We are friends in this journey, not adversaries. Let’s all sit at the same table and determine how we’re going to move the local meetings and hospitality forward. 

Because Together We Thrive.

And Thanks,

Donna Harbers, CMP
2025 MPI THCC President