Maria Grasso

Senior Vice President, Convention Division
Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau

Maria Grasso, CEMA Board Member at Large, was recently named senior vice president, convention division at the Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau (PHLCVB), leading the convention sales and services team in growing convention bookings, while positioning Philadelphia as a premier destination for meetings, conventions, and events.

A more than 20-year veteran of the organization, Maria joined the PHLCVB in 1999 as senior director of national accounts, quickly establishing herself as the organization’s top-producing sales director. She most recently served as vice president of sales and convention services, a customer-facing role focusing on organizational growth in key industry verticals

Today, Maria and her team at the PHLCVB are securing conventions and meetings while highlighting Philadelphia’s impressive vaccination rate, higher than both state and national averages. They are working to tout the successful collaboration of the City’s health department, regional scientific community, and hospitality partners, which has driven Philadelphia’s success in safely hosting in-person events since March 2021.

Actively involved in Philadelphia’s bid to host the FIFA World Cup 2026™, Maria serves as the hotel accommodations expert representing the PHLCVB in direct contact with FIFA and U.S. Soccer. She was part of the committee that welcomed the FIFA delegation to Philadelphia last month. Maria has served in similar capacities for other historic events including the 2015 World Meeting of Families, 2016 DNC and the 2017 NFL Draft.

Maria is also the founder of Get Your Rear in Gear Philadelphia, an annual race that works to raise both research funds and awareness of colon cancer. To date, the 4-mile run has raised more than $3 million for colorectal cancer education, research, and screening efforts in the Philadelphia region. Maria and the organization are preparing to host their 14th annual event in March 2022.

Maria is also Mom to the cutest French Bulldog. Above is Brandi on her first day of school.

Executive of the Month

Aaron Mosser

Senior Sales Executive
Gaylord Texan Resort & Convention Center on Lake Grapevine

Since returning to the Gaylord Texan in 2015, Aaron has been working with customers in the West Coast to identify meeting objectives and propose solutions that lead to successful face to face meetings. Experienced in working with Technology and Pharmaceutical groups, Gaylord Texan offers an accessible and central location only minutes from DFW.

Aaron’s career started over 25 years ago in hotel operations. In 2003, he joined the sales team and has applied his operational knowledge to work with customers to create personalized experiences.

Outside of work when he is not spending time with his family you will probably find him on the golf course still chasing that dream of making his first hole-in-one.

CEMA CONNECTS

There are still many unknowns about our event industry. When and how do we get back to in-person events? Some of your colleagues are doing just that, while many are planning an event strategy for 2022 and beyond. Now is the time to connect with CEMA members for ideas, learnings, and insights through our new web series, CEMA Connects.

You are invited to our first CEMA Connects with Stacey Kashubeck from Salesforce, scheduled for Tuesday, December 14 at 11:00am PST.

Stacey will speak about Dreamforce 2021, how learnings from virtual event strategies played out in a hybrid setting, in expected and unexpected ways. How she embraced change and developed contingency plans all while learning from the experience.

As a reminder, CEMA Connects is a series of informal online episodes where CEMA members will discuss event strategies, industry trends, data analysis, new technology, managing through a pandemic, inspiring a team (and yourself) and dealing with the ever-changing event landscape.

Watch for an email with an invite and join us on December 14th!

CEMA Focus Group Weighs in on Live Events Safety Protocols

As we move towards the end of 2021 and plan for 2022, event execs are still facing tough decisions on whether to stay the course with digital, go hybrid or go boldly back to live, in-person events.

In the spirit of CEMA sharing, Destination Toronto is sponsoring a series of small focus groups to get insights from CEMA event marketers on the types of information and best practices they rely on most to inform their event strategies. In October event marketers from DocuSign, IBM, Service Now, F5, Hewlett-Packard and others participated in a focus group to discuss how they are approaching attendee safety at their current and future events.

In deciding how to structure safety requirements and procedures, many in the group said they use the venue’s protocols as a starting point for their event strategy. One take away was that venues seem to be following local city or state-wide ordinances, with most requiring attendees to be vaccinated and many venues, but not all, following mask mandates.

Several shared that the company isn’t going back to live events until Q2 2022. One member suggested that there is no single source of truth, but rather aggregates across multiple sources from health orgs, corporate health & safety teams, and local rules to establish the right plan per event. Several companies also conducted customer surveys to assess their comfort level and talked to peers to see what learnings are out there.

Another key consideration was the safety of event employees, regardless of the venue’s protocols. At the July CEMA Summit, Townhall panelists mentioned that most companies believed that taking the vaccine was a personal choice and would not be mandated. This stance has since changed. Many in the group stated that their companies now require vaccination as a term of their employment, and this policy is to be followed at their corporate events. As such, staff at events are required to be vaccinated and wear a mask. The group also discussed how internal policies extend to event contractor, including food and beverage personnel.

According to the group, the path to live events varies from company to company. Several mentioned that their companies aren’t going back to live events until the spring of 2022. Others are attending and conducting live events this fall, adhering to Covid-safety protocols. Everyone acknowledged the overwhelming desire to return to in-person events safely. Attendee safety policies ranged from vaccination requirements but no mask mandates to daily onsite covid tests and mask mandates, to an upcoming event requiring attendees show proof of the vaccine and booster shot, plus a 72-hour pre-event negative Covid test.

If you’d like to hear more about what your CEMA colleagues discussed here is the focus group recording.
(Access Passcode: i1&F$X7v)

Thanks again to Destination Toronto for hosting this important discussion and to our focus group participants. Be on the lookout for the next focus group results in December!

Mental Health at the Forefront of Events

You’ll want to study this webinar from InVision on “the Event Industry’s Emerging Capital Management Crisis.” So many key takeaways to contemplate as we rush toward 2022. Lynn discusses how our industry is unique in that we are stewards of our attendees when they’re “under our care.”

For example, she discussed a recent study showing that 80% believe Covid 19 has impacted workplace burnout — defining this state as long periods of contstant unrelenting stress rendering you feeling depleted and dejected. And the study finds it’s on the rise.

Consider how “VUCA” affects your workplace and events:

Watch this webinar for more critical observation points and potential strategies for event executives.
Watch the Video Here