Stronger Together, CEMA Joins PCMA in New Division

CHICAGO, Illinois, USA, December 7, 2020 – PCMA is proud to announce today, that the Corporate Event Marketing Association (CEMA), the premier community for event marketers, has been acquired as a wholly-owned division of PCMA. The deal between the two organizations was signed after members of CEMA voted overwhelmingly in favor of the acquisition by PCMA. This acquisition will propel both organizations into an exciting new chapter as businesses and organizations adjust to the evolving role of business events in an omnichannel world.

Based in Sacramento, California, CEMA began over thirty years ago with a vision to provide event marketers with the creative direction needed to drive innovation and growth for, what would become, the world’s leading organizations. Today, CEMA is 800+ members strong, with participation from global brands like Cisco, Salesforce and Oracle.

Sherrif Karamat, President and CEO of PCMA commented, “CEMA has been a leader in the event marketing space for more than three decades. As part of our ongoing commitment to delivering value to our members, so that they can emerge out of the pandemic prepared for a new reality, we continue to look for ways our industry can bring more creativity, content and learning from professionals in adjacent fields. PCMA’s Board Chairman Stuart Ruff-Lyon added, “As COVID-19 restructured nearly every industry and organization around the world, PCMA and CEMA focused its attention and effort on delivering high-value, recovery-focused resources for both of its members. Now, as the world moves forward into recovery, our partnership has evolved into a stronger offering to members of both organizations and the industry, as one.”

Members of both organizations will benefit from new professional development and networking programs, expertise and research, membership growth, and long-term stability and organizational expansion. CEMA and PCMA will cross-pollinate peer-to-peer learning and idea exchange forums and educational and experiential learning content.

“We are thrilled to be joining the PCMA family and excited at the prospect of expanding and enhancing professional development, networking, and growth opportunities for CEMA members,” said Kimberley Gishler, President and CEO, CEMA. Karen Cooper, CEMA’s Chairwoman of the Board added, “We are now in an optimal position to pursue strategic growth and regional expansion, and create even better engagement and experiences for the membership of both associations.”

For media queries from the Americas and EMEA and requests for interviews with Sherrif Karamat, please contact:

Maryam Sabbagh
msabbagh@pcma.org

For Asia Pacific media inquiries, please contact:

Jessica Kauffman, Senior Account Manager, ZADRO
jessica@zadroagency.com.au

About PCMA
PCMA believes that business events can economically and socially transform communities, enterprises and individuals. As the world’s largest platform for business events strategists and their business partners, PCMA’s success is driven by a commitment to providing provocative executive-level education, face-to-face networking and business intelligence to its membership of 8,400 professionals and students and global audience of over 100,000 business event stakeholders.

Through its Ascent leadership initiative to promote inclusion and diversity across the business events industry and beyond, PCMA seeks to empower those challenged by gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity or disabilities to find success.

Headquartered in Chicago, PCMA has 17 chapters throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico with members in more than 40 countries and regional offices in Ireland, Australia and Singapore. Visit us at pcma.org or on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.