27 min
Show #1 - An Interview with Sherrif Karamat, President & CEO of PCMA Strategic Meeting Tech & Better Meetings Podcasts
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- Management
To begin things on show number one here on the Better Meetings Podcast. We were able to meet up with PCMA President and CEO, Sherrif Karamat during MPI's WEC event in Toronto. He shared with us his thoughts on the state of associations, big data in our industry (including news about PCMA's Beam Project) and some inspirational thoughts for all of us about the role that meetings, events and our industry can play in making the world a better place for everyone.
TRANSCRIPT:
JON: Alright, welcome back to the podcast. Today we're at WEC in Toronto. And we're speaking with Sherrif Karamat, CAE. He's the president and CEO of PCMA. Welcome.
SHERRIF: Thank you for having me. It's a pleasure to be here in Toronto, WEC.
JON: We're having a wonderful time here. And I really appreciate you taking time out of your schedule, because we know how busy you are, to talk with us here. So, thank you for that. And let's just dive right into things; I really thought first we could start out with just an overview of PCMA from your perspective.
SHERRIF: Sure. So PCMA a number of years ago, we were in a very good financial position. And we said to ourselves, now is the time to change. And that change was predicated on the fact that we didn't want our backs to be against the wall before we start to realize that we needed to change. This was changed on multiple levels on how we engage people in our community, what people find the value of just about everything. And we actually hire Wharton School of Business, and went down 11 streams, and ended up with this global vision, and the vision of economic and social progress through business events. So PCMA being a platform for economic and social progress. There were two other legs to that stool, though, beyond economic and social progress. There was an organizational success as the second leg. And then the third leg was about you as a human being and me as a human being about our personal and professional development.
JON: Right.
SHERRIF: And so, when we did that, we looked at the world, and we looked at it, and not because we wanted to be exclusionary to anyone, but we said, where could we have the most impact in the short term until we are able to build? So, prioritizing our priorities. And we look the three regions Asia Pacific, obviously very large.
JON: Yes.
SHERRIF: The Americas, but primarily in North America. And then Europe.
JON: Sure.
SHERRIF: And so those are it, we would not exclude Africa, of course; and we will not exclude certain parts of Latin America. But looking at how not the act of a business event. And by the way, notice that I use business events and not meetings, because its outcome focused. And we believe that any meeting or any event should have an outcome. So what we were doing is looking at how event organizers were being viewed. Were they being viewed just for logistics? Or were they being viewed for bringing the objectives of that meeting or that event to life? And how does that tie to the organization strategy? We absolutely know that business events make incredible difference economically in communities. But business event should also make a difference socially for people. You know, the old saying is when we meet, when we meet face to face, we meet eye to eye.
JON: Yes.
SHERRIF: We should. And we must use business events to drive economic outcomes, but social outcomes as well. And social outcomes has nothing to do with socialism.
JON: No, no.
SHERRIF: I couldn't care less. But I do care of you as a human being. And I do care that when we get together, that we can see that both of us are progressive. And so events should be that part of that.
JON: Lifting people up?
SHERRIF: Absolutely. Well, another part is, let me touch a little bit on the personal basis, and professional basis. When you are younger, and you've done an undergraduate degree, for example.
To begin things on show number one here on the Better Meetings Podcast. We were able to meet up with PCMA President and CEO, Sherrif Karamat during MPI's WEC event in Toronto. He shared with us his thoughts on the state of associations, big data in our industry (including news about PCMA's Beam Project) and some inspirational thoughts for all of us about the role that meetings, events and our industry can play in making the world a better place for everyone.
TRANSCRIPT:
JON: Alright, welcome back to the podcast. Today we're at WEC in Toronto. And we're speaking with Sherrif Karamat, CAE. He's the president and CEO of PCMA. Welcome.
SHERRIF: Thank you for having me. It's a pleasure to be here in Toronto, WEC.
JON: We're having a wonderful time here. And I really appreciate you taking time out of your schedule, because we know how busy you are, to talk with us here. So, thank you for that. And let's just dive right into things; I really thought first we could start out with just an overview of PCMA from your perspective.
SHERRIF: Sure. So PCMA a number of years ago, we were in a very good financial position. And we said to ourselves, now is the time to change. And that change was predicated on the fact that we didn't want our backs to be against the wall before we start to realize that we needed to change. This was changed on multiple levels on how we engage people in our community, what people find the value of just about everything. And we actually hire Wharton School of Business, and went down 11 streams, and ended up with this global vision, and the vision of economic and social progress through business events. So PCMA being a platform for economic and social progress. There were two other legs to that stool, though, beyond economic and social progress. There was an organizational success as the second leg. And then the third leg was about you as a human being and me as a human being about our personal and professional development.
JON: Right.
SHERRIF: And so, when we did that, we looked at the world, and we looked at it, and not because we wanted to be exclusionary to anyone, but we said, where could we have the most impact in the short term until we are able to build? So, prioritizing our priorities. And we look the three regions Asia Pacific, obviously very large.
JON: Yes.
SHERRIF: The Americas, but primarily in North America. And then Europe.
JON: Sure.
SHERRIF: And so those are it, we would not exclude Africa, of course; and we will not exclude certain parts of Latin America. But looking at how not the act of a business event. And by the way, notice that I use business events and not meetings, because its outcome focused. And we believe that any meeting or any event should have an outcome. So what we were doing is looking at how event organizers were being viewed. Were they being viewed just for logistics? Or were they being viewed for bringing the objectives of that meeting or that event to life? And how does that tie to the organization strategy? We absolutely know that business events make incredible difference economically in communities. But business event should also make a difference socially for people. You know, the old saying is when we meet, when we meet face to face, we meet eye to eye.
JON: Yes.
SHERRIF: We should. And we must use business events to drive economic outcomes, but social outcomes as well. And social outcomes has nothing to do with socialism.
JON: No, no.
SHERRIF: I couldn't care less. But I do care of you as a human being. And I do care that when we get together, that we can see that both of us are progressive. And so events should be that part of that.
JON: Lifting people up?
SHERRIF: Absolutely. Well, another part is, let me touch a little bit on the personal basis, and professional basis. When you are younger, and you've done an undergraduate degree, for example.
27 min