Joint Roundtable for Meeting Planners & Suppliers

Overview

Back again this year by popular demand: Join your colleagues and share experiences, both good and bad, that you have survived or need assistance with. This session is an opportunity for Meeting Planners and Suppliers to come together to discuss issues/trends that are evolving in the Meetings Industry. Attendees are encouraged to submit questions and/or topics in advance, or to speak up during the session. We are all in this together and the goal is to make each meeting and event a win-win situation for everyone involved.

  • Attendees will come away with a better understanding of the relationship between the Planner and the Supplier. Both have the same goal - to make every event a success.
  • Attendees will learn some of the reasoning behind actions and practices taken.
  • Attendees will have the opportunity to form relationships with those they may have only met through correspondence or over the phone.

Moderated by R. Keith McNally

R. Keith McNally has been an Independent Meeting Planner for the past 20 years. Prior to going out on his own, he worked many different jobs, all in the Hospitality Industry including 10 years as the Director of Tourism for the PA Dutch Convention and Visitors Bureau in Lancaster, PA and for five years as the Events Coordinator for the Building Industry Association of Lancaster County.

During his time as an Independent Meeting Planner, he has coordinated meetings/conferences world-wide including Johannesburg, South Africa; London, England; Paris, France; and Shanghai, China. He has also coordinated events throughout the United States and in many areas of Pennsylvania. 

Currently, Keith serves as the Program Coordinator for one national and several PA-based association clients. Throughout the year, he may assist other associations and meeting planners with their on-site duties as needed and as his availability permits.

Keith is active in the PA Society of Association Excellence (PASAE) where he served as Chairman of the 2014 Educational Summit and Expo and will complete his second term on the Board of Directors in December of 2017.

Over 20 years ago he volunteered for the Friends of All Animals by working at Hersheypark. Keith is now in his 16th year as a paid employee. As someone who works from home, Hersheypark gives him his people fix and makes him popular with my nieces and nephews.