New York Area Chapter

Welcome Message:

On behalf of the New York Area Chapter of PCMA, we welcome you to our web site! Our membership is comprised of a broad spectrum of planner and supplier decision makers, middle management and entry level professionals. Our New Professionals membership is the highest it's been since our inception, with chapters at NYIT in Manhattan, the University of New Haven, CT and Monroe College in the Bronx, NY. We exist to offer relevant programs, professional development, community service projects and to act as the local representative for PCMA HQ.

Number of Members: 356

Geographic Territories:

New York, Southern Connecticut, Northern New Jersey

Mission Statement:

The mission of the Professional Convention Management Association shall be to deliver breakthrough education and promote the value of professional convention management.

Click here to view our Bylaws.

Contact us:

new.york.area.chapter@pcma.org
Office Phone: (646) 616-0114

A Message from Your 2012 President:

Dear Fellow NYPCMA members,

I am humbly honored to serve as President of NYPCMA for 2012. Many thanks to Amanda Ciarlone, Immediate Past President, and her hard working Board for an excellent 2011 and the perfect springboard into 2012. The Board of Directors and Committee Chairpersons have already begun generating ideas and implementing practices for you, our valued members, so that you can get the most out of your membership with PCMA. We actually started in October, so we have a jump on all we plan to do.

Many of you are already on committees - living the creed of the more you get involved, the more you get out of it! For those of you not on a committee, it is our pleasure to be able to bring you top education, excellent networking opportunities, professional development and, naturally, a little fun along the way! While each committee has specific goals they are going to meet this year, the overall goal is to become relevant to each and every member on the level they desire. We will provide the opportunities!

Our "student" population is now named the New Professionals, and is sponsored by the San Diego CVB. NYIT, Monroe College, and the University of New Haven have PCMA "chapters" within each school, and our committee, lead by Lisa Boyd, Donna Cappo, and Stephanie Langdon are in full gear. We received an extremely generous donation from one of our members in loving memory of her father, Jehangir Dadabhoy Daroga, and that is being used as scholarships for the 2013 Annual Convening Leaders program in Orlando. We also have a new mentor program being implemented (which already started at this year annual convention), special events for the New Professionals for targeted learning about ALL aspects of our industry, and inclusion at our education programs!

Our programs committee has implemented a "Get One Free" meeting program, secured almost all of the dates and venues for 2012 for the education programs, collected the topics that YOU have specifically asked for, and will institute an "open mic" opening to our events! And, we are continuing our "planners free" promotion for another year! Just contact the management team and they will assist.

Membership completed a "planner only" survey, and this information is presently being analyzed for focus groups which will meet in March. Attracting new planners is the main goal, with a special focus on the corporate planner.

Communications will launch a new - yet unnamed - bi-weekly, one page, newsletter, which will be in addition to the quarterly newsletter. Our Twitter, Linked In and Facebook pages are all up and running, so be sure you connect with us through all of those channels to stay on top of the chapter news! Did I mention that you can EASILY find us at www.nypcma.org?

Sponsorships is aligning all of our partners (have to mention our gold and silver sponsors - United Airlines, Hawai'i Convention Center, Doubletree Metropolitan, Visit Anchorage, Hilton New York, and Conrad New York), and is constantly seeking new ones. Please feel free to reach out to Blanca for all the details, but we certainly need you!

As we progress through the year, I look forward to connecting with each and everyone of you! Never hesitate to reach out to me for any question, concern, idea, thought, advice, help, assistance - well, you get the idea.

It is going to be an amazing year! See you soon!

Rocco LaForgia

PCMA's New York Area Chapter keeps you connected to other meeting professionals through our events and newsletter. You can strengthen those relationships and add even more connections to your personal and professional networks by joining our Facebook page, LinkedIn Group, and following us on Twitter.