If you've been wrestling with how to get to the next level within your organization, you're not alone. Ask many meeting professionals to name their biggest professional challenge and "getting a seat at the table" is bound to be a popular response. The meetings profession has made great strides in recent years, but our next challenge in this industry is to elevate meeting planners within their organizations to strategic leadership roles.

There's a growing cry within the meeting profession to get the recognition that the role deserves. And some of the issue is just a case of recognition … a collective need to better "sell" meeting professionals' value and gain acknowledgement of the contributions that they make. By the same token, many meeting planners would benefit from expanding their skills so they can take their current role to the next level and make a stronger impact on their organizations.

This issue of Convene focuses on your professional development and what you can do to raise your status within your organization. In addition to a how-to, step-by-step approach to getting a seat at the executive table, you'll learn how mentoring - from both sides of the coin - can be one of the most significant "unofficial" endeavors of your career.

You'll also find the results of our 2006 salary survey, which demonstrate the need for planners to advance within their organizations. On average, meeting planners only received a modest 4.4 percent pay increase in 2005. (This followed a similarly modest 5 percent increase in 2004). It's interesting to note that survey respondents as a whole were well seasoned; 63 percent had 10-20 years of meeting planning experience. Those at the vice president level saw the highest levels of increases.

While the salary increases might not make it apparent, our profession is well-positioned to push forward to the next level. As a whole, we're more driven than ever before to contribute more to our organizations and to get the recognition meeting professionals deserve. After all, it's not until a group has a good sense of its own value and purpose that it can take the next step to demand more.

At PCMA, we are dedicated to providing the tools necessary to get you a seat at the executive table, and our education mission is to provide the foundation for getting you there. We're developing new programs like Executive Edge, enhancing already superior ones such as those offered at our annual meeting, and have created a framework for professional education - the Principles of Professional Performance or PoPP.

There's more to come. Stay tuned, and keep setting your sights on that table.