For more information, please contact Sandy Eitel at 312.423.7271 or seitel@pcma.org.

American Express Upgrades Its PCMA Partnership to Highest Level
10/22/2007

CHICAGO, October 22, 2007 - Signaling an increased commitment to the meetings industry and the Professional Convention Management Association (PCMA), American Express has upgraded its PCMA partnership to the Strategic Partner level. Effective immediately, the change makes American Express one of only 11 organizations in the highest tier of PCMA's partner program.

Partnerships such as this enhance PCMA membership by allowing the association to offer a wider range of education programs; augmenting networking opportunities and overall meetings experiences; supporting new content, products and tools to help the meetings profession; and underwriting valuable industry research.

"We're pleased that American Express feels strongly about PCMA and wants to invest even more in our members and the meetings industry," said Deborah Sexton, PCMA President and CEO. "They're a dedicated partner with a strategic mindset, and we're looking forward to many exciting initiatives that will benefit our membership."

The American Express partnership will focus on three areas: developing industry-leading education programs, supporting products that aid in meeting valuation, and further advancing senior-level corporate membership in PCMA. Additionally, American Express will partner on research that will enable PCMA and its flagship magazine, Convene, to deliver cutting-edge content to meeting professionals.

"American Express is proud to partner more deeply with PCMA. By doing so we can further our dedication and commitment to the meetings and events industry," said Yana Gutierrez, Vice President, Growth and Emerging Industries for American Express Merchant Services. "We share a common goal to provide the best education and solutions to meeting professionals to help them do their jobs more efficiently and effectively."

PCMA members are the primary decision-makers for their organizations' meetings, representing the industry's most senior-level planners and suppliers in the association, corporate, tradeshow and independent meeting markets. Both the corporate and independent meeting segments are growing.

"We believe that PCMA is becoming increasingly sought-after by leaders in our industry - whether they're association, corporate or independent professionals - because our unmatched education offerings help them advance their careers and their organizations," said Sexton. "The upgraded American Express partnership will support this education, while also helping us to create new products to advance the meetings field and attract new members to PCMA."

The association offers strategic partnerships at varying levels, with multi-year agreements that are customized to meet the goals of sponsoring organizations, PCMA, and its members. Partnership levels (in order of support) are: Strategic Partner, Premier Partner, Communication Partner, Event Partner, and Affinity Partner.

American Express was previously a Premier Partner.

The Professional Convention Management Association (PCMA) is the professional resource and premier educator for the meetings and convention industry. Founded in 1957, PCMA represents the interests of meeting management executives from associations, non-profit organizations, corporations, independent meeting planning companies, and multi-management firms who recognize the importance of meetings to their organization. PCMA empowers members with the tools they need to succeed as meeting professionals and to promote the value of the industry to their organizations and the general public. Headquartered in Chicago, PCMA has 16 chapters throughout the United States and Canada. For additional information, please visit the PCMA Web site at www.pcma.org.

The role of the PCMA Education Foundation is to support the mission of the PCMA through fundraising and grant giving focused on education and research that will benefit the meetings and conventions industry. Established in 1985, the Foundation supports educational programs to improve professionalism in the meetings industry and to provide a university-level meeting management curriculum. The Foundation funds educational programs for meeting managers, hotels, convention and visitors bureaus, and other members of the meetings industry. It also conducts ongoing research of industry issues and concerns. The Foundation continually funds new programs to encourage the highest levels of professionalism in the meetings industry.