Cheers to 2022 – See you on the other side!

Cheers to 2022 – See you on the other side!

It was a holiday tradition in our house. You stated your intention for the new year, as the clock rolled through midnight, and that intention would come to life in the brand, new, fresh, and full of hope… Brand. New. Year. So here’s to hoping it works this year, my friends.

What a ride. From January where I started the year with an event for a few hundred people when things were spiking during the first bout with COVID-19, into July with a group of over 1,500 in the house right before the second wave, and now closing out December typing to you from the brand new (and very lovely) Four Seasons Napa on a Monday morning, after a long weekend filled with Omicron headlines. This year has literally felt like a COVID-19 sandwich and one I am tired of eating. So stating my intention here for all of you, 2022 is the year we rebuild and recover. It won’t be a cakewalk, but we will get it done like we always do.

There is so much to look forward to in the upcoming year on the CMP Community Evolution. Steve Lorenz is going to step into the Chair role of the Commission, finishing up the work we started on the Competency Profile, as we rewrite what it means to be a meeting professional to make the test and manuals align and reflect the evolution of our role today. 

We are going to kick off 2022 with our first cohort of CMP Fellows. This first group of some of the most tenured and seasoned of our CMP Community will begin the journey. If you have 10 years of CMP or Emeritus status and have contributed to the profession (articles, speaking, teaching) – we want you. The application takes less than 10 minutes to complete and is as simple as refreshing your CV. No testing required, no massive administrative jumps to leap through… your achievements on your resume will speak for themselves. If you have an interest, being a part of the first cohort will allow you to take advantage of a $100 savings on the one-time fee, now is the time and there is no renewal ever required. Once you are in, you are in! Have questions? Reach out to me on LinkedIn and I am happy to find you an answer!

The inaugural group of Fellows are going to get to be a part of creating and collaborating on the framework of how the CMP Fellows Programme is going to evolve. You get to work with yours truly on what you want for your community. It’s all going to be by design – by Fellows, and for Fellows. From meetups at our major industry events, and industry problem-solving Zooms, to speaker opportunities and advanced network-building opportunities (the expertise kind, not the collecting business cards kind) – we would love to have the thinkers, the doers, and the mentors to bring the best they have to offer.

New to the community but want to get involved? Have some opinions on some of the questions you answered on your exam and want to be a real part of the change? Next year is going to bring many opportunities for you to volunteer within the CMP Community, including test questions, writing sessions at industry events (have some opinions – be productive and bring them here), or help with re-engineering the CMP manual. There are going to be countless ways for you to get involved, and start contributing some of your fresh eyes observations to the fabric of the community and its (r)evolution.

So to close out the year….Goodbye, 2021. You taught me a lot. Don’t really want you to pay me a visit again, but know what I learned from you is going to be valuable in the future. Hello, 2022…you’re kind of like a blind date. I know we got set up for a reason, but not sure what you are going to look like, and I am not sure what we are going to talk about. Hope you are at least kind, but if you can’t be kind, I hope you are funny.

Thanks for a wonderful year – to each of you in the community that I have had the pleasure to get to know this year, and to my fellow Commission members, who have braved far too many Zoom meetings in a calendar year. Thanks to Amy, Gus, and Mariella, and the entire EIC staff…your leadership, creativity, and perseverance through a challenging year, has been appreciated by the entire Commission. Thanks and congrats to each of you that became a CMP in the years 2020 and 2021. You should have an asterisk by your name…   

Best Wishes,

Alisa Peters, CMP, CMM

Senior Global Event Strategist

Chair, CMP Governance Commission - Events Industry Council