IMEX’s choice of industry high achievers and “most admired” colleagues met with rapturous applause last night as a series of Academy Awards, the JMIC Unity Award and the MPI Foundation Student Scholarship Award were presented to winners at the IMEX Gala Dinner.
JMIC Unity Award
Past President of AIPC and AIPC Academy Chair, Barbara Maple, was presented with the JMIC Unity Award 2009 for her outstanding contribution to the international meetings industry.
Throughout her career, Maple has played prominent roles within a number of national and international industry organisations, including the Canadian Tourism Commission, Convention Centres of Canada, and Meeting Professionals International.
Outside working hours, Gala Dinner guests learned that she has a passion for figure skating although few of her international industry colleagues knew that she achieved gold medals in figure, free skating and dance and has contributed to the sport in a teaching capacity and through developing skating shows.
Maple also currently serves as a Board of Trustee with the British Columbia Sports Hall of Fame as well as on the Vancouver Community College Hospitality Management Advisory Committee.
Previous JMIC award winners include Hans Friis, Executive Director of Brähler ICS AG last year, and Roger Tondeur, President of leading global association, communication and events management company MCI in 2007.
Four Academy Awards
The IMEX Academy Awards are presented every year to outstanding individuals in four geographical regions who are judged to have served the meetings and incentive travel industry exceptionally well. Each of the winners has to have achieved consistently high standards within their chosen profession and, in most cases, candidates are recommended by their colleagues.
This year’s Academy Award winner for the Americas region was announced as Eduardo Chaillo, Regional Director of the Strategic Business Unit for the US and Canada for the Mexico Tourism Board. Chaillo is the former founder and Executive Director of the Mexico Convention Bureau and he also served as the Chair of the International Congress & Convention Association (ICCA) North American Chapter.
Winner for the Asia and Pacific region this year was Liu Ping, CEO of Star Professional Programs in Beijing and Site Director in Asia and the Pacific region. Liu described winning the Award as an “absolute surprise and delight.” Liu Ping has already won several awards for her outstanding professional performance and colleagues often refer to her as a “genius in corporate management, market promotion and development.”
A third Academy Award was presented to Patrick Delaney, Co-Founder and CEO of Ovation Global DMC. Delaney took away the IMEX Academy Award for the European region based on his longstanding commitment to driving quality standards within the industry and doing so, according to IMEX Managing Director, Paul Flackett, “with more than a little Irish charm, good humour and infectious exuberance.”
The final African Region Academy Award was made to Joseph Sanna of the Kenya Tourist Board. Flackett explained that, in making this particular Award, judges and colleagues recognised how much Sanna had achieved through his work as Exhibition Manager for the Kenya Tourist Board. Flackett told guests that Sanna has become a well-known and extremely well-liked figure in the industry whose own popularity had helped to secure a stronger business reputation for his country.
MPI Foundation Student Scholarship Award
The joint IMEX- MPI Foundation Student Scholarship Award has been modified this year and is now given to the winner of the international IMEX-MPI ‘University Challenge’ where students are judged on presentations given at various Future Leader Forums around the world. The final “challenge” took place earlier yesterday at the IMEX Future Leaders Forum.
University of Westminster student, Miguel Neves, was judged an outstanding winner of this year’s MPI Foundation Student Scholarship Award. His prize includes travel, accommodation and registration fees to attend a global MPI conference of his choice.
He said, "My journey over the past year and a half has been truly amazing and I owe much of that to MPI and IMEX. I am close to completing a masters degree and I now have a job that I love which involves planning meetings and events on both sides of the Atlantic."
As judge Tom Hulton, IMEX Director of International Relations, explained, “The new format of this award really helps the students to shine and gives them a valuable and entertaining platform to get their enthusiasm and industry knowledge across. It is a delight to see so many young talents competing to enter the international meetings industry and this Award is an opportunity to reward an individual prospect who is especially strong and ambitious and who has that extra ‘spark’ that employers are always delighted to see.”
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