President’s Foreword – The Value of IAMC – February 2023

By J. Tate Godfrey, CEcD, President & CEO

Happy New Year! I hope everyone in the IAMC family had a wonderful holiday season. We are looking forward to a very prosperous 2023, and we hope you are as well.

I have asked the staff to adopt a vision that I have for our association. My goal for IAMC going forward is for it to be the most valuable organization in which all three of our member types are involved. We hear this sentiment from many of our members already, but I would like this goal to drive all our efforts on the member’s behalf.

To that end, I would like to announce a few changes to the IAMC staff and our organizational chart. These changes will provide us the best opportunity to achieve our goals set by the IAMC Board of Directors.

• Ms. Kristen Stewart has been promoted to Senior Director of Administration and Sponsorships. Kristen has done a great job with our sponsorship sales and sponsor relations. With this promotion, I am asking her to take on a more formal leadership role on the staff and within IAMC. She will be the number two person on staff going forward.
• Ms. Rya Waterford has been promoted to Senior Director of Communications and Marketing. Rya, with the second longest tenure on the IAMC staff, has established herself as the brand expert for all things IAMC. She will now oversee all our external communications, marketing, branding and public relations.
• Event and Meeting Planning and Implementation. IAMC has entered a new contract with our long-term international partner Moventus to manage our North American Forums in 2023. Ms. Melanie Hill and her staff have helped make our London International Forum a success for the past seven years. They will now apply this expertise to our Spring and Fall forums in the US. We have also promoted Ms. Marlene Fish to Operations Manager. She will work hand-in-hand with Moventus on ensuring the smooth implementation of our two largest annual events.

Of course, the rest of our staff will continue their fine work on behalf of our members:

• Mark Nortman (Director of Member Engagement) and Michele Miller (Director of Membership Development) will continue their efforts to recruit and retain our members.
• Heather Blanchard (Director of Professional Development) leads our programming efforts for all North American IAMC events and is also overseeing our strategic planning efforts in professional development.
• Debbie Porter (Director of Business & Finance) and Davis Wilson (Manager of AP/AR) oversee our accounting and business management efforts.

Lastly, Conway Data provides considerable support services to the management of IAMC as part of the management contract. The IAMC staff can turn to Conway Data for information technology support, graphic design needs, and promotional support through Site Selection Magazine – the official publication of IAMC.

This realignment of the staff will help us continue to make IAMC the best organization for our members. Whether Corporate members, Service Provider members or Economic Development members, we want folks to say, “IAMC is the number one association in which I am involved.”

Thanks, and let’s all have a great 2023.

Tate.