SITE Southern California - The Incentive for Excellence Blog

The Incentive for Excellence

An Industry Blog on All Things SITE. Your one stop shop for chapter news, industry events, trends, and tips from the pros.
Aug
16

The Importance of Self-Trust

The Importance of Self-Trust

As a Corporate Meeting Planner, VP of SITE SoCal, and a single mother of one amazing 8-year-old boy who is FULL of energy, I’m constantly running at the speed of light. My time, energy, creativity, and planning skills are always in high demand. This usually means that I put my son and my work first, and myself somewhere way down the list. Given that Forbes rated Event Planning as the 5th most stressful job in the world in 2017, that can quickly become a recipe for disaster. But if you’re reading this, you’re likely in the industry, so I don’t need to tell you; you’re living it too.

At our July SITE SoCal luncheon, we had the pleasure of enjoying 3 informative and dynamic speakers who all touched on the subject of “trust” from very different angles. One speaker hit me more than the others, as she was speaking to the subject of personal trust. Deb Gee of lululemon shared her own story of running herself to the brink of hitting rock bottom early in her own Planning career. She shared how working at a company like lululemon, as well as implementing some new tools into her own personal and professional life, has helped her to become mindful of not allowing herself to go back to that place.

As she guided us through a short meditation practice, the room full of 140 people fell still and silent, eyes closed, maybe for the first time ever. It was an incredible feeling to know that all of these people, wired like I am to “go, go, go”, were sitting mindfully, quietly, together. It was powerful.

After that lunch, I’ve made an effort to reflect on Deb’s message. I’ve spent some time making a commitment to myself to ensure that I can practice self-care, and create trust in myself as a planner, volunteer, and mom. Admittedly, the idea of trusting in myself is a new way of thinking for me that will require some practice. So I’m going to share some of the ways I’ve come up with, and hope that you, as a participant of this industry, might incorporate some self-trust into your own life as well. 

Continue reading
  1645 Hits
Jul
20

3 Reasons Why SoCal Continues to Attract Incentive Travel Programs

socal-attracts-incentive-travel-programs SoCal Continues to Attract Incentive Travel Programs

The Greater Los Angeles area stands out as a success story in U.S.-bound tourism in 2017, the last year for which we have conclusive data.

While overall numbers of visitors to the United States declined, within the first seven months of 2017, the USA had 41 million international visitors, a 4% decline from the same period in the previous year, according to the Commerce Department.

Research prepared for the Visit U.S. Coalition by the U.S. Travel Association shows that global travel volume increased 7.9% from 2015 to 2017. But the U.S. slice of that fell from 13.6% to 11.9% in the same period. That is the first drop after more than a decade of consistent growth.

However, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and LATCB President and CEO Ernest Wooden Jr. had good news to report.

On January 10th, they announced that Los Angeles welcomed 48.3 million visitors in 2017, setting a new tourism milestone for the seventh consecutive year.

Continue reading
  2541 Hits
Jun
20

Celebrating Education with SITE SoCal

education-header Celebrating Education

Celebrate is our word of the year! With our 20 years in existence, our strong, vibrant chapter and our outstandingly successful Holiday Event, we have a lot to be proud of and thankful for when it comes to our SITE SoCal community.

CIS Laguna Beach
Continue reading
  2435 Hits
May
17

6 Ways to Find Fun in Your Sponsorships

sponsorship-fun

We all keep hearing these words; Unique. Experiential. Unconventional. But how do we convey that and find our fun in sponsorships? 

Continue reading
  1761 Hits
Tags:
May
04

You had me at Brunch…

haute-dokimazo Haute Dokimazo was all the buzz at the last SITE SoCal luncheon.

To celebrate Creativity at the May SITE SoCal Luncheon, we had brunch instead of lunch, and took all fundamentals of meeting planning and threw them out the door.

Continue reading
  5533 Hits