Become a Member
IACC is a global community that brings together the best and brightest minds in the meetings industry. A close-knit community of committed to developing the skills and performance of leaders of premier hotels, venues and suppliers, IACC exists so that venue leaders can come together to learn and share knowledge with one another. Put simply, the best people operate the best meeting hotels and venues!
IACC offers membership to business event venues worldwide that meet their Standards of Brilliance Criteria. IACC calls these Standards of Brilliance. Membership not only lists venues within our venue directory but offers a vast number of resources and industry insights that help keep our member venues ahead of the curve, as well as educational and professional development tools designed to help you continue to spearhead progress. Put simply, the best venues and community of the best people. IACC is a global career family!
Membership benefits also include access to our exclusive networking and educational events around the world, as well as boosting your brand identity through your hotel or venue achieving IACC membership by meeting IACC’s Quality Standards of Brilliance.
Other categories of membership outside of venues includes supplier, faculty/student and Friends of IACC membership.
For many years, IACC has also represented a powerful community, a career family for skilled professionals developing their leadership skills and many have a career forged on connections made through involvement in IACC.
My Career Journey with IACC, By Steve Sackman
At what stage in your career were you first introduced to IACC and who encouraged you to engage with the association?
I was at a hotel in Times Square with about 6,000 square feet of meeting space all-in and my Director of Sales at the time was former IACC president. Jeff Farina taught our team about selling a complete meeting package. It was obvious that this hotel couldn’t execute the IACC experience but I appreciated the simplicity of the package and how customer friendly the concept was. Later in my career, I joined Aramark, which at the time had Aramark Harrison Lodging, a collection of conference centers. It was at that time that I first got involved with IACC got involved with the marketing committee.
How is being a part of a professional association such as IACC, different from your own company community?
With a group like IACC its always been a very collaborative, and convivial group! That said, when being involved with a professional association, there is far more need for consensus building for decision making. That can be a bit frustrating when you’re used to making decisions and moving more quickly in a corporate leadership position.
How has being involved in IACC assisted you in your career advancement?
Getting involved with IACC (and I truly mean getting actively) involved allowed me to grow as a leader through roles like chairing the marketing committee, and serving on the board both as a director and an officer. When I left Aramark and joined Destination Hotels & Resorts as a RDOSM, my first role was overseeing 2 IACC certified Hotels & Conference Centers in the NY/NJ area. My IACC experience certainly helped me get that position.
Have you had any direct career moves linked to being a part of IACC and if so, can you list them and offer any other context to these opportunities?
I met Ryan Simonetti, the CEO and Co-founder of Convene when we were both participants on an panel discussion hosted by IACC at NYU. I had never been to a Convene property but hearing Ryan that day speak about Convene it piqued my interest in what he and Convene had done and how they reimagined the customer buying experience as well as the meeting experience. Less than a year later, I joined Convene as VP of Sales.
Have you held a formal board position with IACC and if so, how has this been of value to you?
I served multiple terms on the North American board of directors, and then was elected to serve as secretary of the board. Serving on the board allowed me to give back to not just the Association but the industry, too.
What advice would you give anyone entering into an industry association leadership role for the first time?
It’s a balance of driving the viewpoint of your own organisation, but keeping an open mind to the view point and priorities of other member organisations. So I would say, be open minded to all of the members that the association represents and their needs.
