For the 14th consecutive year, Creative Group is named to the MeetingsNet CMI 25 list of Largest U.S. Meeting and Incentive Travel Companies.
“Creative Group is honored to be recognized as a leader in the corporate meetings and incentives industry for the fourteenth year in a row, having been included in the list each year since the start of the CMI 25. Whether a meeting or incentive, the business-changing experiences that we create help our clients, their employees and channel partners thrive. Our team knows how to deliver the personalized live and virtual experiences that participants expect.”
Janet Traphagen, President
The Covid-19 pandemic has knocked our industry on its heels. Independent meeting planning companies have taken a particularly hard hit. But they push on: With one eye on expanding their virtual meeting services and another on the return to meetings in 2021, independents continue to innovate and demonstrate their value to clients and the industry at large. Perhaps none more so than the companies in the CMI 25 report, MeetingsNet’s annual showcase of the largest meeting and incentive companies focused on the North American corporate market.
To make it onto the list, MeetingsNet compared independents based on their previous year’s performance. While 2019 numbers and news may seem less relevant given the current industry shutdown, face-to-face meetings will come back—and when they do, finding a meeting partner that can bring experience and creativity to the table will be as important as ever. Read on for an introduction to these major independents, including news of their latest partnerships, acquisitions, and initiatives; their annual business volume, and photos of impactful events.
“It’s a privilege to celebrate the CMI 25 companies, all of which had great success bringing groups together for training and education, recognition, networking, and more in 2019,” said Sue Hatch, content director for MeetingsNet. “While 2020 has been an extraordinarily difficult year for the meetings and incentives industry, the experience and creativity these companies bring to the table will serve them well as they face the challenges of creating engaging virtual meetings and developing new operating procedures for the return to face-to-face events.”
Latest Updates from Creative Group:
From the start of the pandemic, we have continued to reach out to our clients by hosting client roundtables in order to best understand their concerns with returning to face-to-face meetings and events. In March 2020, we led one client’s program from a group travel incentive program to Australia to a series of extraordinary rewards and experiences in just three short weeks. This is just one example of how our proven platform can motivate participants with unique rewards and one-of-a-kind experiences they get to select at a time that is convenient for them.
We continue to work closely with our clients in order to evolve to virtual or hybrid meetings and events in order to maintain progress and meet new business goals. Our Design & Insights team has been vigorously generating virtual event solutions to exceed our clients’ expectations. We see the impact virtual events can have, and the opportunity for clients to expand their reach even post-pandemic using the power of virtual and hybrid experiences.
On July 1st, 2020, Creative Group officially celebrated its 50th anniversary. While much has changed since 1970, we have remained at the forefront of the meetings and incentives industry. We are committed to helping clients design programs and experiences that drive audiences to thrive – programs that reward excellence and inspire people to reach their full potential.
Awards
In January 2020, Creative Group received a SITE Crystal Award for the Most Effective Incentive Marketing Campaign. We were recognized by the highest honor in the Incentive Travel Industry for our Living Legends Incentive Program, a 14-month communication campaign that led up to a legendary incentive program in Machu Picchu, Peru.
SITE Canada recognized Creative Group’s Diane Alexander with President’s Award and Joanne Keating with Moira Hearn Memorial Award for their contributions to the Meetings and Incentive Industry over the years. We were also awarded the 2019 SITE Canada ICE Award for Excellence for an incentive program recognizing a financial client’s top producers.
In September 2020, Creative Group’s very own Ellie MacPherson was nominated to the Top 100 Most Influential People in the Event Industry list by Eventex. We are especially proud of Ellie’s accomplishments because the inductees are chosen by members of the industry. Those selected are people who left a mark on the events world with their creativity, vision, and capacity for innovation.
Service
Given Creative Group’s focus on helping people thrive, social responsibility is very important to us, and we encourage employees to give back in several ways. We invite (and pay) our employees to take time off to support the cause of their choice. And we also have several corporate initiatives that are focused on the local community, including Adopt-A-Family, Feed My Starving Children, Make-a-Wish Foundation, Clean the World, local food pantries, backpack donations for at-risk school kids, and making blankets for local homeless shelters. Each of these initiatives is a part of our 12-month CSR initiative called “When Children Thrive, the World Thrives.”
See the press release here.
See the MeetingsNet article here.
