April 2020 Newsletter

President's Letter

NACE Family,

Please know that we are sending virtual hugs to all of you as we weather this storm together.  In this time of uncertainty, we want you to know that we remain dedicated to supporting you by continuing to provide connection and education to our members and guests.

Due to the issued mandates, we have cancelled our originally planned April meeting and postponed our May Happy Hour.  Although it is heartbreaking to not offer the education and networking our organization has been able to bring in the past, we hope to partner with all the wonderful vendors who were set to sponsor in the near future. We are currently in the works of putting together a virtual meeting, partnering with other Texas chapters, details to follow soon!

I know it is often difficult to focus on the positives with the hardships we are all facing, but looking back to the beginning of this year, I am hopeful we will come out of this sooner rather than later.  We started the year off with informative and inspiring meetings. We had Andrea Eppolito at our February meeting, discussing 2020 trends at Truluck’s. Our very own, Gayle Stallings running a wonderful panel consisting of Courtney Griffin, Josh Hampson and Claire Simonis at the beautiful Austin Proper Hotel in March.  Hopefully, you are utilizing some of the tips, advice and social media tricks as most of us work from home. 

Keeping in mind, the needs of our members during this time, our website will be transitioning back to StarChapter at the end of April, beginning of May, with the addition of some new benefits.  Some of the new additions include a job board allowing any member to send an open position and feature on our website, as well as a chat forum, allowing all members to login for open discussions.  I encourage all of you to remain connected and hopeful, we will get through this together.

I look forward to the day we are all able to meet again!  We are here for you, please reach out!

-Heather Hartzog, President

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Calendar of Events

Have we got some fun in store for you! Mark your calendars for our 2020 meeting lineup!

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are being cautious and have unfortunately decided to cancel our April and May meetings this year. More details to come on the rest of our programs for the year based on government mandates and recommendations. 

June:
Tuesday, June 9th, 12PM-2PM at Hyatt Place Austin/Cedar Park

July:
Tuesday, July 14th, 6PM-8PM at The Thinkery

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Evolve & Experience

Evolve

NACE Austin Leaders Heather, Natalie, Josh, Michelle, Courtney, Gayle, Kelly, Alfred, and Louise had a blast at the Evolve Conference in Dallas earlier this year! We enjoyed Peggy Hoffman's presentation and workshops and created new strategies for our educational programming, digital communications, and membership engagement, all while networking with NACE leaders across the country, and getting excited for 2020! The DFW Chapter, the W Hotel- Victory, and The Perot Museum pulled out ALL THE STOPS Y'ALL! Check out our Instagram Story for a recap of all the fun!

Experience

We're even more excited for round 2 this year with the NACE Experience conference in Las Vegas!! We're sending our Scholarship Recipients NAMES, and if you're still thinking about going, early registration has been extended until April 30th, so there's still plenty of time to register to attend! #NACEAustinofftoVEGAS!

NACE One Awards

If anyone is interested in judging for the NACE One Awards this year to please email me at [email protected] for more information!

...Speaking of the NACE One Awards...

Last year, one of our very own NACE Austinites, Brianne Mouton, CPCE, CMP of Beautiful Moments Events (WEB | FB | IG) won the Event Production of the Year - Corporate One Award! 

The images shown above are most definitely not your usual corporate holiday party. Captivating and entertaining 600 gamers is no easy task to pull off, yet it was simply spectacular.  Guests donned their most creative (and sometimes breathtaking) themed attire fit for the ball. Exotic Venetian ‘birds’ greeted guests, enticing them in with bite sized treats and libations, where they became a part of the royal court!  40’ communal tables set the perfect dinner scene, a string trio engulfed the air, while ballerinas floated to ethereal music through lounges, groups, and stage…Come one, come all (if you dare…) to our Venetian Masquerade Ball! Check out the video recap of this incredible event made by Adam Grumbo Films!

Photos: Lisa Hause Photography

Venue: Renaissance Austin Hotel

Rentals: Premiere Events

Don't forget to submit your own events for the NACE One Awards for a shot at winning, like Bri!

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Cause of the Quarter

Thank you to everyone who donated to our most recent Cause of the Quarter, Dress for Success! We are so proud of everyone chipping in monetary and physical donations for such a great local cause that will be more important than ever in our current economic climate.

We're also excited to announce our Q2 Cause of the Quarter, Red River Cultural District!

The Red River Cultural District (RRCD) is is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization Banding Together with the Austin live music community to support the venue workers, musicians, creatives, service industry and production workers that rely on regular programming and continual income to survive. Your donations will help provide basic relief to those in the Austin live music community that have been economically impacted by the cancellation of SXSW and COVID-19. Click here to learn more!

 You can always make a donation during meeting registration, or at any time through our Cause of the Quarter page!

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Welcome New Members!

Make sure to introduce yourself to our newest members our next meeting!

David Kahn, Harmonic Events

Kristen Graben, Foundation Communities

Tari Hood, Austin Community College

We're so excited for you all to join our NACE Austin family! #GrowwithNACEAustin

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Member Monday

We would love to feature your smiling faces during these difficult times!

To be the #MemberMonday of the week on NACE Austin's Facebook and Instagram, please fill out this questionnaire.

Afterwards, please email a photo of yourself to be included in the post to [email protected]

If you're not already following NACE Austin, you can find us on Facebook here and Instagram here.

Thank you for participating! We're excited to learn more about each of you!

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Texas Weddings

Guest Article by The Texas Wedding Guide and Bridal Extravaganza, our Lion Sponsor from The Amazing NACE: Rumble in the Jungle

In the 30+ years since Bob Lowman started Texas Weddings, producer of Texas Wedding Guide & Bridal Extravaganza, a lot has changed from how we communicate to how we live thanks to technology.

What hasn’t changed substantially are weddings. Couples still need a ceremony site, officiant, reception venue, catering, sweets, photography, flowers, formal wear, invitations, entertainment, and more.

The parts of a wedding celebration haven’t changed, but how today’s couples find those pieces have definitely changed. Today’s couples research and shop online (like all of us), and Texas Weddings has stayed at the forefront of putting Austin’s most excellent event professionals in front of today’s couples.

In 2018, following the overhaul and redesign of the Wedding Guide the year before, TexasWeddings.com was launched. The new interactive website gives couples the chance to organize their wedding planning online. By creating a personalized profile, they can search the best of professionals, create their vision board, track their budget, and more.

The new website also included a new Vendor Portal, offering our clients a wide range of new services, including access to new leads, 24/7. The system also provides our clients the ability to interact and manage their web profile and more.

Always looking for new ways to bring couples and wedding professionals together, the Texas Weddings team next turned their attention to truly putting wedding planning in the hands of the couples in Central Texas via our new App.

The Texas Weddings App launched in December 2019, taking the best features of the online wedding organizer from the website and adding reminders and notifications, a more interactive budget calculator, and an interactive calendar.

The Texas Weddings App also includes a first in wedding planning apps: Instant Messaging within the App itself.

When Texas Weddings launched the new App, we included a new feature for the Bridal Extravaganza – ProScan, allowing show exhibitors and attendees to connect instantly. Replacing a previously used third-party app, the new ProScan brought all a professional’s leads into one place for convenient handling.

By putting the best wedding professionals in front of potential clients in a wide range of ways, from Central Texas’ most widely distributed magazine to a top-ranking website and App, and the area’s largest wedding shows, Texas Weddings keeps changing.

What’s next? Who knows. The only sure thing is that Bob Lowman and the team at Texas Weddings will keep on looking for the best ways to help the area’s wedding professionals succeed.

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