Las Vegas NACE

Success By Association: Celebrating 20 Years of NACE Membership

In doing some clerical work on the Las Vegas NACE (National Association of Catering Executives) Membership Committee, I noticed the April 8, 2011 marked the 20th anniversary of my membership in NACE.

20 years seems like a significant milestone, so I’ve decided write a series of posts chronicling many significant NACE experiences. There will be quite a range of topics, including lessons learned, member benefits, professional growth, acknowledgment of many valued friends and relationships, and more.

Although this series of posts describes my tenure in NACE, much of it applies to membership and involvement in any association or networking group. The organizations may vary in what they offer, but the benefits you receive and earn depend largely on how elect to be involved.

This July (24-27), NACE will host its educational conference, NACE Experience! 2011 in Reno, NV at the Silver Legacy Hotel & Casino. Happily, I can report that I will be attending and giving two presentations. The conference is open to members and non-members (at a higher fee). For glorious details, in living color, you can download the conference brochure.

Coincidentally, NACE is running a spring membership drive, beginning April 1st. Membership drives typically offer a meaningful discount in the annual membership fee for your first year of membership. That’s always a nice incentive, but it’s not the real reason to join.

Hopefully, by the end of this series of posts, reasons for membership will be obvious. For the most part, they won’t be the reasons (benefits) you see printed in a brochure or posted on a website. They will be far more powerful.

Please enjoy this first-person description of my longstanding and ongoing membership in NACE.

Andy Ebon
The Wedding Marketing Authority

Wedding Video Podcast: Both Informative and Self-Promotional

: Coffee with Ricky: video podcast

Ricky Gulati of Memory Lane Video, makes a decided effort to network heavily. He is active in the Las Vegas Wedding Network and the Las Vegas Chapter of NACE.

Recently, he’s added a new tactic to his strategic arsenal. Coffee With Ricky, a video podcast. He hasn’t set in stone a schedule for the podcast series, but it’s a good bet it will eventually be a monthly offering, if it’s to be effective.

His audience is both brides and the local wedding professional. His intent is to provide good information and position himself as a wedding industry expert; particularly in the Las Vegas market.

The guest in this episode is Debbie Hansen, Producer of Bridal Spectacular, a Las Vegas – based wedding trade show for almost two decades. While it will take Ricky a few episodes to reach his comfort zone as host, he is well prepared with all the right questions the viewer would want asked. The result is an effective promotional tool for both interviewer and interviewee.

The questions you should be asking are:

Could I produce an audio or video podcast myself?
Could I collaborate to produce an audio or video podcast?
If not as a producer, am I prepared to be a guest on someone else’s show? (Locally, regionally, or nationally)

Credibility and authority in the wedding industry is important. This is a great example of it.