Michigan Business Travel Association Meeting - Wednesday – February 15, 2012  

  Meeting Agenda

10:00am - 11:00am – Registration &Networking

11:00am - 12:00pm – Morning Session Educational Topic – Pure Michigan

Presenter: George Zimmermann - Vice President – Travel Michigan - Michigan Economic Development Corp.

George Zimmerman is the vice president of Travel Michigan, Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) – the official State of Michigan tourism promotion agency.  He has been with Travel Michigan since October 2001. During his tenure at the MEDC, Travel Michigan created and launched the award-winning Pure Michigan branding campaign, and the Michigan state tourism Web site, Michigan.org, has consistently been ranked the most popular state tourism Web site in America.  The success of the Pure Michigan campaign and its proven return on investment helped increase the funding for tourism promotion in Michigan from $8 million in 2001 to $30 million in 2009. Prior to coming to Travel Michigan, Mr. Zimmerman had been the director of tourism for the State of Ohio for seven years.  He was named “State Tourism Director of the Year” by the National Council of State Tourism Directors in 1997, and has authored three travel- related books. Mr. Zimmerman also spent more than a decade in front of the camera as a broadcast journalist and as a television writer in Texas, California and Ohio. He is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, is married to Carol Rapp Zimmerman and they have one son.

 12:00pm – 1:00pm  - Lunch – Networking

  1:00pm - 1:30pm  - MBTA Meeting - Committee Reports & Updates

  1:30pm - 2:30pm  - Afternoon Session Educational Topic  – Social Media – Linked In 

Presenter: Rebecca Kotz, Marketer & President of GEMS Solutions LLC.

Rebecca has over 10 years of experience as a marketing consultant and public speaker, in both the corporate world and as an entrepreneur. She has an MBA from Saginaw Valley State University and also enjoys teaching marketing at Northwood University. Her passion is helping businesses and nonprofits build interactive websites and develop creative marketing solutions. Rebecca's philosophy "empowering you to harness the power of the web" is based on her belief that marketing must focus on driving web traffic, capturing leads and increasing sales. GEMS Solutions specializes in website design, graphic design, email marketing, social media marketing, mobile marketing, website training and search engine optimization for small business, eCommerce / retail, government / political, professional service, manufacturing, engineering, non-profit organizations, youth organizations, tourism and more. GEMS Solutions clients include YMCA Camp Copneconic, Christenson & Fiederlein, Grant Hamady Realtors, YouthQuest, Old Newsboys of Flint, Elite Engineering, Compassionate Care Home Health Services, Rigger Lift, Westview Orchards and Adventure Farm, Vantage Plastics, Triple R Trucking, R&R Ready Mix, Shelterhouse of Midland County, Davison Design, Alden B. Dow Home & Studio, Ingersoll Township and numerous other organizations. For more information, visit www.gems-solutions.com.

  2:30pm – 2:45pm  - Wrap Up

2012 SPONSORS TO BE ANNOUNCED AT THE MEETING!

       THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS!