This has been a year of great advancement for the Society for Incentive Excellence (SITE) Foundation and 2017 promises to deliver even more valuable research, education and certification to SITE members worldwide, as well as to the broader incentive travel industry and global business community.
The primary role of the Foundation and its Board of Trustees is to drive fundraising initiatives to facilitate vital research and curriculum development for the incentive travel community. Its three annual events – SITE Classic, SITE Nite Europe and SITE Nite North America – are unique, incentive-quality networking events that provide the majority of the Foundation’s funding. SITE Nite North America, one of the most popular events of IMEX America week, sold out with more than 1200 people in attendance. And, for a second year the Foundation hosted Auction 2.0 where the public was invited to bid on 75 unique travel experiences – more than 4500 people visited the online site raising more than US$110,000.
Foundation president, Denise Dornfeld, CIS, chairperson, Allied PRA said, “On behalf of the Foundation Trustees, I would like to thank all of our sponsors and guests for their generous support of our fundraising initiatives this year. We are thrilled with the exceptional results achieved, surpassing our goals and raising more than US$425,000 for future investments for our members and the incentive travel industry. For 2017, our successful fundraising has created the largest volume of grant approval in the Foundation’s history.”
He further stated, “I especially want to recognise Foundation vice-president fundraising, John J. Iannini, CIS, CTC, vice-president sales, Melia Hotels International for his commitment and leadership; SITE Classic event chairs, Caren Bigelow, director of travel, USMotivation and Madelyn Marusa, DMCP, vice-president industry relations, AlliedPRA; SITE Nite event chairs Ron Warner, CIS, regional director sales, Melia Hotels International and Mary Clare Darland, CIS, manager sourcing, Maritz Travel, and the countless volunteers for their extraordinary efforts to help us deliver such high-quality events, which exceeded our goals. ”
This year the Foundation invested in an extensive job analysis study to develop competency-based curriculum specifically for incentive travel professionals, forming a foundation for SITE’s current, as well as future, training and certification programmes. For 2017, the Trustees have approved a US$150,000 grant for development of new education and certification for members, including an online learning management center and a “mid-level” certification programme, specifically designed for Manager and Director level incentive professionals.
The Foundation is also investing US$280,000 in new research for 2017. Early next year “Participants’ Viewpoint India” will be released – a continuation of the popular US and UK studies that probe participants’ beliefs about incentive travel programmes and their effectiveness. Plans are also underway for similar studies in China and Mexico. Additional research includes a study of the European Incentive Market, as well as the annual SITE Index, in partnership with J.D. Power.
