Boston Chapter President-Elect Nirmal Parikh (3rd from left) on Membership Panel
Last weekend, four members of the Board for the Boston chapter of the American Marketing Association traveled down to New Jersey for the 2016 Northeast Regional Chapter Leadership Retreat. We joined leaders from 13 chapters within the region: Baltimore, Central Virginia, Connecticut, Fairfield County, Hampton Roads, New Jersey, New York, New York Capitol Region, Philadelphia, Richmond, Rochester, and Washington DC.
Karaoke from Philadelphia!
The event kicked off Friday night with some social networking (complete with karaoke!), followed by a full day of converging. Informative, interactive sessions focused on how to deliver more value for members, and how board members can better connect with current and prospective members, e.g. a chapter leader meeting with new members for coffee. There were team activities to foster bonding, solve puzzles, and build collages, and heard about exciting changes being made at the National level.
Other sessions offered insights on marketing strategy and the future of marketing in the US – did you know there are 2.7 million marketing 
professionals here and that number is expected to grow by 14% by 2022? Presentations offered tips on how to enhance programming, a crucial element of every chapter’s offerings, and several presenters shared lessons from their own leadership journeys as well as words of wisdom such as “don’t reinvent the wheel!”
The Boston team of President Rachel Hoagland, President-Elect Nirmal Parikh, VP of Sponsorship Bonnie Akerson and I left feeling inspired and are excited to implement some key takeaways to continue to be a quality resource for the Boston marketing community!
Keri Deming, VP of Social Media
