Prevue September/October 2011 - (Page 18)

good business Costa Rica Seems safe to say most people have an extra pair of shoes they don't wear. "Oh, holy cow, my office is filling up right now just with contributions from our office," says Jones. "These kinds of efforts give people a taste of what’s out there and how easy it is to contribute, and hopefully take some of the mystique out of it." Meet for feet We also spoke to Elizabeth Kirk, director of communications for Soles4Souls, curious to hear how often they partner with the meetings and events industry. "It’s not necessarily common but we have done it several times with other conferences and we’re seeing it more frequently," she says. "More and more people are looking to use a convention as an avenue to give back, so we’re really excited about HSMAI in September, and we think it’s going to be a great opportunity to change a lot of people’s lives." If you're a meeting professional who would like to work with Soles4Souls in almost any city in the country, call the organization in Tennessee. They will then provide contacts in your specific destination to help get you started. "We have retailers and businesses, churches and civic groups all over the country that are constantly collecting shoes for us," explains Kirk. "People will come to us and ask, ‘Hey, what can we do?’ And then they kind of take on the initiative themselves, and we’ll equip them to be Soles4Souls advocates, per se… and it’s worked out great for us. There are 1,600 shoe brands in the country and we’ve probably partnered with 1,300 of those, so we’ve really tried to get that message out there.” Wayne Elsey is available for speaking engagements, and you can learn more about him and the organization in his new book: Almost Isn’t Good Enough. "The book has kind of exceeded all of our expectations, especially Wayne’s," says Kirk. "I think people are looking to be inspired.... People want to know that Joe Blow can go out and really make an impact on the world. I think people really identify with that."—Greg Oates hsmai.org; soles4souls.org HSMAI HookS up w/ SoleS4SoulS you know that feeling when you get a new pair of shoes? When the 2004 tsunami struck Southeast Asia, Wayne Elsey was president of Kodiak-Terra USA Footwear. One night while watching the news on television filter in about the storm, he was struck by the image of a lone shoe washed up on the beach. That image really hit a nerve. In response, he created soles4souls to deliver donated shoes to the disaster victims. Elsey got on the phone with his colleagues in the footwear industry, and together they shipped 1/4 million pairs of shoes to towns ravaged by the tsunami. Since then, the non-profit has delivered over 15 million pairs of shoes to places ranging from Kansas to Costa Rica. But it's just now starting to pair up with the events industry. When hsMai Meet national kicks off this month in Washington DC, it will be the first time the annual conference has partnered with Soles4Souls. The charity is delivering a Smart Car (painted like a shoe) to the conference that will be displayed prominently at the event, with the goal to fill up the car with donated shoes. "Over 40 HSMAI chapters in the Americas alone have been involved with lots of community organizations and service organizations at the local level for many, many years," says Juli Jones, vp of HSMAI. "But we’ve never done that with our big show, and this year we thought, this is our biggest opportunity to assemble the largest number of people. So if we can really motivate and mobilize those 2,000 people in DC, we can make a pretty big impact." ”people wAnt to know tHAt joe blow cAn go out And reAlly MAke An IMpAct on tHe world.” 18 | prevue magazine http://www.hsmai.org http://www.soles4souls.org

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Prevue September/October 2011

Back Bay, Boston
Manchester
Meliá Hotels & Resorts
San Francisco/Denver/Cleveland
HSMAI + Soles4Souls
IRF/MGM Resorts, Las Vegas
Daytona Beach
Sustainability: The Next Big Thing
Central America
India
Sweden
Barcelo Resorts/Samana, DR
Portland

Prevue September/October 2011