Last year, I attended the National CSAE Conference and had the pleasure of meeting Lia Robinson and William (Bill) Partridge from the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) Calgary office. It was immediately evident to me how passionate and dedicated both Lia and Bill were to their membership and their organization.
As the President of BOMA Calgary, Bill is an active and vocal advocate for building excellence in the commercial real estate industry in Calgary and Alberta. He can always be found at community events, board meetings and even on Twitter (@BillyBOMA) sharing his insights and ideas. Over dinner at CSAE, Bill spoke to me passionately about the vision and ideas he had for his association and its membership and how he believed the events that BOMA Calgary hosted were helping them to achieve these goals.
BOMA Calgary is a perfect example of an organization that gets it. They understand that as an association, with limited funding and endless demands, they need to be strategic and focused on where they spend their membership dollars. So many other associations host recurring, annual events simply because this is what they have always done, without any thought into how these events fit into their overall strategic objectives.
That is why, when I got the call from BOMA Calgary to assist them with their Excellence Awards Dinner, I jumped at the chance. Knowing that their Events & Education Coordinator was due to go on maternity leave right around the time of the event, BOMA wisely put a backup event planner in place! In my mind, I was like an event planning super hero…without the cape.
Working on standby, Spark assisted their team with event preparations details until we got the call that baby had arrived. With less than 3 weeks until the event, the Spark team switched into high gear and helped deliver a fantastic Excellence Awards Dinner for BOMA Calgary that recognized excellence and dedication in the commercial real estate community.
At Spark, we truly believe in becoming a part of the team, not just the hired help. We were not only able to assist BOMA in pulling off a fantastic event this year under very unique circumstances, we also equipped them with processes, templates and tools to make planning future events a bit easier for their staff. We will do whatever it takes to ensure our clients are successful (even if that means wearing a cape) because their success is our success.
“The Spark team brings professional standards, great work ethic and a fabulous sense of humour to their event planning and management. They treated us as a partner, making sure our needs were met and bringing new ideas and suggestions to us along the way. Spark understood our needs and resources as a not-for-profit, and gave us the tools to continue to improve our event for years to come.”
