Event Minds Matter, a community of like-minded event, meeting, hospitality, and travel professionals focused on mental fitness and mental wellbeing, is continuing their diligent work in 2024 to raise the awareness and priority of mental health training in the industry globally. 

It's a bigger mountain than Kilimanjaro, but my intentions in a nutshell for this year include mandating mental health training as part of all certified programs, certifications, and degrees under the bigger umbrella of the event, meeting, hospitality and travel industries.

Over the last two years, I have watched how the top five most stressful jobs have mandated these kinds of training — yet the sixth most stressful job (event planning) does not. Many individuals have been talking about emotional health and mental wellbeing for quite some time. The truth is though that nothing has changed and just talking about these issues does not sufficiently address the root of the problem.

Most leaders to this day do not know how to recognize when a team member or individual is struggling with their emotional health. They also do not know how to speak to individuals who might be struggling, especially leaders that lack empathy or don’t think it’s their problem.  

To change this starting in 2024, Event Minds Matter has two exciting initiatives to put forward. The first is a six-episode series on how we as event professionals can become emotionally healthy, motivated, and connected (click here to register and tune in).

This series, called The Dr. Will See You Now, is hosted by Dr. Tharaka Gunarathne. He hails from Scotland and is a celebrity TV psychiatrist who has never spoken in North America before. His personality is larger than life and anytime I have ever spoken to him, he brings a smile to my face and information that I had no idea existed!

Our community is proud of this collaboration, which will be hosted in partnership with MEETYOO (a virtual luxury brand platform out of Germany); Agnieszka Rusak-Tyma, a Swedish-based visual artist with AI expertise; and Bill Thomson, founder of Hello Scotland. All of our partners share the belief that emotional wellbeing must be taken more seriously in the travel ecosystem and that we must do much more for our industry to be mentally fit. 

I have also been petitioning industry leaders to commit to real change and real training. Our second project as an Event Minds Matter community speaks directly to this need. Leslie Bennett, one of our community members, has proudly launched WeCare, an online course that just won a LearnX Diamond Award for the best mental health safety program in the world. 

Anyone in the industry can take part in this course and earn a micro credential from Dalhousie University to then display on their LinkedIn page or resume.

We want psychological safety to be front and center in 2024, and we know that we have to work extra-hard to convince  leaders to make this mandatory.

Our purpose and value behind both initiatives is to dig deeper into the emotional side of the travel industry and to bring our work out into the open so people can relate, connect, and build their own awareness.

We believe that the future of our industry demands more intensive opportunities for belonging — including, and extending to, incentive travel programs. Part of the power of incentive travel comes from clients shaping and influencing team and company cultures based on their experiences during a trip. As this culture rubs off on other employees, it will build strength and endurance, while also supporting everyone in becoming more emotionally fit. 

Leaders of today must be teachers, coaches and mentors to the next generation of industry profs. It's part of the community's mission, and we are doing things very differently than anyone else. We are an anomaly of like-minded event profs who sincerely have a passion for our fellow man in this industry — and invite members of the SITE community to join us!