Planner Resilience: Mary Pepe, MEP & Associates

How were you able to adapt during COVID-19 when the meeting and events industry got disrupted?

My years in the industry have taught me resilience. And I choose to look for opportunities in circumstances such as we are now living in. I, like so many of our global colleagues and friends, was laid off at the end of 2020, instead of looking back to what I may have lost, I choose to take this time to “regroup and refocus and learn.” Our planner life is filled with continuous deadlines, our priorities are rarely of a personal nature, yet we continue at super-human speed to accomplish our work responsibilities, family life, and personal needs, with the latter, usually falling far behind on our to-do list. So, I have reprioritized.

I have successfully completed my CITP exam. For the past 2 years as SITE Canada Board Member, I now am working with SITE Global Sustainability Committee as I believe Sustainable Development is quickly becoming an impactful principle in our personal lives, our incentive programs, and corporate events. And, because of my work on this Committee, I have completed the Climate Reality Leadership Training.

I am also dedicating time revisiting my university studies to rediscover the passion I had for classical literature. Most importantly, I am spending time with family and friends, who are the bedrock of who I am and who will support me to where I go!

I wake up every day with a positive attitude, well almost every day, with faith that the new normal will be a good change for us all, and how we choose to spend this time will support the inevitable future changes.

This post is part of the HopSkip Planner Spotlight Series where we celebrate the positivity and optimism shown by planners across the industry when navigating the turbulent waters that COVID-19 has brought the meetings and events industry.   Keep an eye out as we release more stories like this over the next few months.