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As Convene marks its 40th anniversary in 2026, the team reflects on their first experiences with the meetings industry, shares behind-the-scenes stories, and previews what’s coming at PCMA Convening Leaders in Philadelphia. From the evolution of conferences to the power of community and design, this episode dives into the history, impact, and future of events. Plus, hear personal journeys that led our editors to Convene and why this industry continues to inspire.
Links:
· Register for Convening Leaders 2026: https://conveningleaders.org/
Get News Junkie: https://www.pcma.org/campaign/news-junkie/
Meet the Convene Editors: https://www.pcma.org/contact/
· Michelle Russell, Editor in Chief
· Barbara Palmer, Deputy Editor
· Jennifer N. Dienst, Senior Editor
· Kate Mulcrone, Managing Digital Editor
· Magdalina Atanassova, Digital Media Editor
Follow Convene:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pcmaconvene/
YouTube: https://youtube.com/@pcmaconvene
Contact Information: For any questions, reach out to Magdalina Atanassova, matanassova(at)pcma(dot)org.
Sponsorships and Partnerships: Reach 36,000 qualified meeting organizers with Convene, the multi-award-winning magazine for the business events industry. Contact our sales team: https://www.pcma.org/advertise-sponsorship/
Music: Inspirational Cinematic Piano with Orchestra
Creators and Guests
What is PCMA Convene Podcast?
Since 1986, Convene has been delivering award-winning content that helps event professionals plan and execute innovative and successful events. Join the Convene editors as we dive into the latest topics of interest to — and some flying under the radar of — the business events community.
Convene Talk, ep. 91/January 9, 2026
*Note: the transcript is AI generated, excuse typos and inaccuracies
Magdalina Atanassova: This is the Convene Podcast.
Welcome to another Convene Talk.
As this is our first talk for 2026. We have a very special topic today.
So without further ado, Michelle, over to you.
Michelle Russell: Thanks, Maggie.
So in 2026, we are celebrating the 40th anniversary of Convene,
and we are waist high in plans for Convening Leaders.
And we'll be celebrating at convening leaders our 40th anniversary. And then in the issue,
every issue in 2026, we're going to look back on a topic or an issue that we think was relevant at the time and still is relevant today. From our archives,
we'll be referring back to our anniversary throughout the year.
I thought it'd be fun to talk about how each of us first experienced Convene and PCMA because not, I don't think. Oh, except for Maggie. I think you're the exception, Maggie.
None of us were reared in the meetings events industry.
So for me, as a journalist and a writer and an editor, it was something completely new. When I saw an ad in the New York Times 23 and a half years ago for a managing editor.
And we had the Internet back then. So I did a little bit of research on what PCMA was and what Convene was, and I discovered this industry that I didn't, like many people still today, didn't realize existed.
So I had been at conferences, I worked in the book industry, book publishing industry. I had been at book fairs, I had been at book conventions. I had been at sales conferences for Random House, my previous employer.
So I knew all this stuff. I had been at these events, but I just didn't realize there was an industry behind it.
And so I kind of immersed myself in it. I thought it's a fascinating industry.
And because it covers every realm and sector,
and just the idea of bringing, gathering people together and trying to do it in an innovative way really appealed to me. What I have loved consistently over the entire time I've been at Convene is how willing people are to talk about their experiences and share what they've done,
including,
you know, mistakes they've made and ideas they've had.
And that's the most rewarding thing. And it has certainly made it easier for me and for everyone on the team to write stories that I think help the rest of the profession.
So that's my story. Who wants to go next on how they were introduced to Convene?
Barbara Palmer: Barbara I have a similar story in that when I heard about this job opening, I had just moved from The Bay Area to New York.
And I had a project that I was working on when I got here. And then when I raised my head and looked around and thought, okay, what am I going to do?
I really wanted to work for a magazine just because I had done that in my career. And it was, I found it just. I loved it. I just loved the combination of a little bit more time to tell stories,
you know, the way that it's communicated visually.
So I heard about this job that I had never heard of the industry.
But the thing, thing that kind of was my touch point was that I'd certainly been to conferences like as a journalist, I'd been to conferences that the Poyntner Institute held.
I had been to conferences at universities. I even had a very adventurous time as an adjunct at a community college when I took some students to the University of Missouri for a conference,
which was a story in an of itself. But I just know that that is where you not only learn what's going on in your industry, get new ideas.
I found that that is where I met people that are interested in going forward.
Like you meet people that, you know that are really interested in meeting other people and learning not just from their organization,
but from other people and just made wonderful relationships. Here's what helped enormously because I think the Internet is much more well developed. LinkedIn, of course, is much more well developed.
But Twitter unlocked so much because it was. It started not too long after I joined convene.
And that's where I just found all these people that were kind of early adopters of technology tended to be people that were kind of forward thinking. And that was an enormous help to me to make that social media connection early on.
And you know what else I loved? We had the greatest designers.
And I do think one, you know, I wasn't too sure about.
I just wasn't too sure about it. But I was so impressed with the design of the magazine.
And I also was very impressed that Michelle had a real editor's column.
It wasn't just a pitch to advertisers. It wasn't perfunctory, it was like a real column. And I felt like that was a signal.
The attention to the visual,
the attention to just, you know, thoughtfulness. And the editor's letter just made me think, well, this is an actual real magazine,
which it has proved to be. I don't think Michelle knows this, but I thought, oh, this job will be fine until I find another job.
And then I went, oh my gosh, this is. And I had no idea I would be traveling the world.
So for me it was a lucky, lucky day when I heard about that. So Kate,
what's your experience so similar to you?
Kate Mulcrone: I first learned about the meetings industry in 2010 in my case and it was because I went to work for meetings and conventions and successful meetings so convenes rival publications.
I like yourself. I was like, wow,
not only is this a whole industry,
there are all these magazines about it.
I was struck though by just how financially significant meetings are as like part of the travel pie.
But also I was able to attend IMAX America the first couple of years it happened I met tons of planners there and like you mentioned Barbara, I at that point I did the Twitter for successful meetings and I connected with so many people on the event profs Twitter hashtag and started to follow people.
And the nice thing about coming to convene after working for meetings and conventions and successful meetings is I was able to write a lot more.
I had to build all of the stories for both websites and incentive so I was too busy to do much writing at that job. Whereas at convene.
When I came to convene in 2014,
not only was I able to attend Convening Leaders for the first time the following year,
but I was able to really use some of the connections I had made to do features and more in depth stories rather than just, you know, destination roundups. This hotel added this many square feet of meeting space and my favorite thing really is just getting inside the planner's head to see why they make the decisions they do.
I know I couldn't do this job,
but I think I'm very good at teasing out what is the most important part for the people who actually do it.
And you just get that by meeting hundreds of meeting planners over the years.
And that's why I'm really excited to go to Philly next week and see some people.
Jen,
hi.
Jennifer N. Dienst: So like you, I also got my start in the meetings industry at MNC and I, I do feel like that's kind of the pipeline to convene. I don't know what's going on there but I mean I essentially followed I that was my first full time job editorial.
I had seven or eight internships because this was the age of internships and fellowships and even contract positions. But MNC was my first EA job in the magazine industry which that's kind of like where you start.
So I was like 20 years old and incredibly naive and stupid and I didn't even know what the industry was or where I was. Or what was going on or anything.
So, anyway, I worked there for a couple years until the financial collapse of 2008. Took me and many other people out. And then eventually what happened is I followed a friend,
Hunter Slayton,
former senior editor at Convene,
who asked me to do some freelance work. And that kicked off a solid decade of freelance work with y'. All. And then I ended up here in 2020, and that's all she wrote.
But I,
I will say, like, I think my first impression of Convene came before that. And that was with you, Barbara, because we were on a press trip together,
remember, in Florida, or was it Florida?
Barbara Palmer: Yes. And I'd only been at Convene for a couple of months at that point.
Jennifer N. Dienst: I was impressed by you. And I was just like, oh, she, she seems so thoughtful and intelligent and cool. And so right away I had, like, I remember having a, A positive impression.
Cause I think I was still pretty fresh then. I wasn't really reading the Competitors yet. I, I really, I had no idea what was going on. So that was probably one of my first ever press trips.
And I, I, I think I remember going and being like, wait, there's other magazines about this. Like, how many magazines can there be about the meetings industry? And so that was my first impression of Convene was you, Barbara.
Barbara Palmer: And then.
Michelle Russell: Can I ask a question, Jen?
Magdalina Atanassova: Sure.
Jennifer N. Dienst: Of course.
Michelle Russell: You said you got along swimmingly with Barbara. Was that because you both were at the event where you had a dinner in an empty pool at the bottom of a pool?
Is that the one, Barbara, you told me about? Is that where you.
Barbara Palmer: Yes, that stuff was me.
Magdalina Atanassova: I didn't mean that pun.
Jennifer N. Dienst: But that's perfect.
Barbara Palmer: Yeah, you know, it absolutely was. And they always say it's the, like, you could maybe have dinner after dinner. That's like,
gorgeous, seamless, beautiful, impeccable.
I will never forget going.
We are in the bottom of a swimming pool.
There's a little.
The band was in the deep end,
but even where we were, there was the tiniest little bit of a grade.
You know, the dinner roll slipping a little bit.
Jennifer N. Dienst: Oh, you have such a good memory.
Barbara Palmer: That was like, I was two months in, and I didn't know which end was up.
Jennifer N. Dienst: Oh, me either.
Barbara Palmer: But I definitely remember hanging out with you at the airport before we left.
Jennifer N. Dienst: Yeah. Yeah.
Michelle Russell: Which end is up swimmingly? You guys are very punny.
Jennifer N. Dienst: Completely unintentional, too.
I knew we were somewhere in Florida, but I,
My memory's so bad, I can't remember where.
Anyway,
that was my first impression and experience with convene in the meetings industry and yeah, all roads, all roads lead to convene.
Magdalina Atanassova: Yeah,
it seems like it even for me coming from a different angle.
Like Michelle, like you said, I actually studied event management and I have a whole degree and I've known about the industry just because I intentionally entered it even though it wasn't.
There is a little serendipity this moment there as well because before I started doing my bachelor's I went to volunteer in Poland and on the way to my little village in Poland that I, that I had to do my volunteer service, I stopped in Warsaw and I happened to have a long layover.
So for the whole day I spent in, in the Sheraton just because my father had a connection with the GM who was a Bulgarian lady and she was showing me around and she asked me, what do you want to study?
I said, I don't know, that's why I'm going for a half a year in Poland in a tiny village to figure my life out.
And she was showing me a setup, they were doing a setup for an event. And she said, you know what, you definitely have to think about the events industry because that's up and coming.
If you're confused, that's your way. And I said, yeah, yeah, whatever. I mean,
sure.
Then six months later,
once I finished with that voluntary service, I randomly saw a scholarship application that was happening. I had to do a test and the school happened to be exactly offering an event management program.
And I was like, well, what are the odds I should be doing that if I get the scholarship. So long story short, I got the scholarship and did the whole bachelor's and it was fantastic.
And actually my university was based in a five star hotel with a convention center. So it was hands on from day one. It was brilliant and also very hard to do finals when there is a swimming pool right outside.
But it was, it was brilliant. And actually I remember, I was trying to remember the first time interacting with convene and the difficulty for me was PCMA was back then.
So we're speaking 2005, 2009.
Back then PCMA was very locked into North America and was very hard to have an interaction when you were based in Europe.
But I remember going to my first IMAX in Frankfurt and back then I was one of those people that was going with a giant bag and getting everything from the stands.
So I ended up with a very heavy suitcase with lots of magazines as well. So I think that's, that's actually my first Interaction with Convene. Even though I think I have a better memory when I start.
When I joined and I had a full time position,
my first full time position with AIM Group,
I had registered and I was a subscriber, I was getting the physical magazine in Europe and I was very proud and to share that with also with my colleagues and tell them, you know, you have to read this.
It's, you know, and PCMA is very important. You have to follow and read and that's where you get all the information.
And I carried that over to Kenes Group where I was also bringing stacks of the magazine and leaving it in the office for everybody because a lot of the people that were hired back then were not from the industry.
So I was like, well, that's how you learn about the industry and I'm going to share this with you.
I'm that generous and even I used the magazine and the design of the magazine to design some of the internal newsletters I was doing because I had no idea what to do.
And I was like, I love the beautiful design of Convene. I'm just gonna copy it.
Barbara Palmer: Interesting.
Magdalina Atanassova: Yeah, I, I'm not sure if 0.5 seed, they'll be very proud of my work. I did my best. I tried here.
Michelle Russell: It gave you a place to start.
Magdalina Atanassova: Yeah, for sure. So it was,
it was a pretty much a dream come true for me. So,
you know, something that has been following me throughout my career. So I was very happy. And even some people were asking me when I joined Kubi, I was like, how, how did that happen from Bulgaria?
Like, well,
it's not like it happened overnight.
There's a story behind.
Barbara Palmer: Well,
I have met so many people that are not in the industry who get our magazine because of the fact that the industry is like Venn Diagram, the industry's always going to be there,
but there's going to be circles that connect to entertainment, that connect to science, that connect to how people gather, how they meet each other, how they act when they're together.
I did want to say one of the things I'm so excited about for Philadelphia is that we have a physical place.
There's a convene stage,
the podcast.
Maggie's going to be podcast, you know, conducting podcasts on site right there.
Magdalina Atanassova: And people can, people can actually listen to them while we record them live. They'll be streaming at the convenience stage. So everyone's following us.
Barbara Palmer: But because Convene is, you know, it's in the magazine, it's in the website,
you know, to have a footprint that people can find.
And so if, you know,
really,
really invite everyone to come and say hello and tell us what you like and oh, if there's something you don't like, that's the best kind of thing to learn. So,
yeah,
I think it's going to be really fun this year.
Magdalina Atanassova: We have really good presence throughout convening leaders.
We also have four sessions which people can find now in the app. In the program.
We've got some people that we've curated very carefully and they really reflect what we stand for, what we write about.
So they'll be definitely nice to attend.
So everyone's welcome if they want to join.
We have a big presence in the museum. Right.
And so that's another way to.
For people to experience coming through the years for those that maybe don't know us for that many years, but certainly they can see a lot of artifacts and cool history and historical moments.
And of course we'll be doing the E. Daily emails as each year, so we'll be keeping everyone up to speed with what's happening each day.
Michelle Russell: I was reminded yesterday when we had an internal staff call about the event that 20 years ago we were in Philadelphia and that was the first time we published dailies, physical dailies.
And I remember driving my minivan. Cause my girls were young at that time,
to the printing company every night to make sure that everything was being done correctly. So the EDLAs feel like a breeze compared to that.
They were. We had to sweat out the room drop and when they were delivered at five in the morning and making sure that they got to the hotels and all of that stuff.
So in addition to the fact that we're being more sustainable,
I think it's just a better. It's much better for us receiving those physical dailies.
Magdalina Atanassova: Oh, it was such a treat.
I know it was so much hard work,
but it was such a treat, especially waiting for you at the hotel. For me, that was such an American experience. It's like, oh,
just getting my mail,
you know, delivered to my room. Because you don't get that here anywhere.
Michelle Russell: Yeah, there's a lot of coordination. And I remember just like anxiously getting up early in the morning and peeking out the hotel room door to see if there are the, you know, if the convenience were down the hall outside each door.
Yeah,
yeah, they were. And it was fun to get on a shuttle and see people reading the dailies because everyone wants to see pictures of their colleagues and see if they made it into the magazine themselves or not.
Magazine. The issue where the daily.
Magdalina Atanassova: Oh, now we do it digitally.
Barbara Palmer: It was hard to really go to many more sessions that weren't part of the editorial that was scheduled.
Michelle Russell: But.
Barbara Palmer: And we would always manage to meet people and understand what's going on.
But I love, I love to be able to go and just drop in on sessions that I know now I'm interested in, but also those ones you just are like the sleepers and the things that you didn't know you were interested in until you're in the room.
So that's always a really fun part of it.
Michelle Russell: And sometimes the best ideas for stories come from those sessions. Not necessarily what's presented on stage, but you know, that Q and A period where people ask questions or they offer up their own examples.
You know, you have your notebook there and you just write this down and make sure you follow up with them because there's like really great ideas floating around. At Convening Leaders.
Barbara Palmer: I was just at a press event and one thing that made me happy is that when I asked some them what they were looking forward to at Convening Leaders,
one response that was very common was like,
you know, I hadn't really looked yet. I just go and I was going to be great.
And I just thought, okay,
I know conferences like that, that you're like, oh, I'm going,
like, whatever it is, I want to hear it. And I was just,
I loved getting that feedback and I know that there's a big number of first timers there and I think that's going to be interesting to you.
Magdalina Atanassova: It's promising to be a very good event and very good start to the new year, as usual.
So, yeah, it's going to be great and let's hope that we see a lot of our listeners, not only readers, but also listeners on site.
And if you see us,
even if we're running to the next session, please stop us, say hi,
connect with us.
And yeah, we look forward to seeing you in Philadelphia.
Thank you all.
Remember to subscribe to the Convene Podcast on your favorite listening platform to stay updated with our latest episodes. For further industry insights from the Convene team, head over to PCMA.org/convene. My name is Maggie. Stay inspired. Keep inspiring. And until next time.