These individuals stepped up to help their meetings and events industry colleagues during the COVID-19 pandemic or advance the cause of social justice and fight systemic racism following the George Floyd killing. Read more.

The public profile of LGBT+ people in the meetings industry has grown by leaps and bounds in just the past decade and a half, advancing from what some early adopters describe as the “secret handshake” days to a consolidation into the LGBT Meeting Professionals Association (LGBT MPA).

You may know David Kliman as a facilitator of major customer advisory boards, an expert on international meetings, a frequent speaker at industry events and/or a leader in organizations such as MPI, but his climb up had modest beginnings.

“I came right out of college and I wanted a job in the travel industry, and I literally walked into the Plaza Hotel in New York and said I wanted to be in international sales, and they said ‘You and everyone else.’” Kliman said. “I got the glamorous job working as a reservations agent—taking telephone and telex reservations.

“A year later I got an international sales job and I was on a jet to Rio,” he added. “I was just a lucky guy at the right time and in the right place.”