The Green Meeting Industry Council (GMIC) is pleased to welcome two new Board Members--Kitty Ratcliffe and Suzanne Burnes. Kitty Ratcliffe is the Executive Vice President of the New Orleans Metropolitan Convention & Visitors Bureau. She presently sits on the Board of Trustees of the International Association of Convention and Visitor Bureaus (IACVB) Foundation and has served on the Board of IACVB, as the International President for Meeting Professionals International (MPI) and on the MPI Board and as Treasurer of the Professional Convention Management Association. Kitty has served as a member of committees for the Convention Industry Council (CIC), including the Green Meetings Task Force, and participated in the creation of the MPI White Paper on Green Meetings and Ocean Blue Foundation's BlueGreen Meetings Initiative.

Suzanne Burnes is a pollution prevention specialist for the Pollution Prevention Assistance Division of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. She manages the Georgia Green Hotel Program, which focuses on identifying, certifying and recognizing lodging properties that meet Green Seal's Environmental Standard for Lodging Properties, GS-33; and assisting properties interested in meeting the standard. In addition to her work with the hospitality industry, Suzanne works with the business environmental leadership program for the state.

The Green Meeting Industry Council was created to respond to the need to galvanize the hospitality industry stakeholders in the environmentally responsible meeting practices arena and to provide education and resources for meeting planners to make their events and conferences environmentally responsible. The hospitality industry is responsible for over 1 million meetings & events annually and over 12,000 tradeshows annually in North America alone. The hospitality industry is a $100 billion corporate industry.

Green Meeting Industry Council

Green Meeting Industry Council

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