Mary Thao, CMP, 37, works in Saint Paul, Minnesota, as director of meetings and events at ACA International. As a 2018 40 Under 40 honoree, Thao discusses her passion for the events industry.
Connect with Thao on Twitter. What I do: I oversee ACA’s events from start to finish including timelines, budgeting, marketing, contracting, vendor logistics and managing many other moving parts and cross-functional teams. I review current meeting planning processes for effectiveness and efficiency. Two of my most important focuses for the coming year are meeting analytics to help the organization make better data-driven decisions and re-visiting our agendas to look for more attendee engagement opportunities. How I got here: I had been heavily involved in planning events in high school and college. I changed my major from elementary education to math before I discovered that meeting and event planning could actually be a career. I switched schools and finished at the University of Wisconsin–Stout’s hospitality program with an independent study and an internship in meeting planning. My first job out of college was planning local and regional events for an association management company and was there for a 1.5 years before I started at ACA International. Greatest career accomplishment: I am the recipient of two Minnesota awards: 2014 Outstanding Planner from MPI Minnesota and the 2012 Best Meeting Professional from Minnesota Meetings & Events magazine. Impressive stats:I’ve cut our $250,000 audiovisual budget down by 50 percent over the years. What I am working on: I am excited about looking ahead to future conventions and events. We have quite a few that we are changing up with different content and different formats and I look forward to seeing how our new ideas pan out. I am also excited to continue our work on meeting analytics. What I do outside of work: I spend a lot of time with my husband and my boys, ages 6 and 10. I also volunteer with MPI Minnesota’s education committee and the Associations North Diversity & Inclusion committee. My husband and I have been trying to get out to new restaurants once per month.
