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VIP Meetings & Conventions is a full-service meeting planning and convention housing company founded in 1982 by Diane Conti and Harry Kuemmerle III, two former aerospace engineers.
Upon discovering our background, almost everyone we meet asks. . . "How did you ever get into meeting planning?" Here is our story.
Both of us had a lot of experience organizing golf tournaments for our respective aerospace companies, so we started a part-time venture called VIP Golf. We never dreamed we would quit our day jobs until we were approached by a colleague who was a member of an IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) site selection committee. He recognized our organizational skills and understanding of the engineering culture and asked us to help them select a site for their conference and assist the volunteer committee with logistics. We realized that this could be a real business, far larger than organizing golf tournaments, so VIP Meetings & Conventions was born.
In our former careers, systems had to be well defined and their execution had to be precise. We have successfully infused this discipline into our corporate culture. Our staff understands the importance of attention to detail. Although it doesn't require rocket science to do meeting planning and housing, we have utilized our science and technology background to develop systems and software tools which enable our company to deliver sophisticated solutions. But "high tech" isn't enough at VIP Meetings & Conventions. There also has to be "high touch" to provide the personalized, not institutionalized service that has become our hallmark.
VIP Meetings & Conventions continues to grow and prosper. Always looking for new ways to service clients, in the late eighties VIP Meetings & Conventions recognized the growing need for full-service housing for citywide conventions. We accurately predicted that housing would ultimately move out of the domain of the Convention and Visitors Bureaus and be provided by third parties. We developed our first housing system in 1989 for the MAGIC Show in Las Vegas, and processed over 10,000 reservations utilizing thirty-four hotels.
The rest, as they say, is history. We have quietly built a very strong, stable company with a sterling reputation. Our housing system has gone through many improvements and revisions since those early days, and our clients have the benefit of a firm that has over ten years of experience managing housing.
Our experience, expertise and reputation contributed to our selection over sixteen other firms to be the official housing bureau for Los Angeles. Additionally, we were extremely honored to be the official housing bureau for the Democratic National Convention in August of 2000 in Los Angeles.
By the way, that very first IEEE association is still our client!
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