Miller Tanner Associates Team, Author at Miller Tanner Associates

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Meet MTA: Melanie Riddick, Director of Accounting Operations

The Miller Tanner difference is our people. That’s why we want to introduce you to our team of superstars that bring our corporate meetings and events to life for our clients. Today, we introduce you to Melanie Riddick, Director of Accounting Operations. With a knack for details and her sharp interpersonal skills, Melanie brings her extensive knowledge in data management and customer relations to the MTA team.

Meet Melanie Riddick, Director of Accounting Operations

Tell us about your current role with MTA. What are your primary responsibilities?

As Director of Accounting Operations, I manage the financial compliance of transparency reporting in adherence to state and federal legislation (Sunshine Act), global requirements (GDPR), and client contractual terms, conditions, and deadlines. This requires analyzing lots of data and details! Our team also conducts a rigorous quality control cross-check on completed transparency reports to ensure we provide our clients with accurate data. Additionally, I oversee our team members who audit and process payments for event attendee reimbursement requests. This also involves managing our internal guidelines and processes to ensure they remain up-to-date and efficient. Finally, my role supports the full finance team with project management and system/process improvements to better serve both internal and external stakeholders.

What did you do before joining MTA?

I spent the last 10 years before coming to MTA working in the Nashville nonprofit community. Most of those roles involved donor development, data management, fundraising, and planning special events. Prior to that, I worked for a small custom cabinetry business for several years handling purchasing and inventory, fulfilling customer orders, accounts payable and receivable, payroll, and bank reconciliations.

What do you feel are the most fulfilling aspects of your job?

By nature, I am detail-oriented and relationship-driven, so I thrive in roles that combine managing data and serving others. This job does exactly that! I am motivated by providing our clients with a high level of excellence, and I enjoy spending the time needed to dig into the financial data and compile it into comprehensive and easy-to-understand deliverables. I also enjoy the opportunities I have to interact with our vendors and event attendees. Most of all, I end each day grateful to be a part of MTA. Our team is composed of so many knowledgeable, talented, and personable individuals who are truly a joy to work with together!

*Left: Melanie ice-climbing in Iceland at MTA’s Workshop. Right: Melanie with the MTA Finance Team.*

What do you do for fun?

My husband, Adam, and I LOVE to travel, and we get restless if we don’t have a trip to look forward to on the calendar. We’ve visited Italy, England, Czech Republic, Iceland, Jamaica, Aruba, Mexico, Greece, and many states in the U.S. together. I’m also a fan of theme parks like Disney World and Universal Studios. We can’t travel all the time, so I love spending most of the time together as a family with our son, Connor. Sometimes that means a quiet night cooking dinner at home and watching a movie, and other times it means going out to a concert, sporting event or other fun activity. When I have time for just me, I love to run, hike, read fiction books, and go to brunch with friends.

What makes Miller Tanner Associates stand out as a meeting planning company?

What stands out is the ways we do what we do more efficiently and uniquely from our competitors. MTA is focused first and foremost on people – the clients we serve, the meeting attendees, and our fellow team members. Everyone at MTA is focused on listening to and meeting the needs of these groups of people. By combining this passion for people with the talents, skills, and resources available through the MTA team, we are able to provide our clients with a high level of excellent customer service and help them achieve their goals for each meeting. 

One of the other things I value about MTA is our culture of generosity and hospitality and how it is reflected in the opportunities we have to give back to our communities. Employees are provided time to spend volunteering, and we participate in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities  together at our annual workshop. We also assist our clients with implementing  their own CSRs at their events to provide their meeting attendees with an opportunity to serve others.

Where do you live and what do you love most about your state/city?

While I love to travel and explore new places, I’m always happy to come home to Nashville, Tennessee! A lot of people have moved here over the last 10 years, and for good reason! We have several sports teams that are fun to see, and there is no shortage of terrific live music on any given day. Our restaurant scene has exploded, so I love checking out new spots and trying different kinds of food. I always tell visitors to spend time at the “honky-tonks” on Broadway to get a glimpse into the Nashville tourist scene. Even as natives, we enjoy it, and it’s family-friendly during the day! We also have a lot of great state parks and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee – I love spending time hiking and seeing so many unique landscapes within driving distance of home.

What’s one of your favorite destinations in the world and why?

Adam and I spent several days in Positano on the Amalfi Coast in Italy, and it is hands down one of the most beautiful places I’ve seen. I loved being able to wander the quaint little streets and shops, hang out on the beach, and spend evenings having dinner overlooking the sea. The top priority on my travel bucket list is to plan a trip to travel throughout Germany, Switzerland, and Austria – I would love to explore the culture in those areas and know that the scenery will be absolutely stunning to see!

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20 Ways to Create an Event that Your Attendees will Love

It’s February and love is in the air – even for events! Do you want to create an event experience that your attendees will love? Give your face-to-face meetings and events more TLC with these 20 tips from Miller Tanner Associates. Click on each tip for more information.

Engage Your Audience

Make It Memorable

Weave in a theme to transform your event from drab to fab.
Celebrate achievements with a sales event, Incentive Travel or a Product Launch.
Make internal meetings a priority.
Add some extras like personalized gifting and cultural outings.
Use team-building and CSR to unite your team.
Go green!
Emphasize work-life balance.
Have fun and dream big!

Get Inspired

Get inspired! Check out Miller Tanner Associates on social media for inspirational ideas! Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram.
Discover a new and exciting event location.
Read our success stories for more ideas!
Plan your first incentive trip, even on a budget.
Add the WOW factor.
Be unique.
Hire a professional planner like Miller Tanner Associates to plan an event that your attendees are sure to love.

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Case Study: Event Risk Management Solutions

Challenges

Our client, a pharmaceutical company, needed to host a one-day, face-to-face advisory board meeting for 17 attendees in the region of Bogota, Columbia.

Leading up to the event, protests began to break out in the city, near where the meeting was to be held.

These types of event risk management challenges are not new to Miller Tanner Associates as we have planned many events in emerging markets and, at times, this has meant working in high-security risk areas where safety preparedness is paramount.

Solutions

Miller Tanner Associates has developed several intercountry partnerships allowing us to create a seamless risk management solution for monitoring and managing events where a security risk could arise.

As part of our solution for this specific meeting in Bogota, Columbia, Miller Tanner Associates took our usual proactive approach.

We worked diligently with Bogota local partners, who provided a travel brief which included an in-depth analysis of the areas in which our team and meeting attendees were to be located throughout the duration of the meeting. We also sourced hotels that were recommended, thoroughly vetted, and deemed safe properties for the attendees who would be traveling to the site.

Additionally, our partners in Bogota tracked any potential security risks and provided real-time updates in and around the areas that the meeting and activities were taking place. We knew the safest routes to and from all event activities at all times.

Miller Tanner Associates typically hires security staff to be on site unless our client already has hired as was the case in this situation.

To ensure the additional safety of our attendees upon arrival, we compiled a list of travel recommendations in both the confirmation email and welcome packet so that those traveling to the meeting site were fully prepared in advance of the event.

At every event, and for this event specifically, we implement a comprehensive Crisis Action Plan; our on-site staff is well prepared to oversee the well-being of all attendees in case of any emergency situations. Our team was ready to move into action if security measures were necessary during this event.

Results

The event had no security issues despite the nearby protests. Our client and attendees’ reviews were favorable as all felt there was never a cause for concern given Miller Tanner Associates’ thorough safety protocols.

Leave your event’s security in the hands of the event professionals who have a plan of action in place to ensure that all bases are covered. Contact the Miller Tanner Team to discuss your event’s security needs.

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Events Mash-Up: Engage Your Event Audience

We’ve compiled our best blogs with tips for engaging your event audience. Supercharge your internal events, meetings, and trainings with expert advice using these strategies from the Miller Tanner Team. Reach out to our team for more information about how you can engage your audiences.

Use Technology to Boost Your Presentation Engagement

We have a few proven ways guaranteed to make your event’s presentation more engaging with the help of technology.

10 Benefits of a Paperless Meeting

Here are 10 convincing reasons to shred the paper and embrace the digital devices at your next meeting and how you can better engage your audiences.

Audience Response System (ARS) for Attendee Engagement

Engage Your Audience with ARS

One of the most effective ways that we’ve found to assess and engage your audience is by using an Audience Response System (ARS) to enhance your meeting.

Add More Fun to Corporate Events

Have your corporate events become stale? Are you looking to add a unique touch to your company’s meeting? Do you wish you had better engagement from your team? With the help of expert planners to guide you, you can design an event that is more personalized, exciting, and engaging for your attendees.

Using Video And Visual Content To Improve Virtual Event Engagement

If you are looking for a creative approach to onboarding new employees, optimize your onboarding with video and visual content as part of your training.

Get Help Planning Your Next Virtual Event

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Post-Event Survey Questions to Ask

Post event survey measures meeting effectiveness

You want to ensure that your event is effective and successful, right? One proven way to measure this is by using post-event surveys. Post-event surveys allow you to evaluate the return on the experience (ROE) so that you can continue to improve your participants’ experiences at future events.

The team at Miller Tanner has compiled some best practices for boosting your survey response rate in addition to optimizing with key questions that will best measure your meeting’s effectiveness. That way you can stay ahead of the curve in providing an event that meets both your goals and your attendees’ expectations.

3 Tactics to Boost Survey Response Rate

Association Now recommends using these tactics as a guide to help boost your survey response rate:

First, explain the importance of survey feedback so that the participants know that their input is valued and crucial to future event planning.
Be concise and simple. Limit to a small number, yet essential, questions and use a yes/no or multiple-choice format.
Have one open-ended question which allows participants to give more personalized feedback.

3 Powerful Open-ended Post-Event Survey Questions

Start Us Magazine lists post-event survey questions that can determine your meeting’s effectiveness. These three questions can drive a lot of insightful feedback from your participants.

#1 What is your level of satisfaction for this event?

Start with a big picture question to get a sense of whether your participants were satisfied with the event experience overall. Use open-ended questions or create a scale (example: 1-10).

#2 What elements did you like the most/dislike the most?

This is a powerful open-ended question that can give you a lot of insight into what resonated best with your participants. The answers might surprise you so make sure to create a list of the feedback to be applied when planning your next meeting. This allows you to also address any negative feedback that you might receive for improvement on future events.

#3 What was the highlight?

This question is not only helpful for post-event surveys but also for multi-day events. If you are conducting daily surveys, using ARS or other engagement tools, during your meeting, this question allows you to effectively gauge what participants enjoyed the most – possibly allowing you to add the activity to the next day’s agenda. For example, if the highlight for a majority of your attendees was a 30-minute break for networking, consider adjusting the agenda to accommodate your participants’ interests.

Get Specific

If you want to be more targeted with your survey questions, Get Feedback offers these following post-event survey questions as a way to dial into the details. You can add a few of the following specific questions to your survey to generate more detailed feedback:

Which event or speaker were you most pleased with?
Did you have ample time to network?
What can we do to make next year’s conference even better?
What kind of speakers would you like to see next year?
Do you feel as though the conference had a cohesive message?
Did you learn actionable information that will help you in your work life?
What features should we add to the event?

Be Concise

And if you’d like to keep your questions more scale-based, Meetingsnet offers these six post-event questions that will reveal the effectiveness of your meetings using a question set called the Event Performance Indices or EPI. Based on Meetingsnet’s analysis, using the combined set of the following six post-event questions will best reflect the effectiveness of your meeting:

How satisfied are you with the meeting’s overall value in helping you improve your on-the-job effectiveness?
How satisfied are you that the meeting was well worth the investment?
How satisfied are you with the overall meeting experience?
How satisfied are you that the meeting was motivating to you personally?
How satisfied are you with the quality of the education sessions at the meeting?
How satisfied are you with the quality of the networking opportunities at the meeting?

Summary

We’ve highlighted a few different ways to approach your post-event survey.

The bottom line: Every event needs a post-event survey in order to improve upon its success. Post-event surveys help you better understand the needs and wants of your audience, while also identifying how and where to focus your time and attention for future events. Your participants will value being heard, and likewise, you’ll gain insights for creating an experience that will leave them eager to attend your next event.

Our team can help design post-event surveys that measure your event’s effectiveness. Reach out to our associates to learn more.

Frequently Asked Questions

In effort to help readers to summarize the information found within this post, we’ve recapitulated the article in question and answer form.

How Can I Get More Meeting Attendees to Respond to Survey Requests?

To begin, convey the significance of survey responses so that participants understand how important their contribution is to future event preparation. Second, keep it short and sweet. Use a yes/no or multiple-choice style answers and keep the number of questions to a minimum. Finally, have at least one open-ended question so that participants may provide more customized input.

What are Some Examples of Post-Event Survey Questions to Ask?

Begin by asking a broad question, such as “What is your level of satisfaction with this event?” to get a feel of whether your attendees were pleased with the entire event experience. “What aspects did you like/dislike the most?” is a strong open-ended question that may reveal a lot about what your participants appreciated (or didn’t appreciate) the most. “What was the highlight?” is an excellent open-ended question that works well for both post-event surveys and multi-day events.

What are Some Example Questions to Ask Post-Event to Get Specific Feedback?

Which event or speaker did you like the most? Did you have plenty of time to network with other attendees? What can we do to improve the conference next year? What kind of speakers or topics discussed would you want to see at the conference next year? Do you think the conference’s message was consistent?

What are Some Post-Event Questions to Ask to Discover the Effectiveness of a Conference?

What level of satisfaction do you have with the meeting’s overall value in terms of assisting you in improving your on-the-job effectiveness? How certain are you that the meeting was well worth your time and money? What level of satisfaction do you have with the entire meeting experience? How pleased are you that the meeting was personally motivating? How pleased are you with the quality of the meeting’s educational sessions?

Should I Conduct a Post-Event Survey After Every Major Convention?

In order to enhance the success of any event, it is necessary to conduct a post-event survey. Post-event surveys may help you better understand your audience’s requirements and desires, as well as where to concentrate your time and attention for future events. Your attendees will appreciate being heard, and you will get insights on how to create an experience that will entice them to attend your future event.

Blog

Case Study: Virtual Event Translation

Case study on MTA virtual event translation

How We Provided Translation Options for a Virtual Event

Virtual events offer an affordable, efficient method for delivering key messaging. The goal of a virtual event is to spread a consistent message where a smaller budget and time constraints might apply. Miller Tanner Associates aims to simulate the key elements of a face-to-face meeting – interpretation being one of those essential elements. When a client wants to offer interpretation to a select group of attendees, it is our job to make sure that happens with ease.

THE CHALLENGE

Virtual platforms introduce a few challenges. Unfortunately, these platforms rarely have multiple audio channels that allow attendees to choose their preferred language translation. For this reason, advanced virtual event translation is important. Additionally, the slides shared with the audience and translation must match the timing of the presenter. The message and instruction to attendees need to be coordinated accurately with the presentation, polling questions, and any attendee interaction with the presenters via text.

THE SOLUTION

Miller Tanner Associates (MTA) has designed a creative solution that meets the translation needs of the attendees.

MTA uses a suite of virtual products that allows us to open multiple meeting platforms and isolate the features in each one.
Our solution offers local and toll-free numbers for countries around the world providing added convenience to attendees during a 4-hour session.
We provide thorough instructions on how to connect for interpretation prior to the meeting, and within housekeeping slides during the meeting.
We also provide presentations and recordings to our interpreters days prior to the meeting, allowing them the opportunity to study the content and presentations.

THE RESULTS

Our clients and their attendees are equally important to us and our primary objective is to provide ease during any event face-to-face, virtual or hybrid events. Using ingenuity, we provided a simple, creative solution for our client which enabled the attendees to listen to a very difficult protocol in their native language while ensuring a better understanding of the study.

Contact our team of experienced event planners to learn more about translation solutions for your virtual events.

Blog

MeetMTA: Carrie Hui, Global Experience Manager – Events

The Miller Tanner difference is our people. That’s why we want to introduce you to our team of superstars that brings our corporate meetings and events to life for our customers.

Today, we introduce you to Carrie Hui, Global Experience Manager – Events. Carrie, fluent in both Cantonese and Mandarin, is a highly-valued member of our Asia-Pacific team based in Hong Kong. She is always willing to take on new challenges to support the Global Experiences Team in delivering a successful outcome for our customers.

Blog

Life Sciences Meetings Mash-Up

We’ve curated a mash-up of some of our best blogs with tips for creating successful meetings in the life sciences industry. Use these strategies from the Miller Tanner Team to improve and maximize your meeting’s capabilities.

Investigator Meetings: Compliance Q & A

Miller Tanner Associates (MTA) Chief Compliance Officer Mary Long shares the challenges and best practices for addressing compliance when planning investigator meetings (IM). Read more.

How to Improve Investigator Meeting Engagement: A Case study

Case Study: How To Boost Investigator Training Engagement And Improve Event Management

Find out how Miller Tanner Associates partnered with our client to develop solutions to improve the training process for a more successful clinical trial. Read more.

Investigator Meetings: Maximize Your Training Strategy

Training, continuity in training messages, and documentation of training are all critical components of a successful clinical study. Learn how to maximize your training strategy. Read more.

Take the Guesswork Out of Your Medical Meeting

What Medical Event Attendees Want From Your Investigator Meeting

We survey every investigator meeting participant so that we can better meet your attendees’ expectations. Here are a few ways you can deliver an exceptional meeting to your medical professional attendees. Read more

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Meet MTA: Julie Hagan, Senior Global Experience Manager

The Miller Tanner difference is our people. That’s why we want to introduce you to our team of superstars that bring our corporate meetings and events to life for our clients. Today we introduce you to Senior Global Experience Manager Julie Hagan. With her extensive background in managing a variety of event types, along with her invaluable sense of humor, Julie makes event planning look like a walk in the park; however, behind the scenes, she is skillfully arranging each event’s staffing needs like a pro.

Meet Julie Hagan

Tell us about your current role with Miller Tanner Associates (MTA)? What are your primary responsibilities?

As a senior global experience manager, I work with an incredible team of global experience designers and specialists. One of my primary responsibilities is assigning our team members to our client meetings – both for face-to-face and virtual programs. Staffing is all about aligning our experienced planners with clients to create seamless experiences.

How long have you been with MTA? I have had the pleasure of working at MTA for the past 15 years.

What did you do before joining MTA?

The majority of work I did before joining MTA was in the non-profit sector. I had the opportunity to plan everything from incentive trips and advisory board meetings to international conventions and leadership trainings.

What’s the best part of your job?

The best part of my job is working alongside the amazing Miller Tanner Associates team members. We truly have the best humans on our team hands down.

What’s been your favorite event destination as an event planning professional?

Top favorites on my list for event destinations are Barcelona, Budapest, Berlin, Cape Town, Melbourne, and San Francisco!

What’s been your most memorable destination to date and why?

Athens, Greece was always on my bucket list and I’m so lucky that I was able to plan a meeting there. Being able to say I’ve touched the Parthenon is pretty cool. I never dreamed my job would create that opportunity, but it did!

Do you have a few great travel tips that you could share?

Dress comfortably, pack light and always carry an extra toothbrush.

What do you do for fun?

I love sports! I enjoy watching my Ole Miss Rebels, Tennessee Titans, and Nashville Predators. As of recent, I’ve even been seen clapping a time or two for my husband’s Georgia Bulldogs (shhh!).

What do you enjoy most about living in Tennessee?

I’m originally from a small town north of Nashville. I grew up in the same house where my great grandparents first lived. My parents still live in the same house and although the Barbie dolls and Def Leppard posters are gone, my room is always waiting for me when I go back.

I currently reside in Nashville and have to say, it is the best “small town, big city”. It’s known as Music City USA, Nashvegas, The Athens of the South, and Smashville – but I just call it HOME. I love it!

What’s your favorite aspect of MTA?

Our annual face-to-face MTA Workshop is my favorite. Once a year, our company has the chance to gather together to train, learn, and strengthen our professional skills. The outstanding spur-of-the-moment dance parties are pretty fun too. It has been awesome to watch our team grow year after year.

What makes Miller Tanner Associates stand out as a meeting planning company?

We are made up of a collective group of outstanding people that truly care about the experiences we create for our clients. At MTA there is always a time to foster learning, share a smile, and make an impact.

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10 Benefits of Paperless Meetings

paperless meetings benefits millertanner.com

10 Benefits of Paperless Meetings

Does the idea of paperless meetings sound daunting or liberating? Here are 10 convincing reasons to shred the paper and embrace the digital devices at your next meeting:

1. Mobile access from any device.

In the digital age, access from anywhere at any time has revolutionized how we work. Having all meeting documentation accessible on mobile devices creates a seamless experience for your attendees.

2. Reduce costs and save administrative time.

When you go paperless, you eliminate the costs associated with printing, ink, and mailing in addition to the administrative time involved.

3. Increase engagement.

By making documents and agendas available from any device, your attendees can prepare in advance and participate more effectively at your meeting.

4. Personalize event schedule with sessions and presentation details.

By digitizing your meeting, you can also personalize the attendees’ event schedule so that there’s no question where they need to be and when they need to be there. This is especially useful for breakout and/or departmental sessions.

5. Distribute real-time notifications.

Keep your meeting’s agenda running smoothly even when change occurs. Last-minute agenda updates and announcements can easily be sent to your attendees through electronic notifications.

6. Consolidate travel and event information in one location for easy access.

Not only can attendees quickly access all meeting details within one source but also all travel details to and from their meeting.

7. Aggregate meeting data automatically and instantly.

A digital dashboard generates more accurate insights into your meeting data giving you the ability to analyze and view metrics visually in real-time with no additional mental effort.

8. Ensure data security.

Sensitive information and digital documents can be easily tracked and managed in a secure portal.

9. Manage more effectively with less effort.

When you consider the amount of time and effort spent managing a meeting and its paper trail – from creating and distributing copies, organizing and filing, and protecting and shredding (for security purposes), it’s much more than you might realize. A digitized meeting frees up time to focus on more important matters like ensuring that your attendees are happy and engaged.

10. Reduce your meeting’s carbon footprint.

U.S. businesses use around 21 million tons of paper each year and discard enough to build a 12-foot wall from Los Angeles to New York City. You can have an impact on these staggering stats when you choose the environmentally-conscious paperless meeting option to reduce your paper waste.

Contact our team at Miller Tanner Associates to learn more about how you can plan a successful paperless meeting.

Frequently Asked Questions

In effort to help readers to summarize the information found within this post, we’ve recapitulated the article in question and answer form.

How is Mobile Access Beneficial for Paperless Meetings?

The ability to work from anywhere at any time has changed how we operate in the digital age. Having all meeting materials available on mobile devices ensures that your guests have a more-rounded and consistent experience.

Do Paperless Meetings Lower Costs & Save Admin Time?

When you go paperless, you save money on printing, ink, and shipping, as well as the time it takes to manage paperwork.

How Do Paperless Meetings Increase Engagement?

Your participants will be able to prepare in advance and engage more effectively during your meeting if papers and agendas are accessible from any device prior to the meeting date.

How Do Paperless Meetings Provide Enhanced Security?

With a secure gateway, sensitive data and digital documents may be readily monitored and better controlled.

What are Some Other Ways Paperless Meetings are Beneficial?

Instantly aggregating meeting data because a digital dashboard provides more accurate insights into your meeting data, allowing you to visually evaluate and see metrics in real time without exerting any extra mental effort. Furthermore, when you select for the ecologically friendly paperless meeting option to cut down on paper waste your meeting’s carbon footprint is drastically reduced.