At Miller Tanner Associates’ (MTA) 2025 Annual Global Workshop, we recognize the distinguished associates who have gone above and beyond for our customers and for each other during 2024. We recognize these team members with these five awards that are presented at our Annual Workshop.
- MTA Gift of Service Award
- MTA Saver Award
- MTA Theme of the Year Award
- MTA Story of the Year Award
- MTA Marnie Award
MTA STORY OF THE YEAR AWARD: Jesse Torres, Solutions Architect, Technology Services
Miller Tanner Associates are storytellers. We tell stories through our events, through our products, and through the various acts of kindness the MTA global team performs each day. Every year, we ask the MTA team to share their stories of the past year’s challenges, successes, and accomplishments.
We are pleased to present the 2024 Story of the Year award to Jesse Torres, Solutions Architect. Jesse’s work on the travel importer stands out as a remarkable achievement, as an AI-driven application. Despite initial setbacks with the original platform, Jesse demonstrated impressive perseverance by rebuilding the solution from scratch on a new platform. This involved mastering multiple AI libraries and services to accurately analyze travel documents—identifying language, time zones, and traveler details—all while managing costs effectively to keep expenses down. His engineering expertise saved countless hours of manual work, freeing up the team to focus on more meaningful tasks.
Beyond its technical success, Jesse’s project opened unexpected doors for MTA as subject matter experts. The collaboration led to high-profile opportunities with BOX, resulting in an hour-long fireside chat featuring Jesse and colleagues, with prominent exposure on Box’s website seen by thousands. This combination of solid engineering skill and strategic visibility showcased Jesse’s contribution not only as a technical triumph but also as a thought leader in the event technology industry. Congratulations to Jesse for this outstanding accomplishment.
“CONNECT” – MTA THEME OF THE YEAR AWARD: Tanya Semenova, Global Experience Specialist – Events
Each year, MTA creates a theme for the year. We believe that a theme sets the tone, provides the direction, and allows the team to focus on a central theme for one calendar year. This year’s theme was “Connect”.
Congratulations to Global Experience Specialist – Events Tanya Semenova, recipient of MTA’s 2024 Theme of the Year Award – “Connect”.
Tanya has emerged as an exceptional and quietly powerful leader within our team over the past year. She has pioneered innovative approaches not only in MTA’s core operating model but also in complex event categories like congress/conference. Tanya quickly mastered connecting various third-party systems, streamlining the entire event infrastructure—from invites and registration to data and logistics management—to create seamless, best-in-class experiences for our customers. Her ability to rapidly find fresh, thoughtful solutions has ensured every event’s success, particularly with congresses.
Tanya transformed a previously underperforming system by embracing feedback and delivering outstanding service with remarkable speed and precision. Over the past year, she’s become an expert, providing white-glove service to our customers. The team praises her as a force of pure excellence with an intuitive understanding of customer needs. For these reasons, we are proud to award Tanya the MTA Theme of the Year – “Connect”.
MTA SAVER AWARD: Taylor Tomlinson, Director, Proposals
The MTA 2024 Saver Award recognizes the MTA team member for their exceptional ability to save time, effort and/or resources for our customers and the MTA Team.
Congratulations to Director – Proposals, Taylor Tomlinson, recipient of the MTA Saver Award. Taylor has demonstrated exceptional leadership and dedication over the past year in transforming MTA’s budgeting process through the successful implementation of CPQ solutions. Taking on a highly complex budget tool, Taylor worked closely with our partner to manage and automate quality control processes and establish standards that significantly reduced human error. Through clear communication and strong collaboration across departments, Taylor ensured that the new budgeting tool met the diverse needs of all user groups.
Beyond improving efficiency and accuracy, Taylor’s work integrated CPQ to automate project creation, saving substantial time and effort. The enhanced system now provides valuable insights into product-level usage that were previously unavailable. Additionally, she led a major enhancement earlier this year to improve the budgeting interface for customers in partnership with Global Experiences. Overall, her visionary leadership has not only modernized a critical business process but also delivered lasting benefits across multiple teams and functions.
MTA GIFT OF SERVICE AWARD: Kimberly Fiscus, Sr. Global Experience Specialist – Events
The Gift of Service Award recognizes associates who exemplify MTA’s core values by providing exceptional service to both customers and to their fellow team members.
Congratulations to Sr. Global Experience Specialist – Events Kimberly Fiscus, this year’s MTA Gift of Service Award recipient. She is widely recognized for her quiet strength, strategic mindset, and steady, deliberate approach to leadership. Her curiosity drives a deep understanding of complex challenges both professionally and personally. Known as a natural innovator, she consistently seeks smarter and more inclusive ways to share knowledge, build systems, and foster connections. Her ability to transform big ideas into actionable processes has had a clear and lasting impact on the team’s success.
Through her work—whether leading complex customer experiences or creating resources that empower others—she demonstrates precision, care, and an unwavering commitment to excellence. She adapts gracefully, serves with humility, and leads with intention, setting the foundation for exceptional customer service. Colleagues have noted that Kimberly has made “MTA magic visible,” making her a truly deserving recipient of this year’s Gift of Service Award.
