Dear ESCA Members,

I admit it, I have made mistakes. At least one that I recall not so fondly. Very early in my career in the live events industry I took a great risk promoting a concert that ended up performing badly in every way; from ticket sales to intoxicated performers; the event was an abject failure. This resulted in financial loses for my employer as well as major blow to my confidence as new manager.

However, out of the ashes of this dumpster fire grew valuable knowledge, experience and wisdom that has led to many successes. This was only possible because industry veterans took the time to mentor me and make sure that I learned valuable lessons from my failures. In fact, under any different circumstances I could have been fired and perhaps rightfully so, but my mentors viewed this as an opportunity and convinced me to do the same. I relied on several mentors during my early years that took a sincere interest in my success without any self-interest, other than wanting to give back to an industry where they had been given so much. Through these mentoring relationships I developed a greater ability to analyze risk in new opportunities, I learned how to negotiate better deals, and I learned when to walk away from a venture. How grateful I remain for these individuals and the role they played in my career and my life. I can still hear them today calling me "young Neil" and then imparting their wisdom wrought from years of experience and often from their own failures and successes.

I believe today more than ever there is a need for strong mentoring in the trade show and live events industry. In the absence of strong institutional education programs, feeding new talent into the general service provider side of the industry should be a top priority for all of us. We face an aging workforce and a vast potential gap to fill over the next decade when many industry veterans and leaders will want to retire. With this in mind it is more important than ever to take the next generation under our wings, to groom them, to impart knowledge and to give them the opportunity to grow from their own mistakes.

We have ahead of us a a great opportunity we have to take full advantage of our membership in ESCA to help us accomplish this very thing at the Summer Educational Conference (SEC). This year's conference in Vail, CO is shaping up to be another home run with compelling educational content as well as numerous networking and relationship building activities. What a great opportunity to bring a young manager from your organization to the SEC and start the mentoring process or enhance existing efforts.

I'd like to invite each Official Service Provider and all other Industry Service Providers alike to consider bringing one new person to the SEC who you've identified as a potential future leader in your organization. At the SEC these young professionals will have an opportunity to learn from the best of the industry which, as it did for me, may benefit them for the rest of their careers.

Thank you for considering!

Neil McMullin

ESCA Treasurer

VP of Shared Services

Fern