Grass Roots Meetings & Events US appoints new MD

Grass Roots Meetings & Events US has appointed a new managing director and head of Americas for the Meetings & Events Division. Howard Givner (pictured) took up his position on 31 January and has 25 years of industry experience. He was founder and executive director of the Event Leadership Institute and also founded event agency Paint The Town Red, Inc.  Givner created the award-winning mobile app Super Planner, and was the co-creator of the Event Innovation Forum, a TED-style conference for industry leaders. In his new role, Givner will be leading the growth of the company and the team in its New York office. On his appointment, Givner comments: “I had the pleasure of facilitating a two-day management offsite for the Grass Roots team and instantly clicked. I felt there was tremendous potential for this business here, to build on the great work they’ve already done with their amazing clients. When the opportunity to lead the team came up, it was a natural fit. One of the things I’m most excited about is to bring a Big Data approach to the trove of analytics generated by the company, and leverage that on behalf of our clients. This will allow us to uncover trends to provide detailed, but easy to digest, analysis that can be used to drive efficiencies, cost savings, and improvements in ROI.  We’re at a very interesting point in the industry. The pace of change is only getting faster, and this offers an opportunity for industry professionals to truly prove value in properly identifying these developments, and advising their clients and stakeholders accordingly.” David Taylor, MD of Grass Roots Meetings & Events, comments: “Howard brings a deep knowledge of the industry and I look forward to seeing the impact his ideas and experience will have in both the short and long term. This is an exciting time for Grass Roots’ M&E team. There will be changes ahead that will allow us to use our market leading position to invigorate the M&E category as a whole.”