6C Hotels Latin America, PCMA Launch Alliance

MIAMI— Six Continents Hotels Latin America and the Professional Convention Management Association (PCMA), have launched an educational alliance that aims to increase the abilities of meeting managers in Latin America to plan and execute more effective meetings, according to executives. The three-year alliance, effective through 2004, includes a broad range of initiatives designed to modernize the mechanics of meeting management in Central and South America. The alliance will include: Development of training materials in Spanish and Portuguese; The development of a training curriculum specifically for the region; Training sessions in key cities throughout Latin America; The development of Latin America-specific meeting manager certification programs. The alliance will allow Six Continents Hotels to further facilitate the industry’s growth in Latin America. “We view this as a watershed moment for the meetings industry in Latin America,” said Jorge Mejia, vp/sales and marketing, Latin America, for Six Continents Hotels. The first stage of the alliance will be the development of training manuals in Spanish and Portuguese, a process which has already begun. Shortly afterwards, regional training sessions will be calendared, along with the appointment of a PCMA-trained, multilingual meeting planner who will be traveling throughout the region conducting sessions at Six Continents Hotels.