At Miller Tanner Associates’ (MTA) 2024 Annual Global Workshop we recognize the distinguished associates who have gone above and beyond for our customers and each other during 2023. We celebrate the team with these five awards that are presented at our Global Workshop awards event:
- MTA Gift of Service Award
- MTA Saver Award
- MTA Theme of the Year Award
- MTA Story of the Year Award
- MTA Marnie Award
MTA MARNIE AWARD: Julian Yew
MTA’s Marnie Award is given by MTA’s CEO Marnie Miller Battistini to the person that she believes has impacted MTA the most during the year. The Marnie Award recipient/s embody the best of what MTA values and exemplifies. It’s a personal award seen from the CEO’s vantage point each year.
We are pleased to announce Director of Engineering, Technology Services, Julian Yew as the recipient of the 2023 Marnie Award! Julian has made remarkable progress over the past year as the leader within our Technology Services Team. He spearheaded several crucial projects, such as the registration rebuild, Attend native app development, data warehouse implementation, finance grid optimization, and many others. Julian’s dedication and expertise have played a pivotal role in achieving success for our entire team.
“Julian has impacted all of us and helped us with our work. His work has propelled us and I am so incredibly grateful,” shared CEO Marnie Battistini. “Julian has led MTA’s Software Development Team with an agile approach to software development that has proven not only successful but the direction the team has embraced. Because of Julian’s leadership, MTA has improved our customers’ and attendees’ event journeys while improving the MTA Team’s work. It’s amazing what Julian has been able to impact at MTA!”
MTA STORY OF THE YEAR AWARDS: Sarae Gdovin, Martin Woodard, Huajia Yu, Peace Obisesan, Carrie Hui, Jenny Decker and Conor Barry
We, at 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 with the Strategic Leadership Team (SLT) the stories we may not have heard that happened at MTA throughout the year. We ask them to brag about themselves, another associate or something that happened that needs to be shared. Then we share the stories at our annual Workshop.
We are pleased to present the 2023 Story of the Year Award to the following: Global Experience Designer Sarae Gdovin; Technology Operations Manager Martin Woodard; Global Experience Success Manager Huajia Yu; Global Experience Designer Peace Obisesan; Global Experience Manager Carrie Hui; Global Experience Manager Jenny Decker; and Senior Director, Customer Experiences Conor Barry.
MTA embarked on a remarkable journey to launch an electronic check-in system and digital signature solution for our customers. This workstream transformed our guest experience by leveraging cutting-edge technology resulting in a technology-centric event experience that benefited guests, customers, and the onsite event team, reinforcing the MTA commitment to connection and collaboration.
“I am immensely proud of what this team has achieved together. This success story is a testament to our collective hard work, dedication, and innovative spirit,” shared Director, Global Experiences Kristin Puryear who nominated the team for the award.
“This group proved MTA’s long-held belief that event technology should be used in the event space to not only improve the attendee event journey but also for the collection of accurate event data. Accurately capturing who attended our customers’ events with the ability to then accurately report on this information is the foundation to basic reporting which MTA builds upon in telling our customers’ event behavioral stories,” shared CEO Marnie Miller Battistini.
“PARTNERSHIP” MTA THEME OF THE YEAR AWARDS: Lauren Stagner and Johnny Leake
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.
Congratulations to Global Experience Designer Lauren Stagner and Global Experience Manager – Production Johnny Leake winners of MTA’s 2023 theme of the year – “Partnership”.
Lauren was recognized for her pivotal role in providing continuity between planning and on-site experience for a complex global event. Johnny was recognized for his flawless production delivery for this large-scale event and expert management of the breakout setups and speakers’ requests.
“This story is one of overcoming seemingly insurmountable odds all while exemplifying every single MTA core value and showing more of the world just how powerful the MTA magic can be,” shared Director, Global Experiences Christina Serra who nominated Lauren and Johnny for this award.
“By partnering together, Lauren and Johnny combined their skills to create an exceptional event that was lauded by MTA’s customers and co-workers alike,” praised MTA CEO Marnie Miller Battistini.
MTA SAVER AWARDS: Melanie Riddick and Jon Shipman
The MTA 2023 Saver Award recognizes the MTA team members for their exceptional ability to save time, effort, and resources for our customers and the MTA team.
Congratulations to Director of Accounting Operations Melanie Riddick and Senior Software Engineer Jon Shipman!
Jon and Melanie were recognized for their work in improving efficiency and productivity. Melanie outlined an expense reimbursement challenge and Jon led the MTA Software Development Team in designing and implementing the technology solution.
At the awards show, MTA’s CEO Marnie Miller Battistini shared the story that resulted in improving the finance dashboard within MTA’s proprietary system, Event Planner in Control (EPIC).
Melanie’s team had outlined the expense reimbursement challenge and they were patiently waiting for the solution that Jon and his team resolved. “I was very impressed with how they worked together to create a solution that will save reimbursement processing time,” shared CEO Marnie Miller Battistini. “They worked to improve the communication flow, to better visualize the expenses, and developed automation making their jobs much easier. Bravo!”
MTA GIFT OF SERVICE AWARD: Logan White, Diana Reed, Kristin Puryear, and Heather Cheng
CEO Marnie Miller Battistini; Director, Global Experiences Kristin Puryear; and Senior Director, Business Experiences Heather Cheng
The Gift of Service Award recognizes associates who exemplify MTA’s core values by providing exceptional service to both customers and their fellow team members. We are pleased to announce the 2023 award recipients are:
Manager, Customer Success Logan White; Director, Key Accounts and Customer Success Diana Reed; Director, Global Experiences Kristin Puryear; and Senior Director, Business Experiences Heather Cheng.
In response to challenges faced in managing timelines effectively, these team members worked to develop an innovative new tool to bridge the gap for crucial milestones, providing clarity, efficiency, and improved decision-making in the event planning process. This gift of service to our customers made a significant impact over the past year.
“With the implementation of this tool, MTA is poised to overcome longstanding challenges, streamline workflows, and achieve greater success in managing events effectively. This innovative solution exemplifies the power of collaboration and innovation in solving complex business challenges,” shared Senior Director, Customer Experiences Conor Barry, who nominated this team for this award.
“Logan, Diana, Kristin, and Heather looked at a challenge and using their collective strengths collaborated on developing a new MTA tool that made a substantial difference in managing event timelines,” shared MTA CEO Marnie Miller Battistini. “Their work not only positively impacted our customers’ event timelines but also impacted our internal team’s success. Inspirational!”
