Closing Keynote
Future State of the Industry
Tara Withington, EDI; Kristine Hillmer, Wisconsin Restaurant Association
Moderator: Bill Elliott
This panel discussion will highlight the trends and top initiatives that associations are focusing on, and where associations are heading. This session will include panelists from within an AMC, hotel industry, trade, and meetings.
Tara Withington, CAE, Executive Director, Inc.
Tara Withington is a principal and Vice President with Executive Director, Incorporated (EDI). a full-service association management firm. EDI specializes in the management of medical and scientific professional societies, foundations and certification boards and houses more than 40 such organizations and more than 300 employees in its headquarters based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
After serving many nonprofit organizations at the grassroots, local, state, and regional levels, Withington joined EDI in 1998 and became an EDI principal in 2003. She serves as a consulting partner or executive director emeritus to multiple healthcare and scientific related EDI clients. Tara also leads EDI’s Preferred Provider Network and EDI’s Communities of Practice. Tara has assisted associations in broadening and enhancing organizational missions and services, reducing expenses, increasing fund raising and developing strategic plans. She takes special interest in improving organizational processes, including bylaw clarification and infrastructure improvement. She also has a keen ability to forecast influences impacting associations and offers innovative ideas and an entrepreneurial mindset to positioning organizations to take advantage of opportunities.
Ms. Withington holds a degree in Business Management as well as the Certified Association Executive (CAE) designation.
Tara served as a member of the Board of Directors for the AMC Institute and is a member in good standing in the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE), where she currently serves as a member of the Foresight Advisory Task Force. She is also a member of the Wisconsin Society for Association Executives, who honored her in 2018 with the Association Leadership Award. She also serves as a National Scientific Advisory Board Member of the Melanoma Research Alliance.
She was also honored in 2020 by one of her clients, the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC), and received their inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award.
Kristine Hillmer, MBA, CAE
President & CEO
Wisconsin Restaurant Association and Wisconsin Restaurant Association Education Foundation
Kristine Hillmer is the President & CEO Wisconsin Restaurant Association and Wisconsin Restaurant Association Education Foundation, representing 7,000 restaurant locations across the state. Kristine has an MBA, has held the Certified Association Executive (CAE) credential for 27 years, and has more than 31 years of experience working with both trade associations and professional societies. Kristine currently serves as the incoming Chair for VISIT Milwaukee, is a Trustee on the National Restaurant Association Education Foundation’s Board of Trustees, is an Officer and Board member for the Council of State Restaurant Associations, is Chair of the Council of Retail Associations, and was WSAE Chair in 2011. Kristine was named a Milwaukee Business Journal Woman of Influence in 2022 and received the WSAE Visionary Award in 2020 and Association Leadership Award in 2016.
Connect with Kristine:
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Bill Elliott, CAE
President & CEO
Wisconsin Hotel & Lodging Association
Bill Elliott has served as President & CEO of the Wisconsin Hotel & Lodging Association (WHLA) since June of 2020. Bill also worked with WHLA from 2007 through 2011, when he served in various roles, primarily focusing on membership development, advertising programs, and operations.
During Bill’s tenure he has championed the effort to put $95 million in grant funding into the pockets of hotel and lodging property owners who were impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. He also played a role in repealing Wisconsin’s archaic personal property tax that unfairly targeted hotels throughout the state, and every two years he helps WHLA take a swing at getting an increase in the per diem rate for state employees who are traveling to Wisconsin hotels.
Bill strives to serve his community as well as professional organizations in both the lodging and association industries. He is the President of the Tourism Federation of Wisconsin, the 2nd Vice-Chair of the International Society of Hotel Associations, and the Secretary-Treasurer of the Wisconsin Society of Association Executives (WSAE).
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