“Human connection has been challenged. We're here to strengthen it through our association and event work”.
- Mary Adams, CMP
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ECG culminates creativity and business acumen to effectively manage B2B associations and events. We support non-profit organizations and firms by setting objectives, developing strategy, seamlessly executing on our plan, and measuring success. We cultivate inclusive organizational cultures and connective events to improve the business communities in which we work.
What we do:
Association Management
Our support ranges from providing complete organizational infrastructure to augmenting internal staff. We provide smart, efficient resources to fulfill the mission, engage stakeholders and to ensure longevity. Our model provides association clients flexibility to work with us consultatively and tactically.
Strategic Meeting Planning & Execution
ECG’s strategic focus for meeting planning enables us to engage key stakeholders, understand and leverage various points of impact on your organization. Based on the extent of your needs, we provide end-to-end seamless execution of meetings, conferences and events to provide an elevated attendee and host experience.
Simply put, our approach to working together is collaborative and fun.
What's New
ECG Announces New
Chief Operating Officer
John Bluemke joins ECG May 16, 2022
RIDGEWOOD, NJ May 16—] ECG today announced the appointment of John Bluemke as chief operating officer effective immediately. Mr. Bluemke is an accomplished financial industry veteran, who has served in multiple capacities throughout his career, allowing him to bring a broad range of skills and a depth of understanding to his new role at ECG.
About:
Mary Adams, CMP, CEO
Mary is the founder and CEO of ECG, a full-service firm that handles meetings, events, and association management for a diverse range of clients in a number of different industries. As a recognized leader in meetings and association management, Mary received certification for Virtual Event & Meeting Management and Pandemic Meeting & Event Design from the Event Leadership Institute.
With nearly two decades of experience as a Certified Meeting Professional (CMP), Mary’s expertise includes a focus on financial services association and event management, marketing, and communications.
Prior to launching ECG, Mary worked for three years as a professional sales representative for Merck & Co. Before that, she produced conferences and established the Life Sciences division of Worldwide Business Research. Earlier in her career, she managed sales and marketing for an automotive engineering company in Cleveland, Ohio.
Mary earned her MBA from Fordham University, where she graduated with honors from Beta Gamma Sigma, American Marketing Association, and Phi Kappa Phi. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. She is a board member and membership chair of her synagogue. Mary enjoys running, golfing, and playing sports with her son.
Laura Howe, CMP, Meetings Manager
John Bluemke, COO
John joined ECG in 2022 as COO. He oversees organizational operations, collaborates on ECG’s vision, strategy and manages client accounts. John is instrumental in analyzing data trends and improving the firm’s overall efficiency.
John has more than two decades of experience in executive and financial analysis roles. Most recently, John was a portfolio manager for Insights Investment’s multi-strategy team. Prior to Insight’s acquisition of Cutwater Asset Management in 2015, John helped spearhead Cutwaters’ initial efforts within the bank loan space after he was brought on as part of a team to launch a collateralized loan obligation (“CLO”) business in 2013. The team successfully launched three CLO’s prior to Insight’s acquisition of Cutwater.
Previously, he was a director with Standard & Poor’s Corporate & Government Ratings Group covering the healthcare industry. Prior to Standard & Poor’s, John was an associate in the credit research team at CIFC Asset Management, after joining the firm at its inception. He began his career at Goldman Sachs & Co. in the Real Estate Principal Investment area.
John holds an MBA from the Stern School of Business at New York University and a BBA in Finance from Pace University.
Kelsey Peake, Project Manager
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Laura is a Certified Meeting Professional (CMP) with more than 15 years in event management. Adept at wearing multiple hats, Laura is resourceful and efficient. She responds quickly and creatively to find solutions to overcome any challenge. She has planned and coordinated a wide variety of corporate and social events for Fortune 500 companies, national associations, and international clients.
Prior to joining ECG, Laura worked for Platts, a division of McGraw-Hill Financial (now S&P Global). There, she led North America Conference Operations and was later responsible for Global Event Operations.
Laura graduated from the University of New Hampshire with a Bachelor's degree in Recreation Management and Policy. She also holds an Event Management certification from The George Washington University.
Kelsey brings more than 10 years of Event, Office and Project Management to ECG. She specializes in General Operations and Marketing. Kelsey has robust experience with systems implementation, managing websites, and creating marketing campaigns including and not limited to paid ads, organic social media, blogs and email marketing.
Prior to joining ECG, Kelsey worked with RETO Media where she held dual positions of Office and Production Management for a variety of Non-Profit clients and residential real estate marketing. She oversaw a team of ten subcontractors and employees to ensure timely delivery of all video, photo, and website assets. She has also served as a consultant for media agencies such as Digistar Marketing and Woodrow Agency.
Her professional philosophy is that competence holds equal importance to a positive outlook. She is committed to building trust with clients through being deadline oriented and having strong personal rapport. Kelsey holds Certificates in Field and Studio Video Production through Open Signal in Portland, Oregon. She is currently completing a Project Management Certificate Program with PSU.
Patrick De Meulder, Associate
Patrick is a current student at Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business. He began at ECG as an intern and has since moved into an administrator role. In this position, he assists with both internal projects and tangible outputs for clients. Skilled in research, communications, and operations, Patrick brings a unique skill-set and perspective to projects. He is majoring in Business Administration and minoring in Economics at Georgetown.
Partial List of Clients
