Mary Ann Pierce, Founder and CEO, MAP Digital, Inc.
I am the founder and CEO of MAP Digital, Inc, the only integrate enterprise event SaaS platform combined with a proven onsite and online event design and engineering agency. For over 20 years, we have deployed our priority MetaMeetings platform to scale and produce in-person and virtual conferences. We just completed a virtual event with 630 live sessions that was slated less than a month before to be an in-person investment conference.
At MAP Digital, we help our clients transform their conferences into strategic business channels and are excited to explore the vast opportunities of the cloud-enabled events-as-community era. Through our MetaMeetings® platform, we repurpose an event’s content to fuel the ongoing event engagement around what we call community “campfires.” While I have a background in direct marketing and corporate communications, it is my film, theatre and fine art experience that guides our digital communications exploration. In fact, many of the MAP team have had careers in the arts.
At MAP Digital giving back is fundamental. We use our MetaMeetings platform for social good. Our pro-bono clients are the Global Summit of Women, the Equality Moonshot, WATCH Media (#WeAreTheCHange), a GenZ news program produced with graduates of the Newhouse School of Communications at Syracuse University, and Force for Good, CEOs in financial services who are funding sustainability. I am the Global Advisor for Awaken Hub, the first all-Ireland accelerator of women entrepreneurs. For six years, I served as a board member for Digital Irish and have been an advisor for the MIT Enterprise Forum NYC and Inspirefest in Dublin. I taught digital event design at New York University and have been a speaker at many DEI events, including the Global Summit of Women and Empowering Women & Girls 2030 Summit at the UN, as well as the event industry's IMEX, PCMA, MPI conferences.
MAP Digital is certified by the Women's Business Enterprise National Conference and Made in NY®. In 2020 "Meetings Today" named me a Trendsetter. They write: "For over 20 years, Pierce has organized hybrid events for clients and is now generously sharing what she has learned with planners and suppliers and showing the events industry the way forward."
In 2017, "Meetings & Conventions Magazine" named me as one of The Top 25 Women in the Meetings Industry, noting that "Pierce is ahead of the curve, as the rest of the industry now embraces data capture and analytics; as the next frontier."
What is your favourite social media platform, and why?
LinkedIn. It is a wonderful networking and content marketing platform. It has been very effective for MAP Digital, especially when our posts have video and a targeted spend.
Tell us about you and your current role or area of interest.
As CEO of MAP Digital, Inc., a mature digital events agency, my responsibilities are no longer overseeing our platform development, onsite deployment or operations. Instead, I am now positioning MAP Digital as an Enterprise Software-as-a-Service for the Fortune 1000 corporations and raising capital for our growth.
What do you like about your career or area of focus?
I am really enjoying working with our clients to provide "long tail" value and new audiences by amplifying their conference video content over social media to build communities of interest. We are transforming conferences into content marketing engines to sell more products, services and to promote social good like the work that we do for the Global Summit of Women, Equality Moonshot and Force for Good.
What is the best advice you have ever received?
"Where you look is where you go." from a driving instructor.
“Always tell the truth. It’s the easiest thing to remember.” - David Mamet from "Glengarry Glen Ross" - a former board chair.
What inspires you, motivates you, or helps you to move forward?
I was born curious and want to build the Global Village to share information that will make our world better. My passion is to encourage women to build SDG tech solutions, and by doing so, build wealth. This is the Equality Moonshot.
What are you proud of in your life so far?
I am very proud of fostering our formidable MAP Digital team. They are the secret to my success. When I started my company, I vowed to make sure that our culture was human-centred and that we provided the process and the tools to make our team masterful.
What is your preferred way to meet new people/network?
I love meeting people in person and finding out what makes them tick. I should have been a reporter. But, meeting people online is good too. I have enjoyed speed networking in Zoom breakouts.
What skills or qualities do you feel have helped you?
I can see macro and micro clearly. Sometimes, I am too ahead of the curve. My challenge has been to communicate more simply. I love solving problems and having a firm foundation in the arts has been a great source of inspiration, critical thinking, and process planning.
What do you wish you had known when you started out?
Not to be afraid. Be bolder and take more risks. Also, kindness is the way to win. So, keep away from the unkind people. Say a prayer from them and run like the wind.
Who do you most admire in business, academic or creative circles and why?
My patron saints are Marshall McLuhan, Buckminster Fuller and Patti Smith. I admire the artist, the outsider, the critical thinker and the rebel. We need cognitive diversity to build a better future. If they can sing, even better.
Outside of your professional/work area, what hobbies or interests do you have or what other areas of your life are of real importance to you?
I love the sea, travel, cooking and gardening. I study ancient religions and myths. Currently, I am in Ireland and visiting Brigid’s sacred sites. We need to walk the land every now and again to connect with the universal
Has the pandemic had a positive or a negative effect on you and/or your business, and how have you managed it?
MAP Digital’s business exploded overnight. Without missing a beat, our MetaMeetings platform enabled us to go virtual. Our clients did not cancel one event. We are producing events in all time zones - sometimes multiple events a day. Our team works from their homes on their kitchen tables, in their garages or bedrooms. They are were extremely productive. However, after two years, we really miss working onsite together.
We were able to manage our explosive growth because MAP Digital has 20 years of expertise in producing digital events. We have the team and the process to train new technicians quickly, and our MetaMeetings platform is robust and secure. As we enter 2022 we expect that many of our events will be planned as in-person, but will need to revert to virtual. We just transformed the largest investment banking conference from an in-person in San Francisco to a virtual one in only in three weeks. Thank goodness we had not shipped the equipment to the hotel.
Do you have a mentor, or have you ever mentored anyone?
I have had a number of mentors at various times in my career. So, naturally, I seek advice and consider it well. I have mentored many young women and men, especially in the organizations where I have served on the board. Also, we look to mold the job responsibility to our MAP team member’s strengths. So, we will change the job to keep the person.
What advice would you have for someone looking to get into the same area of work or interests?
Network and be informed of what is going on in the industry. Show up, intern, join an association and volunteer your expertise to non-profits who usually have interesting challenges and influential board members. Make friends and give of yourself. Everyone wants a doer on their team.
What do you feel is the most common reason for people failing or giving up?
They focus on the job and not on their development. Jobs are only part of life. Keep your creativity alive and foster good relationships. Do not define yourself by your job. Also, life is not a straight line. It meanders. Enjoy the ride. Opportunity comes to those who are fully engaged in life.
Is there a phrase, quote or a saying that you really like?
"Enjoy every sandwich." - Warren Zevon said this just before he died.
What companies, brands, or institutions do you like or do you think are getting it right?
Microsoft, Satya Nadella, Salesforce, Marc Benioff, Whitney Wolfe Herd, Bumble, Jacinda Arden, PM, New Zealand, MacKensie Scott, Seeding by Ceding, and Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission.
How do you define success, and what lessons have you learned so far that you could share with our audience/readership?
Success is where your client and your entire team cross the finish line together. Partnership, teamwork and being prepared will help you to exceed your expectations... and then you celebrate together. There is no better feeling in the world.