When top producers get together around the world every year, there is the must-attend conferences they can participate in, and then there are the afterparties.
This June, Canadian members of the Million Dollar Round Table (MDRT) are hosting their sixth Destination Canada party, spearheaded by president and owner of Braley Financial Advisors, Herb Braley. The unofficial event – not part of the MDRT conference itself – is taking place at Bowie’s Nashville, on Sunday, June 25, 2023.
An MDRT member for 22 year, this year’s conference is taking place in the same city where Braley experienced his first MDRT conference.
“In my early years of my membership in the club, I experienced some really great networking and social events that were orchestrated by the British, Irish and Aussie chapters of our membership. These are always unofficial events,” he says. When it was discovered that the MDRT was coming to Toronto in 2008, Braley held the first Destination Canada party at the Courthouse, featuring Rock and Roll Hall of Fame members, Cirque du Soleil performers and Second City comedians. In Vancouver in 2010, Toronto in 2014 and in Vancouver again in 2016 Braley has thrown parties. He expanded into the United States in 2019 when the conference was held in Miami.
Although he held off throwing a party in Boston last year, when he rightly guessed that the numbers of people attending would be muted following the pandemic’s lockdown years, he said throwing a party in 2023 was a no-brainer once he found out that the conference would be held in Nashville.
“I’ve always found that the best networking happens when a knife and a fork in front of you, or a glass. If you throw some music and good food and drink into the equation, that’s when all the great tips and tricks are shared, and friends are made. I haven’t been wrong,” he adds, saying many MDRT members he’s met through these networking events have become friends for life.
“These top performers who get to go to conferences like Million Dollar Round Table, they’re the only people in the world, really, that fellow professionals or colleagues can relate to. It’s really hard for anybody else to understand the challenges, unless you’re in it,” he adds. “It’s not entirely easy to be a member. What I’ve found is once somebody qualifies, and they experience a meeting and get to spend time with other members, they just never miss a meeting and they never, ever leave the club.” Attending the conference is a must. For many also, the afterparty hosted by Canada is a can’t-miss event.
In the past Braley says the party has been supported with ticket sales and insurance company sponsorships. This year the party is being paid for by long time Canadian attendees, with some additional sponsorship. “The newer Canadian members, they don’t know about these events. They’re going to be our guests. And people from other countries, we would never make them pay because we want them to be our guests.”