Media in Minutes
Media in Minutes podcast features in-depth interviews with those who report on the world around us. They share everything from their favorite stories to what happened behind the lens and give us a glimpse into their world. With host Angela Tuell, this podcast is published every other week. Connect with us on Facebook @CommunicationsRedefined; Twitter @CommRedefined and Instagram @CommRedefined. To learn more, visit www.communicationsredefined.com. #PR, #Public Relations, #Media, #Journalists, #Interviews, #Travel, #Marketing, #Communications
Media in Minutes
Inside The Meetings Industry With Veteran Journalist Sarah Braley
Stories change the way we work, but meetings change what we do next. That belief runs through our conversation with Sarah Braley (aka Sally), managing editor at Northstar Meetings Group and a veteran journalist whose passport and notebook have shaped how planners think about destinations, incentives and experience design. We trace Sally's path from early magazine days to becoming a trusted voice at Meetings & Conventions and Incentive, and we explore how the shift from monthly issues to daily digital reporting transformed the job—and the industry.
Sally breaks down why experience design matters more than ever, offering practical ways to build programs that engage attention, respect budgets and deliver outcomes attendees can use. We dive into inclusive F&B strategies, from allergy-aware registration to vegetarian-first menus that improve quality and reduce waste. She also makes a compelling case for rethinking destination strategy: while mega-conventions draw headlines, most gatherings host under 100 people, and smaller cities like Burlington, Toledo and Knoxville can deliver outsized impact with walkability, character, and value. For incentive travel, bucket list markets such as Australia and New Zealand still shine when authenticity and access are thoughtfully planned.
If you work in PR, you’ll get clear guidance on what makes a pitch land: B2B relevance, access to the planner, strong visuals and a crisp angle that helps readers do their jobs better. And for editors and planners alike, Sally’s on-the-ground role at Northstar events offers a rare view into how content, logistics and attendee experience feed each other.
Through downturns and disruption, one truth remains: when the world shifts, people meet to solve problems. Join us to hear what’s new, what works and what’s next for meetings, conventions and incentives—and how to tell better stories about all three. If this conversation helped you think differently about events, subscribe, share with a colleague, and leave a quick review so others can find the show.
You can connect with Sally via email at
Please take a moment to rate, review and subscribe to the Media in Minutes podcast here or anywhere you get your podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/media-in-minutes/id1555710662
Welcome to Media in Minutes. This is your host, Angela Toole. This podcast features in-depth interviews with those who report on the world around us. They share everything from their favorite stories to what happened behind the lens and give us a glimpse into their world. From our studio here at Communications Redefined, this is Media in Minutes. Today we're talking with Sarah Braylee, also known as Sally, managing editor of North Star Meetings Group, where she spent the past three decades covering nearly every facet of the meetings and events industry. Sally began her journalism career at New Jersey Monthly before joining Meetings and Conventions magazine in the 1990s. Today she oversees both print and digital content for MNC and incentives and has become a go-to voice for destination reporting and industry trends. In addition to shepherding editorial productions, Sally is a seasoned webcast moderator and continues to cover a wide geographic beat, including Texas, the Rocky Mountains, the Pacific Northwest, Australia, and New Zealand. Over her career, her assignments have taken her around the world from Europe and Africa to remote corners of the US, always with a journalist's eye for what makes a destination or trend matter to meeting professionals. Hello, Sally.
SPEAKER_01:Hello, Angela.
SPEAKER_00:How are you doing?
SPEAKER_01:I'm well, thank you. Thank you for having me.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, thank you. I am I'm very excited to talk with you. You've spent more than 30 years in journalism, and you're so young, you know.
SPEAKER_01:Actually, I'm in journalism, it's like 40 years. 31 at this job. Yes.
SPEAKER_00:In the meetings industry. So can you take us back to the beginning? What drew you to journalism and and how did your path lead you to where you are today?
SPEAKER_01:Well, you know, I was always a good writer. Yeah, in high school, I had no problem with that. So uh when I got to college, I thought, oh, I'll do English because that's what I like. But I took a a course, a journalism 101 course in my freshman year, and I thought, I like this better. So uh I was at the University of Massachusetts. I switched my major almost right away and um and graduated there with a degree in journalism, but I had never uh done anything. You know, I had never worked for the school paper, I had never freelanced for something else, so I didn't have any experience and nobody wanted to hire me. And so I waitressed like the rest of the world and sent out my uh a whole bunch of uh uh applications to graduate schools, and I got into a bunch of them and uh gratefully Northwestern gave me money and uh some scholarship money and some loans, and I went there. Um, it was really a you know, it was a year program and it was great, and I got my master's and somebody in my uh in my class knew the guy who was the editor of New Jersey Monthly, which was my first real job, and um and he hired me. So that's how it started.
SPEAKER_00:Just like a lot of industries, but I feel like journalism, especially, is who you know, you know, and that's how you that's how you get the job, right? And then how well you do as well. It's not it's not just you, you know, but you have to perform after. So I don't know if you remember back that far, but what kinds of stories were you covering then? And you know, maybe it's just me that doesn't have the memory.
SPEAKER_01:I started out uh compiling the calendar for for the magazine, and then uh that sort of morphed into covering a lot of arts things, you know, uh getting to know the um like the symphony and and various theaters and things like that. But I also traveled around the state quite a bit and wrote a bunch of things that had to do with where to do what, in and I also did some travel uh pieces. I went to Hawaii for North for New Jersey Monthly.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, nice.
SPEAKER_01:I did a bike trip in Virginia through uh the Shenandoah Valley, and that was for the MAG. And so that was that was just how I got into uh knowing I liked writing about travel, but I I didn't really pursue that in on purpose.
SPEAKER_00:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:Um you lucked out almost. I left I lucked out big time. I left New Jersey Monthly uh after eight years because it was I don't know, it just wasn't doing it for me anymore. So I I tried to freelance for a while and realized I was really terrible at it. Uh and I I at the time I left New Jersey Monthly, I was the managing editor. Okay. Wow. And so I already had that under my belt. I took a temporary job uh for interior design mag, um, L ID. And I did that while somebody was on uh baby leave. So I managing edited them for three months. Um, they were a Connors book. You know, there's all these little ins and outs of things like that, of uh, as you were saying, who you know and who your book is related to and things like that. Um and then, you know, I started throwing my resume around, and the woman who used to be the dining critic for New Jersey Monthly called me up and said, I heard of this job that I think maybe you'd be good for. I know you're looking for a job. And so I was already looking at two other jobs and uh trying to weigh the benefits of them, and slotted this one in, and and that was for meetings and conventions. And I had already heard of a different meetings book called Successful Meetings, which we now own. Um and uh I had heard of that because I had used a writer at New Jersey Monthly, who also was a writer for successful meetings, and uh, and so I kind of knew what the the book was about. And then I so I went in for my interview, and the guy said, Well, you're gonna have to travel six to seven times a year. And I my thought was that's a problem for whom.
SPEAKER_00:Right, that's amazing. Job perk.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, exactly. So I started out as senior editor and really just kept that title forever until um, I guess it's about five or six years ago now I became managing editor. But the job just morphed so much through the years that it it never felt like I was doing the same old, same old job.
SPEAKER_00:So yeah, I would love you to talk about that a little bit. So, you know, in that time, how have things changed?
SPEAKER_01:Our jobs have sort of opened up in a lot of ways as the magazines got more and more digital and more and more immediate. It was funny, once the internet came around and we started writing stuff every day instead of writing stuff just monthly. I I used to joke that I didn't I didn't plan to be a daily reporter. Um, but that's what we kind of turned into.
SPEAKER_00:Every journalist. Yeah, no matter what.
SPEAKER_01:Suddenly everything was of the moment, everything was urgent. And uh and that was really kind of an that was quite a big change actually for us. Um, but also the shortened deadlines for the magazine as well. You know, once upon a time we we finished the magazine a month before it went to press. And so you finished the October issue at the at the beginning of September. Uh and now, of course, we finish the October issue about a week before it is published and so it's a it was a really big change. But um, but we also we just do a lot of other things, you know. Um aside from traveling for the magazine, we also travel to our own events now. Uh North Star Meetings Group, which owns um meetings and conventions. We have a big catalog now of events that we do. Um, we as editors help find the speakers and help, you know, when we're on site, we help with the planners with what they're doing. And it's all related to what we we write about because we write about putting on events. So it's it it just all feeds itself.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, you're actually getting to experience it firsthand instead of just through those you're interviewing. You get to yeah. So, what does your day-to-day role look like as a managing editor?
SPEAKER_01:Um, day-to-day, uh, anything that someone has written that's gonna go live soon, it goes to me so that I edit it and uh and do the final post. But you know, I'm also working on stories of my own. Um, I have something I really want to get done before Thanksgiving. I hope I can manage to pull that off. Um and uh, you know, it's it's dealing with that, but also dealing with some of the stuff that has to do with managing the magazine because you know, right now we're working on schedules for next year, so we're trying to figure out um what that looks like for us. In the old days, of course, we had 12 issues that were once a month. And when I first took the managing editor job here, I was also managing editor of successful meetings, and I was also managing editor of incentive magazine. So single month, and we were we still had 12 issues, and uh there were 12 issues, issues for meetings and conventions and successful meetings, and then four issues for incentive. So in a given month, you know, I'm doing like 25, 26.
SPEAKER_00:Wow.
SPEAKER_01:So and those days were mind-boggling for me, but it didn't last very long because we slammed into the pandemic. Yes. Pretty soon after that, we cut back uh the number of issues we put out. Um, and at this point, it's um four issues of meetings and conventions, and um usually there's four issues of incentive as well.
SPEAKER_00:Okay, and those are the two that you're managing editor of what other so no North Star Meetings Group oversees other publications as well, right? Can you tell us a little bit more about all of them?
SPEAKER_01:Well, under under the interest of North Star Meetings Group, we have uh Meetings and Incentive Travel, which is a UK-based uh magazine. We have Association Meetings International, which is also UK-based, and the same editorial team does both of those magazines. There's a Meetings and Conventions Asia. There is also Sports Travel magazine, which uh uh is just all about putting on events for uh the sports world, whether it's the Olympics or you know, your local soccer team. So um, so yeah, so those are the main ones. Overall, North Star Meetings Group is our parent, but the overall parent company is North Star North Star Travel Group.
SPEAKER_00:And so there's also Travel Weekly and a bunch of travel agent-based um and just there's a slew of other things that tell us a little bit more for those who aren't super familiar with meetings and conventions and incentives. Tell us a little bit more about both of those and your audience and what you look for in stories for them.
SPEAKER_01:An incentive is something that you've earned. Um say you're a salesperson and you are part of a competition throughout the year. See who, you know, to put it bluntly, who sells the most wins the biggest prize or whatever. So, and those can be merchandise things or they can be travel-based. Uh, the programs vary quite a bit. So that's essentially what you're looking for with um with Incentive Magazine. Okay. With meetings and conventions, we run the gamut. You know, we cover um we cover large conventions down to meetings for, you know, 20, 50 people. So um our job really is to help the planner, the event planner, the incentive planner, the event planner, the meeting planner, um, to do their jobs better, really. Um for instance, throughout the years, I've I've worked with a guy who is uh our legal expert and I've been editing his stories since I came on board here. So for 30 years, I've been I've been uh editing his stuff. And at this point, he could almost be a journalist. I mean a lawyer, an lawyer, because I know what he's gonna say uh when there's a question asked. So so yeah, so um, you know, those are the kinds of things we're trying to make right for the people who are reading our our articles. I want them to understand that we are trying to help them do their jobs better.
SPEAKER_00:Yes. What have been some of have you do you have some favorite stories?
SPEAKER_01:Oh goodness. I once wrote about creativity, which was really an interesting process because of course to really make a meeting better these days, you have to tap into your own creativity. And that's one of the trends that's been really um pretty hot in the past, I'd say, six to ten years, which is um event design and experience design and trying to make trying to make the meeting more than the education that you're getting there. You know, you're trying to make sure that the participants are happy, engaged, uh learning something, uh, that they're gonna take away something they'll use later. And it's it's it's really a melding of how to do that. And that's one of the more fascinating uh ways the meetings have been going, and we've been following that trend for a while.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, that's quite the feat, too, to do all of those things well at once. Yes. So I can I can see how how valuable the magazine and the um expertise from everyone that writes for it is for these planners. You uh mentioned that you write a little bit. How often do you, and what do you tend, do you tend to focus on something specific?
SPEAKER_01:Uh not necessarily. Uh, quite often it's what needs to be written. I mean, there was a press release today that was uh in it was about the US hotel forecast for the coming year and for the end of this year, and that needed to be coordinated into a story that we've already done, but also you turned into news for today. So I did that this morning. We write up the events that we do, so I have a couple of those to do. Uh one that I want to finish before Thanksgiving has to do with Austin, Texas, where currently the convention center is closed because it's being absolutely totally demolished and rebuilt. And so I wanted to explore how the hotel uh community there is really coping without their big convention center. So um just that kind of thing. I mean, it's whatever needs to be done.
SPEAKER_00:So we talked a little bit about this with it, you know, there specifically in your role, but with the industry in general that's gone through major train changes, you know, digital transformation, COVID disruption, as you mentioned, sustainability shifts. What stands out to you as the most impactful or maybe even exciting trend in meetings world right now?
SPEAKER_01:Well, as I said, it's the design element that is really big. Um this year is very weird. Uh so people are really trying to deal with budgets, smaller budgets, but trying to uh trying to still instill in their events what they want. And uh and that that can be very hard. So that's a that's an element that we we pay very close attention to. Um lots of interesting food trends because you know, you have to help people who have allergies and things like that.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:People are understanding now that you can take a delicious vegetarian option and make that the main meal at an event. Uh, and so that a the vegetarian stuff doesn't run out when the veget person who's vegetarian actually gets right. It also gives other people a more healthy option. Uh want that these days.
SPEAKER_00:So yeah, definitely. I was gonna say, I always wonder that on planes if they run out of, you know, the option that some people really need. Um, hopefully that doesn't happen.
SPEAKER_01:That's why they ask you beforehand. And that's why for meetings as well. You know, a registration form for a meeting, every one of them should ask, what are your allergens? Do you have food uh sensitivities? What do we need to know about that you need to eat? And how separated from the rest of the stuff does your food need to be?
SPEAKER_00:Yes, and I can imagine that's a lot, especially when you have a big meeting.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah, it can be overwhelming.
SPEAKER_00:Yes. So you've stayed with the same brand for decades and decades of change and publishing events, and we talked about some of that, but what has kept you inspired and motivated to stay in the same industry at the same place?
SPEAKER_01:There's two things actually that have kept me here. Um three things. First of all, meetings and conventions has a very good reputation, and I I don't take that lightly, and I I I hope that I have been able to support that through the years. Uh secondly, when the world changes, there's going to be a meeting about it. So even though you have COVID, even though you had uh the economic downturn of 08, 09, the the headlines sound dire. However, people are still talking about it. People need to meet and figure out what they're gonna do about it. There's always going to be a meeting about it. So even with the ups and downs of the world, because we've, you know, over 30 years, the industry has gone up and down and up and down and up and down. Right. But there's always an angle for us. And it's always a newsy angle. There's always a moment that meetings make a different difference. And I I've I've loved that about meetings and conventions because it's always, always relevant. Um, I really love that about this. But the other thing is the travel. Yes. I think to myself, I'm a journalist. I could write about anything. You give me the right source, I can write about it. But not everybody's gonna send me around the world.
SPEAKER_00:Yes. How often do you travel?
SPEAKER_01:Uh it really is probably six or seven times a year.
SPEAKER_00:So still so yeah, that's a pretty big benefit for sure. Is there is there a destination that surprised you um and how well it worked for meetings or incentives that you may maybe didn't think it might, um, or one that doesn't, you know, always make the headlines?
SPEAKER_01:You know, the ones that don't make the headlines, everybody who's putting together a meeting thinks, oh, I've got to go to Boston, I've got to go to Chicago, I've got to go to Washington, D.C., I've got to go to Denver, I've got to go to these big hubs where, you know, yes, you have good airlift and stuff like that. But the truth of the matter is most meetings are under 100 people. And uh the the big things for 10,000, 100,000 people, those conventions are very few and far between. And the bulk of meetings that are taking place are for like 80 to 100 people. So uh it's fun to find we've done a bunch of uh we've done a bunch of events this year at smaller cities that you get there and you realize, wow, what a lovely place to have a meeting. And that runs the gamut. I mean, we were in Burlington, Vermont this year, and it was just great. I mean, I've been to Burlington before, but I'd never thought about it from uh from a meetings angle. And it was really just lovely. And we also did uh Toledo, Ohio, and that went really well. And we just got back from uh Knoxville, Tennessee. And these are smaller places, smaller destinations that have their own bits of loveliness uh and and just work really, really well for a small group who can feel almost like they're taking over the town. So those those have surprised me for sure.
SPEAKER_00:That is really neat. How much of your travel or even destination coverage is broke up between you know international and national?
SPEAKER_01:Most of our stuff is domestic, but uh there's still plenty of international that we do. I'm about to go back to Australia for the third time for the magazine. Um wow. So yeah, we still cover these types of places because whether or not you're going to take a small meeting there, you'll take an incentive trip there. Those are bucket list places, so we'll go and see those um and uh and cover them. And you know, we don't really do as much international coverage as we once did, but we're still open to it. And if something is absolutely if something is happening somewhere um outside of the country, we'll definitely cover it.
SPEAKER_00:So is there a place that you haven't been assigned to go to yet that you would love to cover?
SPEAKER_01:Yes, I'd love to go to London.
SPEAKER_00:London, I just came back from London, actually.
SPEAKER_01:I've never been.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, it is so neat.
SPEAKER_01:I feel like I've been everywhere else. You know, I've been to South Africa, I've been I've been to New Zealand, I've been to Australia, I've been all over the United States, you know, all over Europe. And and the other one, I mean, I've never been to South America either. Or oh wow, like Japan or China. So any of those, I'd do.
SPEAKER_00:That's amazing that you've been more so much more exotic, even than London. Oh yeah. Yeah. That is great. Well have anyone listening, if you uh have any great news for those areas, send them to Sarah.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, but I don't necessarily cover them. We split those up.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, right. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Somebody else has London and she's not. Oh, okay. She's been here as long as I have. So, you know, uh, it's her gig.
SPEAKER_00:What areas do you specifically focus on?
SPEAKER_01:My coverage is uh, well, I have New Zealand and Australia and and I do have like Tahiti and Fiji and all of that stuff around there. Not that I've been there. Uh for some reason. Um and uh but I also have I have the Pacific Northwest, um and which I love. I have the Rockies, I have uh Colorado, uh Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, uh, Utah. I'm just back from Utah. Uh oh, and I have Texas. I've had Texas for all 30 years.
SPEAKER_00:Wow. Well, that's so good to know. And you know, a lot of our audience are PR professionals. What makes a pitch stand out to you? You know, what types of what types of information do you want from them? And also on the flip side, are there common, you know, pet peeves or or things that you see?
SPEAKER_01:Well, the thing is the the flip side is is the opposite of of the the right pitch, which is the right pitch is knowing who you're talking to, knowing what our magazine is doing. We don't do weddings. We are we are a business-to-business magazine. We're talking about corporate events, we're talking about association events, we're talking about government events. We do not do, we don't do much that has to do with social and definitely don't do weddings. Um so you have to know that. So the flip side of that is coming at me with uh with ideas that have absolutely nothing to do with our audience. I I I think that studying the uh the magazine or the website that you're pitching to is key to understanding what's gonna help us. Uh and uh and if you ever hear of a really interesting event that somebody did something totally out of the ordinary at that just blew the attendees' mind, I want to know about it.
SPEAKER_00:And does it matter if you know before or after?
SPEAKER_01:I'm assuming before is better, but well, we won't know that it's gonna blow their minds until it blows up.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, true. Okay. That's a good point. Maybe they think it's gonna blow their minds, but no, we tried this, but it didn't work.
SPEAKER_01:No, that's not sorry.
SPEAKER_00:So and you need some great photography. What else do you need?
SPEAKER_01:We always want to get to the to the actual event planner. Uh figure out how they put the event together. That's the big thing. I mean, if if a PR person who's at a hotel and something really interesting happened, if we can get to the meeting planner who was their client, that's great. Sometimes we'll look at something that that happened at a hotel that um that the meeting planner can't isn't allowed to speak to us. But um, but it's really best if we can figure out how the negotiations were done to make sure that they could pull off what they wanted to pull off.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, absolutely. That's good advice too. So what's ahead for you and North Star Meetings group, you know, in the coming year? Any new projects or or themes you're excited about?
SPEAKER_01:Um we have a couple of we have a couple of new events that we're putting on that I can't necessarily say what they are yet, but um and there'll there are some that are going to be in some really fun destinations. Like uh we get to actually be in Arizona in the winter, which is uh which is really cool because usually for a meeting you find yourself there in summer because that's when there's plenty of hotel space. Right. So we're actually going to be there for one of our top events, which is called the Independent Planner Education Conference, and we'll be there in February in Phoenix. So that's pretty cool. Um, we have another event called I'm trying to remember if it's luxury and I think it's luxury and wellness, which will be at a brand new property in uh wine country in California, which is nice. So, but some of those things are all being still worked out and all. And really we don't we plan the content ahead, but we don't uh lock it in. So we're open to the trends or opening open to what's happening in the world uh before we actually put together the magazine.
SPEAKER_00:So yeah, that's great. I mean, that's the best kind of journalism, right? You need to see what happens before you have a pre-planned pre-planning stories and yeah. Um before we go, I must know what's your do you have a go-to travel hack or a ritual um when you're traveling?
SPEAKER_01:I was thinking about that. I'm a I'm a rare bird. I'm one of the people who actually checks her bags. I hate carrying a bag on the plane and stuffing it in the overhead. That just gives me so much agita. And I have a I have a my carry-on actually fits under the seat. I'm not very tall, so I don't really need to stretch my legs out that far. And and but my real thing that I love to do is to I unpack it, it it doesn't matter how long I'm going to be in the hotel room, I unpack because I like to be able to see what I've got with me and and make the room mine at the hotel. I really do love staying at a hotel. That's you know, we're very, very, very, very lucky that we stay in a lot of high-end places. And and it's it's really it's really a little bit of joy to sort of make that your own.
SPEAKER_00:Yes. I love that. I love that. So how can our listeners connect with you or follow your work? Um, what's the best way?
SPEAKER_01:Well, uh people can email me at Sbrailey S-B-R-A-L-E-Y at Mcmag.com, like Mic Mag. And um yeah, North Star Meetings Group is at uh Northstarmeetingsgroup.com, and that's where most of our editorial is is on there, even if it was in the magazine first. Um and yeah, just look me up on LinkedIn or usually it'll say Sarah, right?
SPEAKER_00:Even if you go by Sally, we'll find you as Sarah. Okay, great.
SPEAKER_01:You can find me as Sally, I think, on Facebook and Instagram, but not so much on uh on LinkedIn.
SPEAKER_00:Okay, well, thank you so much, Sally.
SPEAKER_01:Thank you too, Angela. Thank you again for having me.
SPEAKER_00:That's all for this episode of Media and Minutes, a podcast by Communications Redefined. Take a moment to rate, review, and subscribe to our show. We'd love to hear what you think. You can find more at Communications Redefined.comslash podcast. I'm your host, Angela Toole. Talk to you next time.