The
meetings industry is operating at levels much stronger than suggested
in the general economy, Meeting Professionals International (MPI)
President and CEO Bruce Macmillan told a press briefing at the
association’s flagship annual European Meetings and Events Conference
(EMEC). The conference was held this year in Budapest, 29 January- 1
February and attracted 343 delegates to the Novotel Congress Hotel
venue.
“The
corporate sector is driving results, particularly in the US where there
has been an increase in employment, something not seen for 18 months,”
said Macmillan.
Innovation
and creative risk taking were key elements of EMEC 2012 and MPI can’t
be accused of playing safe with the agenda. The programme was
refreshingly packed with speakers not culled from meetings industry
central casting.
The
‘re-imagining’ approach, with the accent on innovation, represented an
attempt, said Macmillan, to “walk the talk this year to get outside the
comfort zone”.
The
reprise of the Flash Point idea assembly, a blitz taster session which
offered delegates a preview of content from five of the longer sessions,
is something that many conference organisers would do well to copy.
Many
of the Flash Point speakers from EMEC 2011 had impressed so much, they
had gone on to speak at the annual MPI conference Stateside (WEC).
MPI
Chief Development Officer Didier Scaillet acknowledged only “a handful”
of North American delegates had made the trip to Budapest, and said it
was “a tough sell” to bring US meeting professionals out of their
offices for four or five days”.
Despite
the dip in attendance, Macmillan described as a “bold move” the Board
decision to bring EMEC to Hungary for 2012. “It paid off big time,” he
said in terms of bringing central European delegates closer into the MPI
fold. MPI now claims 2,500 members in its European chapters.
MPI presented in Budapest the redesign of its certification practice,
the Global CMP (Certified Meetings Professional) qualification, which,
Macmillan said, was now “more globally focused”.
“We
are working with the Convention Industry Council to take our programmes
into Asia, in particular Taiwan and Beijing this summer,” Macmillan
said, adding that in the globalisation of the meetings industry, “people
were hungry for CMP certification”.
Coffee Republic
Christian
Bitz, former model and nutritionist, was one of the most popular
speakers and Coffee Republic co-founder, entrepreneur Sahar Hashemi
delivered an usual keynote on the story of how she introduced US-style coffee consumerism to the British market in innovative style.
Maria Thyien, key organiser of the education sessions said she had been
guided in putting together the 2012 programme “by what other industries were doing that could be applied to the international meetings industry”.
MPI Manager of Strategic Communications Theresa Davis underlined that the idea of “turning innovation into practice” had been a strong consideration of the MPI Board.
The evening welcome reception at the Budapest Museum of Fine Arts
offered MPI delegates the experience of ‘Molecular Mixology’ – the
so-called “practice of manipulating states of matter to create new
flavours, textures and visuals that enhance the drink and make the
experience stimulating”. MPI can clearly still walk the esoteric talk as
well as the practical”.
The MPI Foundation is pressing ahead with a range of global impact
studies for the industry. And, with Canadian studies completed last year
and Mexico due to report this year, MacMillan said new figures gathered
were indicating a meetings industry now worth US$1tn in terms of
output.
Content from EMEC 2012 is available on the redesigned site: mpiweb.org
This was first published in the March edition of Conference News. Any comments? Email conferencenews@mashmedia.net
