MPI’s 2007 Professional Education Conference–North America (PEC-NA) wrapped up in New Orleans Jan. 23, with more than 2,600 delegates in attendance.
According to MPI officials, the association had a pre-conference target of attracting 2,400 delegates to the show, which ended up being the second-largest attended show in the history of the PEC–NA, falling short of the association’s 2005 San Diego conference by approximately 50 attendees.
The 2007 PEC–NA marked the debut of MPI’s new president and CEO, Bruce M. MacMillan, who took the helm of the association in December.
According to MacMillan and Mark S. Andrew, chairman of the board of MPI, the association is increasing its efforts to reach out to those entering the workforce in order to build membership and compete with other industries in enticing people to choose meeting planning as a career.
Satisfying the educational and professional needs of members with vastly different levels of experience is a major challenge for the association, as is attracting the next generation of workers into the meetings industry.
“Our industry is going to have to compete for human capital just like any other industry,” MacMillan said. “That’s why we have to keep having more people coming into the industry….If we just wait for it to come to us, we’re in trouble.”
MPI is also putting an emphasis on globalization, according to MacMillan.
“Part of it is how we look at ourselves,” he said. “We’re evolving more into a community. As I told the members, ‘Tell us what success is for you.’ Part of that is global opportunity. MPI is the one community to provide that tie-in, whether [planners] are physically off-shore or in their community. Our global profile continues to grow—outside of America and the Western Hemisphere.”
Andrew also believes that the future of MPI hinges on looking beyond the shores of North America, and resources such as the association’s Culture Active Tool and Member Solutions toolkit will help further the meetings industry’s emphasis on globalization.
“[Meeting planners] are seeing that it’s not just about the U.S.,” he said. “Business is evolutionary. People are doing business around the world. If we don’t open our eyes to the difference in cultures, we’re going to shoot ourselves in the foot.”
The 2007 PEC-NA is also a major media event within New Orleans, whose tourism industry was devastated by Hurricane Katrina, although most primary tourist areas suffered minimal damage.
Although the city’s French Quarter, which weathered the calamitous storm with little damage, seemed a bit less active than before the storm, the typical sights, smells and sounds of the famed historic district were still enjoyed to the fullest by a somewhat smaller throng of beaded, drink-clutching visitors.
The New Orleans Metropolitan CVB (NOCVB) continues its battle to convince a skeptical traveling public to visit the Crescent City, along with trying to secure more marketing funds from the local and state government.
Besides the uphill struggle, the city is managing to convince the bulk of its meetings clients to honor their previous commitments to hold meetings in New Orleans.
“For 2007, we’ve retained about 70 percent of our meetings business; in 2006 we retained 40 percent,” said Kelly Schulz, vice president of communications and public relations for the NOCVB.
Schulz said many corporate groups, which are not the bulk of New Orleans’ traditional meetings customer base, are taking advantage of availability in the city to book meetings and events with shorter lead times.
The Morial Convention Center, site of the PEC–NA, is fully operational following a $60 million renovation to repair damage from the storm and improve the quality of its facilities.
Much of New Orleans rarely seen by visitors continues to suffer, however. A tour of the Upper and Lower Ninth Ward, which was devastated by the hurricane, revealed a vast zone of destruction punctuated by vacant homes with waterline marks nearly to their roofs.
Members of MPI, partnering with Habitat for Humanity, pitched in on one of the association’s conference community service projects to aid in the construction of the city’s new Musicians’ Village, a neighborhood of brightly colored homes dedicated to housing the traditional lifeblood of the city: its musicians.
