MPI’s World Education Congress (WEC), held July 11-14 here, drew approximately 2,400 attendees, and according to statistics, the meetings industry may be seeing the light at the end of the tunnel of the debilitating economic downturn that has sent the meetings industry into a tailspin.
“Business is getting better—that’s the bottom line,” said Bruce MacMillan, president and CEO of MPI, adding that government scrutiny over meeting programs at the beginning of the economic crisis is waning after the coalition of travel industry associations lobbied Congress and President Obama about the value of meetings.
“Clearly, the anxiety over the government rhetoric has stopped…and cancellations are not as rampant as three months ago. I think the rhetoric has stopped and there’s a feeling that the economy is not getting worse.”
Bookings are also starting to pick up, according to statements from a presentation by Mitchell Beer, president and CEO of The Conference Publishers, an Ottawa-based company that specializes in conference content, and Bill Voegeli, president of Association Insights, a Smyrna, Ga.-based market research and consulting company for nonprofits.
In other MPI WEC news, 2009-2010 Chairwoman Ann Godi, president of Atlanta-based meetings management firm Benchmarc360, stressed the importance of meeting planners to increase their business acumen, especially in the current economic climate.
“The overarching theme is speaking the language of business, and improving the overall value of meetings,” Godi said, adding that MPI has offered educational content such as webinars on ROI to further the effort.
