LAS VEGAS—MPI’s World Education Congress, held July 20-23 at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center here, carried a theme of “transformation” and lived up to its billing with news that the association’s board of directors is prioritizing a reexamination of its live event product, including the consideration of moving the calendar dates of upcoming WECs.
The 2013 installment of the annual gathering marked the first major MPI event appearance of the association’s new president and CEO, Paul Van Deventer, who was named to the position three months prior to the WEC.
“MPI recognizes the meetings and events industry is changing, and so we are transforming and changing with it,” Van Deventer said on the first full day of the event. “We want a chance to transform not just our members, but also to serve the industry…Our goal here really is to revitalize the meeting professional; re-energize them so they can re-energize and revitalize the industry.
Van Deventer said the association is going to sharpen its focus on sustainability and CSR, or corporate social responsibility.
“Event management and operations can have a positive and negative impact on the environment, so we want to be very sensitive to that,” he said. “I’ve found within MPI a real pride [about] sustainability, so it’s very important to keep that at the forefront.”
Incoming Chair of the International Board of Directors Michael Dominguez, senior vice president of sales for MGM Resorts International, said his tenure will be marked by a continuation of initiatives put in place by himself and outgoing chair Kevin Hinton.
Dominguez said that the MPI Board’s core responsibility is to set strategy, and the staff’s job is to executive that strategy.
“While we’re transitioning, we’re not starting over,” he said. “We’re just continuing with the things we haven’t finished yet.”
Dominguez added that the association will focus on shorter-term initiatives, because planning further out becomes much hazier.
“We need to focus on the 18-month to three-year time period because that landscape looks pretty clean,” he said.
Major initiatives for the association include the formation of two task forces to study the involvement of beginning and senior planners in the association. MPI also announced signing a memorandum of understanding with the Thailand Convention & Exhibition Bureau to collaborate on educational programs for meeting professionals in Thailand.
Dominguez listed industry advocacy, such as defining the value of meetings to political leaders in the wake of many spending scandals—including meetings held by the General Services Administration and most recently the IRS—as a core responsibility for MPI, and although the association may not address it as a new effort, it will remain a driving force and ingrained in the foundation of the association’s mission.
While conference themes often amount to little more than an annual exercise in lip service, the WEC theme of transformation was evident in the very structure of the show, with the major sessions being held in a theater-in-the-round setting.
The opening general session took attendees on an emotional roller coaster ride, rising with opening dance routines and tailing off with a heart-wrenching presentation from Mandalay Bay employees—part of the company’s diversity training effort—who told highly personal stories about being judged or discriminated against for a variety of reasons, such as their race, sexual orientation and weight.
In other WEC news, Dominguez said examining the association’s live events would be a top agenda item at MPI’s upcoming board meeting, and would include a discussion about changing the date of the annual WEC, due to a preponderance of other summer industry events that currently surround it on the calendar.
