SAN FRANCISCO
MPI announced the launch of a number of new educational efforts at its 2015 World Education Congress (WEC), held Aug. 1-4 at Moscone Center West.
Under the umbrella of the new MPI Academy, an entity formed to encompass all of the association’s proprietary educational offerings as well as those offered by outside sources, the effort will align with Meeting and Business Event Competency Standards and be delivered through a variety of formats, including training courses, certificate programs, streaming sessions from MPI events and webinars. Curriculum will also be offered by organizations that partner with MPI to deliver education.
According to Paul Van Deventer, president and CEO of MPI, the intent of MPI Academy is to centralize all of its educational offerings, on both the global and chapter levels, to bring focus to the many career tracks available within in the industry. The clearinghouse of meeting professional education, which represents a reemphasis on professional education at the association, will also include content outside of the ownership of MPI.
“We really want to refocus on what we do—professional development,” Van Deventer said. “We don’t believe in proprietary ownership. We want to be the home of education in the industry. More of it is looking for key partners and build it into logical tracks [for meeting professionals] to build a career.”
MPI also announced plans to launch four new certificate programs later this year:
- The Experiential Event Series will have MPI partnering to bring meeting planners to experience first-hand high-profile events in the areas of sports, entertainment, culinary and mega-events. The three-day events will include behind-the-scenes tours and discussions and will culminate with a day in a classroom setting. The first two programs are the Miss America Pageant in Atlantic City, N.J., this September and the Epcot Food & Wine Festival in Orlando in November.
- The Sustainable Practitioner Certificate, an interactive training session for those who want to focus on sustainability, in partnership with U.K.-based not-for-profit organization Positive Impact, with class dates to be announced.
- The Healthcare Meeting Compliance Certificate (HMCC) Refresher, a webinar program endorsed by Saint Louis University that will launch in October and cover issues such as healthcare meeting compliance regulations, cross-border compliance and healthcare meeting trends. The four-hour curriculum will satisfy the requirement for MPI HMCC recipients to maintain the endorsement every two years.
- CMP-Healthcare Certification (CMP-HC) Boot Camp, which will commence this fall and offer a comprehensive study preparation course for the CMP Healthcare Certification exam.
Earlier this year MPI launched three new educational offerings, the latter two of which were available as pre-WEC sessions: Meeting Essentials, covering fundamental knowledge that can be used as preparation for the CMP exam; the Sustainable Meeting Professional Certificate, built around the Sustainable Meeting Planning Program® (SMPP®), the only sustainable meeting planning tool independently certified by iCompli Sustainability, a division of BPA Worldwide, the top sustainable meeting planning audit firm in the U.S. for ISO 20121 and APEX/ASTM compliance; and the Meetings and Events at Sea Certificate, in partnership with Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) and covering meetings at sea.
More information about MPI’s various professional development offerings are available at www.mpiweb.org/ProfessionalDevelopment.
In other WEC news, Van Deventer said the conference is expected to draw more than 2,500 attendees, which is a 25 percent increase over the previous year, with a planner-to-supplier ratio of approximately 50-50. Interestingly enough, more than 20 percent of the attendees are non-members, which Van Deventer said is an opportunity to build attendance in future years.
