The Meeting Professional - September 2015

members.

“Attending WEC really helps me
both professionally and personally,”
said Jill Mendoza, CMP (MPI Rocky
Mountain Chapter). “I’m able to
attend the sessions that can really
help me in my day-to-day work life
and help me streamline my practic-
es and then also, as a third-party
meeting planner, I’m able to take
back some practices that I can
share with my clients and help
them establish their events.”
“If you’re not attending WEC, you
are not getting the most out of your
membership,” added Joey Allen
(MPI Oklahoma Chapter). “It’s just a
huge part of what MPI is to our
industry and to the culture. Not
being here, I think, is shortchanging
yourself, your employer and the
people that you do business with.”
See more member feedback in
Conversations (Page 14).

Thank you Jill and Joey, to everyone who attended WEC 2015 and to all of our sponsors (see Page 90), including host city partner San Francisco Travel, for your support.

With all that, you don’t want to miss WEC 2016. Registration is now open at www.mpiweb.org/ wec16.

There was another announcement at WEC that will impact the way we provide news and information to you. The Meeting Professional will soon be available in a digital format, and we’ll also be delivering curated digital newsletters with relevant industry news and updates. I’ll be telling you more about these projects in future issues of

The Meeting Professional.

Until next time … Rich Luna Editor in Chief

rluna@mpiweb.org

8 THE MEE TING PROFESSIONAL SEPTEMBER 2015

ENGAGING AND EMPOWERING THERE WAS NO SHORTAGE of plaudits from our members when asked to describe their experiences at the World Education Congress (WEC) in San Francisco.

Invigorating. Inspiring. Engaging. Empowering. Thought provoking. Fun.

Yes, yes, yes and yes!

The euphoria from early August has hardly dissipated as we regroup to dissect what worked in San Francisco and areas for improvement. After all, we’ll be gathering again in nine months at WEC

2016 in Atlantic City. But before we shift all our attention to the other coast, here’s some insight into what was WEC 2015.

• There were more than 2,500

registered attendees, a 25 percent increase over WEC 2014.

• About 80 percent of the attendees were MPI members with a

50/50 split among planners and suppliers.

• There were 264 planners and

186 suppliers in the Hosted Buyer Program, a 12. 5 percent increase compared to last year.

FROM THE EDITOR

• There were 140 education sessions, plus keynotes, and most quali;ied for clock hours. You can still earn clock hours by going to www.mpiweb.org/ wec15 and watching videos of education sessions.

• Attendees assembled more than

3,600 welcome kits, which will be given to patients—including infants, toddlers, young kids, teens and new moms—at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital in San Francisco.

• We introduced the new MPI Academy and Professional Development Roadmap (see Page 28), designed to provide multi-faceted learning opportunities for meeting professionals at all levels, as well as the Experiential Event Series, in which MPI is partnering with high-pro;ile events in key areas such as sports, entertainment, culinary and mega-events to provide unique, intimate education experiences, including behind the scenes tours and discussions. We debuted two new MPI certi;icate courses, Meetings and Events at Sea and the Sustainable Meeting Professional Certi;icate (SMPC).

• Attendees were active on Twitter, with more than 14,000 engagements using the of;icial event hashtag (#WEC15), a 12 percent increase over last year.

• The MPI Foundation set a new record for the most money raised, more than US$270,000, from The Big Deal, an of;icial World Series of Poker satellite tournament, the Not-So-Silent Auction and Rendezvous, the Foundation’s signature networking event (see Page 29).

• MPI raised another $200,000 at the President’s Dinner, which will be used to enhance the platforms and content of education delivered by MPI to the entire meeting and event community.