View a New MPI Member Solutions Presentation

Meeting Professionals International (MPI) has developed MPI Member Solutions, an unprecedented initiative to define meeting planning as a recognized, respected profession, provide a lifetime of professional development for MPI members and create paths for them to evolve to positions of strategic influence.

Launching in January 2006, MPI Member Solutions is a suite of online and offline personalized products and services to meet the career growth and resource needs of meeting professionals. MPI Member Solutions offers an array of knowledge and professional advancement tools delivered via:

• My MPI: your personalized Web portal delivering education, content and information specific to your member profile and preferences
• MPI Professional Pathways: your Web-based skills assessment, gap analysis and development plan tool based on the industry's first clearly defined core competencies and job descriptions for meeting professionals
• MPI Resource Center: your one-on-one center accessed on-line or by call-in providing valuable resources for MPI members to use in the strategic development of their professional careers. Resources include Member Services -- membership assistance, conference/event registration, access to general industry research, mailing list rentals, retail sales (bookstore) and general information. Career Resources include MPI Peer-to-Peer Assistance and MPI Employment Assistance – job search and posting bank, sample resumes and cover letters, tips on interviewing and career development articles.

The combination of standardized job descriptions and skill levels plus a defined path and lifelong learning for meeting professionals that starts at the university/college level will help build a profession.

MPI Member Solutions is truly a new way of doing business for MPI. But most importantly it is about building the meetings profession and gaining the respect meeting professionals deserve in the business world.

There will be many phases to the rollout of MPI Member Solutions, but it all starts January at the 2006 Professional Education Conference-North America, Jan. 22 – 24 in Charlotte, NC. To begin to experience the benefits, every planner member should complete a skills self assessment, and every member should complete a member profile.

The impact of MPI Member Solutions will be profound:

• For MPI Members: MPI Member Solutions will completely personalize your MPI membership experience. Every education program will be customized for five levels: Student, Novice, Intermediate, Senior or Executive, so YOUR specific needs will be met.

• For chapter leaders: MPI Member Solutions will provide a more personalized experience for your members and increase member satisfaction and retention. Encourage every planner member to complete the skills assessment in January. Then, using MPI Professional Pathways and skills assessments, research chapter-wide where your members fit in terms of skillset and plan chapter education based on data, not guesswork.

• For Employers of MPI Members/Senior Decision Makers: Meetings can be a strategic component of every organization’s success. MPI empowers its members with personalized career paths, education and tools to execute more strategic, effective meetings that drive business objectives and the bottom-line.

• Students: There will be increased awareness that meetings management is a true profession. MPI is the source for curricula, standardized job descriptions and professional development paths when starting your career as a meeting planner or supplier.

• Faculty: MPI is the source for standardized curricula, professional development and expert content about the meetings profession.

• Human Resource Professionals: MPI will empower you to hire more strategic, effective planners by providing standardized planner job descriptions, core competencies and a lifetime of professional development for them.

• Non-Member Planners/Prospects: MPI will know your education needs better than any other meetings industry association. MPI is leading the charge to elevate meeting professionals in business, so you need to be a member.

For specific inquiries, email Kelly Schulz at kschulz@mpiweb.org.