MPI Knowledge Plan
Introducing the MPI Knowledge Plan, a game-changer essential for industry growth and survival.
By Michael Pinchera and Jessie States
We are experiencing a crucial time in the life of the global meeting and event industry: Unprecedented growth matched with newly realised vulnerabilities and the dire need for workers. Although this represents a significant risk to the industry, it’s a call to direct our collective and individual futures and create a roadmap to success.
The industry has simultaneously seen rapid growth in some regions and sharp decline in others. New and expanded meeting and event infrastructure is booming worldwide, with an explosion of space at convention centres, hotels and all subtypes of venues heading to market. Available meeting space is expected to more than triple in some markets between 2007 and 2011.
Along with this growth arises the need for an expanded and more-skilled workforce. Those developments and the growth of our industry in terms of number of meetings and events has led to an increasing demand for trained and skilled professionals with globally transferable knowledge and competencies. The hospitality sector workforce demand is expected to increase at least 4.9 million by 2015, with an estimated 20 per cent specifically needed in the meeting and event industry. Along with that, there is a shift in business to increasingly focus on performance and knowledge generation. Unfortunately, our industry has lacked a body of knowledge to map the needed skills and competencies for meeting professionals. There is, therefore, no clear career pathing and a limited pipeline for talent.
At the same time, we must also be prepared for attacks on the meeting industry similar to those which we experienced earlier this year due to misperceptions in the U.S. media and unfortunate and ill-formed statements by politicians. The industry is also vulnerable to seemingly unrelated economic turmoil. It is therefore crucially important to be able to demonstrate clear measurements on the return of meetings.
“Recent economic challenges have created a tipping point in the meeting and event industry,” said Dr. Graydon Dawson, MPI’s director of global training systems. “And because of the recent negative attention meetings have received, a paradigm shift in our industry is occurring and there is no turning back. Delivering real value is a renewed focus. Although we hear that the recession is over, because of the impacts of the economy on meetings and events, there are still difficult times ahead. Within this environment, it is absolutely critical that all meeting professionals take every advantage to equally retool their skill sets. Each of the products and services in the MPI Knowledge Plan is designed to facilitate one’s personal retooling regardless of your experience in the industry.”
The MPI Knowledge Plan, the most defined approach yet to address these ever-growing issues and plot a course for personal and industrywide professional growth. The plan offers a clear career path and a comprehensive knowledge set that will ease recruitment, retention and enhance training. It will deliver a global standard through certificates and certifications providing transferability, employability and increased compensation.
“The Knowledge Plan is especially important now since MPI is the global association in the industry and we’re at a point in the industry where there is a growing academic component to what we do,” said Carol Krugman, CMP, CMM, industry consultant and educator with Denver-based Krugman Maller LLC and member of the MPI Body of Knowledge Task Force. “The time has come when our two parallel tracks of academia and continuing professional education must converge for meeting planning to be recognised as a true profession.”
Recognising the lack of consistent standards and feeling that current standards don’t quite go far enough to meet the needs of the community, MPI has undertaken the task of expanding and validating the industry’s body of knowledge, to update and fully define the necessary skills and competencies that are needed today in meeting management. The Certified Meeting Professional (CMP) designation, for example, has been viewed as an industry standard but hasn’t gone far enough in addressing the needs of all industry professionals worldwide. To revive this important certification, MPI is partnering with the Convention Industry Council to ensure the growing relevance of the CMP and make it more accessible worldwide.
This body of knowledge is being developed in partnership with the Canadian Tourism Human Resources Council, a governmental agency with the task of creating portable and credible standards for the tourism sector in Canada. Once the body of knowledge is complete, it will be a recognised standard within Canada, with plans to ensure adoption by other governments around the world. As MPI creates the Global Certificates for Meetings and Business Events as part of its knowledge plan, they will all be tied back to this global body of knowledge, ensuring participants who complete these programs gain a comprehensive education and skill set to ensure their future success.
Members of the global meeting and event community will be best served with these education standards as they provide portable recognition of expertise through training and knowledge development at all career levels, including an executive leadership development program. A designation or certification will mean the same professionally in the United States as in France or in Hong Kong or any other place in the world. The promotion of standards of practice, such as ROI/ROO and strategic meetings management, will permit a focus on growth and development rather than repeated attempts at reinventing the wheel.
To address growing markets and aid management hiring duties, this will ensure a continually expanding and knowledgeable workforce, trained in industry standards.
“The plan helps members as both job seekers and employers, since a defined body of knowledge and standardised competencies are one of the foundations for a true profession,” Krugman said. “A globally recognised level of competency is critical in today’s multinational workplace and is also especially critical for the development of curriculum in undergraduate programs training the next generation of planners.”
All of this will show the meeting and event industry in a prominent, professional light, and it is hoped this will dissuade future attacks and the spread of misinformation.
The MPI Knowledge Plan allows industry practitioners to access relevant content in a variety of ways, through chapter meetings, online webinars, international events and the One+ and One+EMEA magazines. Additionally, MPI has announced plans for as many as 15 training centres for meetings and business events worldwide that will provide standardised skills development courses at each career level so that members worldwide are learning the same curriculum. Each institution must have an accredited business/management program, and four universities have already signed partnership agreements: CERAM Business School in Nice-Paris-Lille, France; the Qatar MICE Development Institute; Ryerson University in Toronto, Canada; and San Diego State University, United States.
MPI’s Dawson has worked with some of these education partners and will be creating course content with the curriculum development team to establish the highest-quality set of training materials possible.
Creating the first set of global industry standards in the history of the event industry, MPI will provide training for instructors as well as curriculum for the programs. Each certified administrator will receive accreditation to teach all modules of the training practice. Scholarships for attendees will be available through the MPI Foundation.
“This raises the level of professionalism in the industry by clarifying exactly what we do, why we do it and why it is so important,” Krugman said. “A specific, standardised body of knowledge that can be taught, verified and certified through examinations and applied globally will be a quantum leap in professionalism and recognition for the meetings industry.”
This personal training and development plan will fast track not only the education but also the career of MPI members, customers and the industry as a whole. And when fully implemented, the MPI Knowledge Plan will provide the industry with the clear career path it has been lacking. Industry professionals will be able to prove their competencies and show their progression through the standardised—and globally recognised—body of knowledge.
“MPI’s mission—making our members successful—offers an opportunity and an obligation to develop a learning path for the global meeting and event community that ensures appropriate career and personal development at each stage of an individual’s professional journey, from student to executive” said Didier Scaillet, chief development officer for MPI. “This knowledge ethos will ensure MPI is a global knowledge leader in the field of meetings and events, with the ability to attract, train and elevate talent for a rapidly expanding global industry.”
Learn more about the MPI Knowledge Plan through monthly updates in One+. One+EMEA
MICHAEL PINCHERA is associate editor of One+.
JESSIE STATES is assistant editor of One+.
MPI’s Knowledge Plan
Why You Should Care
The MPI Knowledge Plan offers fast-track career development, awareness on how to utilise globally recognised skills and competencies at the local level, increase transferability, employability and compensation and increase recognition of the profession. Most significantly, the plan will give professionals at all levels and in any country the knowledge they need to attain the next echelon in their careers and share the same knowledge as their peers across the globe. The program encompasses the following career steps (in order).
Skills Assessment (available at MPIWeb.org)
Identifies critical experience, knowledge and skill gaps and then provides a prescriptive and personalised development plan for closing those gaps.
Introduction to the Meeting & Event Industry (under development)
Provides insights into the industry’s career paths and teaches basic skills, delivered through a blended approach of instructor-led seminars, webinars and other Web-enabled development tools.
Global Certificate for Meetings and Business Events I (launched November 2008)
Presents students and early career professionals with proficiencies to organise the logistics of meetings and events.
Global Certificate for Meetings and Business Events II (launches in December)
Equips core-logistics-minded project managers with expertise to understand and implement the full logistics of meetings and business events as well as the knowledge to pass the Certified Meeting Professional (CMP) exam.
Certified Meeting Professional (currently available)
Provides confirmation of acquired skills and competencies in coordination with the Convention Industry Council. Includes access to MPI’s CMP Exam Online Study Guide and support-group study aids. The Knowledge Plan will help globalise and expand this designation.
Global Certificate for Meetings and Business Events III (scheduled launch first quarter 2010)
Provides skills for team leaders with a focus on leading the planning of the project and leading the project team.
Global Certificate for Meetings and Business Events IV (currently under development)
Builds on critical areas of expertise for project owners with the primary focus of establishing the value of meetings as a critical element of organisational success.
Certification in Meeting Management (currently available)
Looks at the business of meetings as well as business management modules related to meetings.
Executive Leadership Program (scheduled launch mid-2010)
Focuses on MBA-level executive business leadership skills and includes ongoing engagement between members of the senior-level professional community.