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MPI Events
  • Posted by Veleisa Patton at
    12:00AM 08/08/2011 • 0 Comments

    Summing up the WEC Experience

     

    You know how you see a kid at the fair, little arms wrapped around those huge prize stuffed panda bears, filled with such glee? That’s how I feel when I try to encompass all the news, networking, education, connections, business and more from WEC 2011 in Orlando. With the new rules of engagement in full effect, our community embraced the energy and created an experience that people are still buzzing about.

    Let’s get a few statistics out of the way first:

    • More than 3,500 Hosted Buyer appointments with 225 participating supplier companies
    • 6,579 unique visitors to the WEC Live Online experience
    • A #WEC11 twitter transcript that is nearly 250 two-sided pages long
    • 55 participants in the Clean the World CSR project alone (seven total projects)

    Whew! That’s a lot said, especially in three days. The graciousness and professionalism of Orlando’s hospitality industry, the outstanding displays and culinary delights on show during the Epcot Alive! Opening Reception at Walt Disney World, rocking Closing festivities at Universal Studios & Hard Rock and the strength of the professional development and business opportunities presented at the Orange County Convention Center left attendees feeling empowered to enact what they learned in their offices and their lives.

    There are far too many favorites to properly list but several speakers inspired attendees, leading them to share the tidbits and quotes that resounded from presentations both on-site and online. Simon Sinek, the opening general session speaker, celebrated the importance of meeting professionals as the last line of defense in bringing people together in an increasingly digital world, and led attendees in questioning their personal “why” to bring clarity to their actions.

    Kathleen Madigan’s standup routine during the St. Louis (WEC 2012 host city) luncheon brought laughs and had the crowd excited about next year’s event. On Tuesday, Joe Calloway  and Kelly Cutrone enjoyed chemistry onstage during closing general session, leading to long lines at their book signings and a packed house at Kelly’s community Q&A session.

    The HIVE fulfilled the vision of being the epicenter of meeting technology and social media, with Tech Shootouts that enlightened those in search of solutions for meetings and events and starting conversations on social media inclusion best practice. And if anyone knows the identity of the Ghost of WEC11, who seemed to frequent the HIVE, let us know (seriously, best kept secret of the conference).

    Blog posts have a limited length before the mind becomes overwhelmed so I welcome readers to leave their own impressions from WEC in the comments. What was your favorite session/speaker? What kind of business have you generated? What session impacted you the most? Even more importantly, go and experience anew (or for the first time) dozens of the sessions from WEC 2011. 



  • Posted by Veleisa Patton at
    12:00AM 05/06/2011 • 0 Comments

    Back Like We Never Left

    Fellow communicators and all-star editors at sister blog PlusPoint made a very good point to me: Engage has fallen off the blogging wagon! So Theresa Davis and I have rededicated ourselves to making sure we’re finding ways to get the latest news to you on this channel.

    So what’s been happening you ask? Quite a bit.

    We’ve launched a new portal at mpiweb.org: Professional Development On Demand, a.k.a. PD On Demand. Through this section of the site, we are able to bring more than 130 hours of CEU eligible content, which includes video and audio from events and webinars, which planners can use toward industry certification. We recognized that streamlining this library of information makes visiting the website easier for members who are preparing for the CMP or looking to maintain CEU hours. So if you haven’t gotten a chance to interact with the PD On Demand portal, consider this your introduction and go learn. 

    What else, what else? Oh yeah, the redesigned WEC 2011 experience. It’s kind of a big deal. New rules of engagement in our post-recession industry mean that professionals need brain, face, brand and personal time. We addressed this with the introduction of attendee driven content like Solution Rooms and the Hive and the continuation of the highly successful Hosted Buyer Program. The industry has noticed and responded with a resounding “yes!” to the WEC 2011 experience. 

    We have more stories to tell; Keep updated through following @MPI on twitter, becoming a fan on facebook and joining the official MPI group on LinkedIn. 



  • Posted by Theresa Davis at
    12:00AM 01/12/2011 • 5 Comments

    The Hive comes to life

    Once upon a time in a small coastal Spanish city of Malaga, three meeting and event professionals began to chat at an opening reception. Each pro had a penchant for technology and social media and the conversation over tappas soon led to how at the next major event they could take away some of the mystery from technology and social media.  And an idea was born.

    The opening reception was at EMEC 2010 and the three pros were Theresa Davis (@MPITheresa), Samuel Smith (@samueljsmith) and Miguel Neves (@miguelseven).  The exciting thing is, that the initial idea of offering tutorials on how to use an even mobile app at a "genius bar" has now evolved.

    When I arrived back at MPI HQ from EMEC 2010 we were diving right into our preparations for WEC10 in Vancouver.  As any conference planner knows, it takes a while to develop a comprehensive idea that actually fits into meeting design. I as an enthusiastic PR chick wanted to jump right in last year with this idea.  But, no, I was schooled in the ways of patience, concept development and event design.

    So in collaboration with not only my team in communications and social media, but also creative services, publications, event management, content and (oh yeah don't forget) our leadership - MPI will launch "The Hive" at WEC 2011 in Orlando, FL.  The Hive became our working name as a tounge-in-cheek idea answer to the question, "Where will the 'buzz' at WEC be?" Then, as things tend to do when you let them organically develop, we realized that The Hive really works.  And if it works, don't try and fix it.

    Now I will say, that we did come up with some outlandish ideas in brainstorming.  The two-story lounge with diving board and trained bees didn't make it into the final design, but in all honesty we had a hard time justifying the ROI on the diving board and PETA probably would have had issues with trained bees serving cocktails (even if they were tiny, tiny cocktails).  What has made the final cut is a unique blend of areas where the tech-savvy and the tech-curious can meet, learn and share.

    We've evolved far beyond a standard bank of desktop PCs at the cyber-cafe and wrapped that feature around an area encompassing a tech concierge station, a demonstration/education stage, a rear projection screen that can run the #WEC11 twitter fountain or other presentations, and then there's One+ unplugged.  In the One+ unplugged area WEC participants will get to see bloggers, writers, and designers in action during interviews or production on the WEC Dailies.  The Hive will also house lounge areas with charging stations and provide areas to meet with speakers and facilitators.

    So we're at a cool place now from concept through development and now seeing The Hive begin to come to life. I hear from Meg and her team in Marketplace that savvy sponsors are looking at how they can interact with WEC guests in The Hive and that just makes me want to do a happy dance too.

    So while we're not at a wrap, and won't be for many months - I wanted to thank both Sam & Miguel for a stimulating conversation a year ago that has led to one of the coolest projects I've ever had a chance to be a part of, and to Team MPI for sticking with this wacky idea. When we meet, we change the world.