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Meeting Professionals International Outlines Strategy for Growth

By Kathy Gibbons

The Meeting Professionals International Board of Directors has its sights set on 2027. Building on an organizational strategy initially conceived in 2020 by key board, staff, and executive team members, the organization recently solidified its goals for the next five years.

“Over the course of the past two years, the goals were modified based on economic conditions, but those pillars remained intact and were validated by the MPI Board this past September during meetings held in Quintana Roo, Mexico,” says Drew S. Holmgreen, MPI chief branding officer.

MPI leadership discussed their plans in a press conference held during IMEX America 2022, the global meetings and events expo held annually in Las Vegas.  As part of its partnership with IMEX, MPI staged several components at the gathering that included educational sessions, events, keynote addresses, and sponsoring MPI50 Day to commemorate its 50thanniversary. 

MPI’s Identified goals include increasing its global community and customer network, diversifying revenue, and growing partnerships. “Those were decided upon because they are key influencers of prospective success for MPI and the business events industry,” Holmgreen says. “Indeed, each is connected and reliant up on each other—growing partnerships will influence our diversity in revenue while creating an increased global community of business event professionals and ultimately, our customer network.”

MPI has initiated a variety of strategies to achieve those goals. For example, the organization launched global pricing earlier this year after beta testing in 2021. The pricing takes regional socioeconomic data and currency exchange to level the playing field when it comes to membership fees; four global tiers were created. 

So far, results have been positive. Member count in nonprimary rate markets increased 25 percent with member revenue rising 17 percent, MPI reports.

“What we’re learning coming out of COVID and especially with the dynamics of our workforce changing so dramatically with new generations is that the concept of membership in an association now looks very different,” MPI president and CEO Paul Van Deventer said at the press conference. “We want to focus on the concept of an engaged community. People want to interact with each other, do business with each other, and be involved. Membership may very well be an outcome of that engagement with the community, but there are many other ways to be involved with each other—whether it’s participating in one of our conferences, in a chapter, or joining one of our online communities.”

When it comes to partnerships, MPI has already created formal alliances with IAEE (International Association of Exhibitions and Events), IACC, SportsETA, Questex, and SITE, Holmgreen says.

“Those are in addition to our existing strategic partnership with IMEX and joint collaborations with NCBMP (National Coalition of Black Meeting Professionals) and HSMAI (Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International),” he adds. “These are key to growing MPI’s sphere of influence and growth, while offering collaboration that improves visibility and impact of our collective resources for current meetings and events professionals and those who are coming into the industry.”

 

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