MPI, a window onto the World of the Meeting Industry

MPI meeting industry

Among the professional associations of the meeting industry, MPI is the most numerous, active and prestigious in the world.

1.Why I chose to commit to MPI

A professional association occupies an irreplaceable position. It’s knowledge accelerator and container, a place where to find solutions and opportunity. To sum up: it’s a huge resource, if it’s a high quality association. And I think that it’s strange to find success in our own profession without developing relations, widening the horizons and improving our skills.

A good professional association should be able to offer all of this, that is, very concrete benefits, something more intangible: the prestige of the membership is a well known reality.

For this reason I decided to associate myself to MPI (Meeting Professionals International), the most prestigious association in the world of the congressional industry, with more than 40 years of history.

Beyond the services and the opportunities at a local level, MPI offers me an international background of more than 17 thousand professional partners in the whole world: the biggest professional community of the meeting industrial specialists.

Although I operate in a less advanced market than others, I know that I will be able to obtain and learn from more progressive skills and experiences than mine and that, viceversa, by these thousands of colleagues from all over the world I will be considered among the most competent and expert professionals of the Italian market. Excuse me if it’s not a lot.

2. The advantages

Being an MPI member offers a good advantage on making ownself worthy and on recognizing this profession, and on building an own carrier. Its certificates are known and recognized in the whole world (CMP; CMM*). Also here in Italy, MPI achieved an important result with the official recognition of the Ministry of Economic Development: it’s the first, and so far the only Association of the business communication, of marketing, of tourism and of MICE to be accredited in the list of the professional associations, not organized by orders, in the reserved section of those who release high-quality certificates. Since October we, the MPI members, can obtain an official certificate of the professionality of our work in the congressional sector.

3. MPI Italia Chapter

MPI is organized in the world in 90 Chapters/Club and it is operating in 24 countries.The Italian Chapter (MPI Italia Chapter) has been the first European Chapter that in 2016 will celebrate its 25th anniversary.
The board in charge in 2014:
The President: Olimpia Ponno, Rome, former, consultant and events’ organizer;
VP Sponsorship: Mauro Bernardini, Rome, ceo of All Star Agency, incentive agency;
VP Communication: Maria Rosaria Broggi, Rome, translator;
VP Education: Giovanna Lucherini, Florence, owner of Studio Guidi, events’ organization
VP Finance: Patrizia Pasolini, Rome, owner of Symposia, ECM provider
VP Membership: Carla Solari (me – Milan), journalist, founder of Italia Convention.

MPI Meeting Industry
from left to right: Mauro Bernardini, Maria Rosaria Broggi, Olimpia Ponno, Carla Solari, Patrizia Pasolini, Marilena Caruso (assistant), Giovanna Lucherini

We are a heterogeneous and, I think, well assorted group. We come from different experiences and we’re all willing to push on the development of the Association and on a certain innovation of its contents.
We are aware that the association offer is wide and that you can’t always be “everywhere”, but we are convinced that the total proposal and internationality of MPI are nowadays an intelligent choice.
On our part, we will make an effort to propose them in the best way in order to make understand not just the absolute value, but also the value-for-money regarding the joining fee.

In brief, our program is including
Training days on the most actual topics of the events’ organization
Networking meetings in Italy
International Networking with Chapters abroad
Hosted buyers groups to attend at international exhibitions
Participation at Italian and International exibitions
Collaboration with the other associations of the industry
Promotion and visibility of members
The program will be a non-stop work in progress and we will keep issuing news of its evolutions and of the new ideas that will come out.

4. To whom MPI addresses itself

The association isn’t just for planners (of firms or freelance professionals).
The members in the whole world belong with an amount that can’t exceed the 50%, also the experts that operate in the meeting industry at all levels (suppliers).
Thus the members are also venues’ managers, touristic operators, tour operators, officials of touristic area of the PA, universities’ professors, formers, people of PR and of communication, journalists.
Moreover MPI has a special “Students” section.

I believe that all suppliers of the meeting industry should try to understand how a meeting planner thinks, which are their needs and purposes, to make useful partnerships and be more competitive than the competition.
Becoming a member of MPI is a fast way to be informed, to enter in a certain way of thinking and to understand its dynamics.

This is an industry that is changing, the old habits are yielding, while the market is fast paced and offers also important opportunities but with new rules.
MPI is a window onto the profession.

5. The big resource of the International

Taking a look at the MPI International website means discovering a world. The quantity of the resources that are available for the members for free (and a lot of them has a charge for the non-members) are amazing: issues, researches, white papers, events’ reports, ideas, and a cross section of the professional market, in particular the US one, which clearly show the opportunities that can be grabbed also by us. Knowing it one year advance may help, and anyways, cheers up.

It also exists a Europe section, based in Holland, which is very active at the level of the idea flew and of the formative contributes.

I chose to commit myself to MPI also for this reason: to give a wider horizon to my profession, both to my technical and human knowledge, and to grab the opportunities that can arise from it.

In my opinion the high quality networking is the most precious contribute that we can receive from a professional association.

If you are interested in further information, contact me.

Visit MPI International

Visit MPI Italia Chapeter