Q&A:

Meetings South sat down with MPI Chairwoman of the Board Theresa (Terri) Breining, CMP, CMM, at the association's recent 2004 Professional Education Conference—North America in San Antonio.

Midway through her term as chairwoman, Breining has helped guide the association in its efforts to implement its Strategic Plan, including a drive to compile crucial industry research, and develop a stronger relationship between local chapters and the national organization.

Following are some excerpts from the conversation:

Meetings South: How is the Strategic Plan progressing?

Terri Breining: It's progressing very well. The implementation of that is well underway. We've added a lot of new programs here at this conference that support that. The programs have been given to the chapters because the majority of MPI members experience MPI through the chapters, so what we've recognized is that we need to give the chapters not only information about the Strategic Plan, but also tools so they can deliver that. They're very, very excited about that.

We're in the process now of developing a program that will stratify education for planners so that, rather than just saying junior planner/senior planner, we're going to have education differently designed for the planner, say, with up to three years experience, or from three to five. So we're going to be able to more specifically not just provide education, but also target it.

MS: It seems that MPI's Future Watch report is optimistic about a meetings industry turnaround. Can you elaborate on this?

TB: Interestingly, planners plan to spend more—4 percent—and suppliers plan to make 4 percent more. The base numbers are still different, but both projected a 4 percent increase. We're on our way back. It's all good news.

MS: What are MPI's strategies for dealing with the increasing power of procurement departments over meeting department budgets?

TB: This is a new business trend that's happening, and it's happening not just in meeting planning, but in other segments as well. The message is it's happening, and that meeting planners are wise to accept it, get an understanding of it, get their arms around what's going on—not just within their own meetings or in their own department, but what's going on with the organizations on a broader scale. How can they support that, and how can they begin the consolidation process so they can manage it rather than being victimized by it? That's the message, and to the extent that people do that, they're going to be on top of it.

MS: The prime mission of MPI has always been to increase the clout of meeting planners. Is the trend of procurement departments exercising budget control a step backward for meeting planners?

TB: I don't think this is a problem, I think it's an opportunity for us. But I think that for meeting planners, if they sit back and do nothing, it will be a problem. What we're saying is, "This is how things are going—in a lot of segments, not everywhere—but this is a trend, and if you can get in front of it and if you can take active steps to get your arms around it, then you can manage it, and if you don't, it will be a problem. But if you do get in front of it, you can control it—you have greater control, greater choices about how it plays out. Isn't it better for the meeting planner to go to the CFO and say, "We have some consolidation opportunities; here's our total meetings spend and here's some ideas on how to control it," rather than having the procurement officer go to the CFO and say, "We're spending a lot of money over there in meetings." So the meeting planners in organizations have a great opportunity to do that. That's really what [MPI's recent] procurement seminar was all about: This is going on, either deal with it or become a victim of it.

MS: What other issues do you see coming up on the horizon?

TB: Everybody's concerned about whether the industry is recovering. I think the answer to that is yes. It's not going to happen as quickly as maybe we'd like, but because it doesn't happen rapidly, it might happen in a more stable way, so maybe it will strengthen our foundation a bit more—that's all good.

Obviously, everyone is concerned about what happens if we have another terrorist attack. But the good news that I've observed is people aren't stopping because of that, we're going on with whatever our business is, and that, I think, is good and very healthy, because we can't wait in anticipation of the next disaster, whether natural or not. I'm optimistic. I'm not na ve to think everything's fine and we can go back. I don't think we can go back. I think the people that want to go back to the way it was a few years ago are living in a bit of a fantasy land, because we're not going to have that again, and that's good. We've been forced to grow up, and we have—we've stepped up. I think MPI has done it in a big way, and other industry organizations have done it as well. That's the thing—we've continued to raise the bar.

MS: In your last six months as chairwoman, do you have a short list of what you want to accomplish?

TB: One of my promises at the beginning of [my tenure] was to have greater contact with the chapters, so what I'm trying to do is get to as many chapters as possible this year, which has been really wonderful because what I have experienced is the enthusiasm of our members.

And also issues such as attrition. My focus is to make sure we stay focused as an organization on the Strategic Plan—that research process is huge, and getting that off the ground is one of the things I want to do before I leave this post. And the great news is that [Chairman-elect] Hugh Lee was part of the Strategic Plan task force, too—he gets it, so we're not going to have a gap there at all.

Also, one of the things that we're doing is working more cooperatively with the other industry organizations. The foundations have been meeting together. Last week [MPI President and CEO] Colin [Rorrie Jr.] met with the PCMA and ASAE foundations—what can we do together? We're working very closely with the CIC on developing the CMP in Europe. We've just set up talks between [CIC President and CEO] Mary Power and our Mexico chapter, because they're very excited about doing the CMP. We're focusing on increased cooperation with our sister organizations in the industry, because this is not just about what MPI does and how great we are—all of us are in this together, so we want to keep moving forward.