2004 MPI WEC Report:

This year's MPI World Education Congress in Denver drew 3,151 delegates, the second-largest attendance in the history of the event—bested only by the association's 3,461-attendee-strong 2001 WEC in Las Vegas.

The WEC, held July 25-27 at the Colorado Convention Center, attracted 1,141 planners and 1,763 suppliers, with the complement comprised of media, speakers and guests. The event featured 610 exhibiting companies.

MPI International Board of Directors Chairman Hugh Lee offered his apologies to MPI members stung by a National Business Travel Association (NBTA) white paper aimed at travel managers entering the meeting planning field, and said that the association is working diligently to compile research, offer educational programs and improve its communications effort to better define the value of meetings to corporate leaders.

"You know what? We weren't perfect," Lee told an audience attending a town hall-style forum on strategic meeting management, during which many planners expressed discontent regarding the NBTA white paper. "We all went to school on that."

MPI formed a strategic alliance with NBTA last year. Under the pact, members of both organizations can attend each other's events and obtain educational information at reciprocal member prices.

"The world has changed around us," Lee said, "and as the world has evolved, [MPI will need to establish] a whole new body of relationships. We will fall occasionally and scrape our knees."

Although contrite about the controversy sparked by the NBTA white paper, both Lee and MPI President and CEO Colin Rorrie stood firm in their insistence that the association will have to transform itself to deal with the issue of corporate procurement departments exercising control over meetings budgets.

"We can go from here to doomsday and say we're not going to change our budget analysis [procedures]. Who's going to lose?" Lee said. "At the end of the day we have to have credible research, credible tools to bring to procurement."

Echoing Lee's resolve, Rorrie warned the audience that meeting planners—like members of other trades—must adapt or die in a corporate world that is increasingly focused on scrutinizing the bottom line and creating efficiencies.

"Our members are going to have to be strategists to make sure their function is integrated in [corporations'] strategic plans," Rorrie said. "If you don't become integrated, you become food for someone else."

Lee said that the fundamental nature of the meetings industry has changed, with organizations such as tech companies entering the field and many corporations cutting meeting planning staffs.

"Business has fundamentally changed," Lee told the crowd. "Most people have had cuts. We're only being asked to do what everybody else is being asked to do.

"MPI has to get faster," Lee continued. "We're slow, but we're getting faster."

Lee said MPI has a four-pronged strategy to deal with the creeping role of procurement departments exercising control over meetings budgets: creating policy papers that deal with the issue from the perspective of MPI; offering educational programs; creating alliances with groups such as NBTA as well as establishing relationships with organizations that may not traditionally be associated with the travel and hospitality industry; and improving the association's effort to alert members of the changing dynamics of the industry.

To further the effort, MPI in February announced it will launch a strategic plan in 2005 to elevate the role of meetings in business. The association said it has conducted research for the past 18 months in preparation for implementing the plan. MPI's Career Pathways program will culminate in a MyCareerMPI section of its website (www.mpiweb.org) where members can complete profiles, take assessments and receive career-development guidance.

The association also recently set up a customer-service call center where planners can obtain professional advice.