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A great deal of effort and collaboration has been going on in Europe with your association this year as it prepares for a future of growth and success on the continent. This began on Day 1, Jan. 1, 2018, with the MPI European Advisory Council (EAC) set to work on a regional strategy for MPI.

“This group of volunteers, with extensive knowledge of the European market and of MPI as well as other associations, [examined information from] the 2016 European Task Force and, following a plan of analysis of the current situation and the future objective, has worked on building a three-year strategic plan [to create] a highly efficient and solid MPI community on our continent,” explains Ángeles Moreno, founder and CEO of the Creative dots, and 2018 chair of the European Advisory Council (EAC). “MPI and the EAC have invested significant resources to be able to analyze the situation of our community, the value proposition of MPI in Europe and to design a highly valuable strategic plan that helps MPI to direct a success strategy in Europe within the next three years.”

The 2019-2021 strategic plan, facilitated by Almudena de la Mata—an expert in advisory positions at the European Commission, Deutsche Bank, Bank of Spain and more—is perhaps the greatest achievement of the inaugural EAC, according to Moreno.

The most visible achievement, she says, is likely to be the MPI European roadshow, which kicked off last month during IBTM World in Barcelona and will continue throughout 2019 as MPI leadership—including President and CEO Paul Van Deventer and COO Darren Temple—meets with industry leaders in key European cities.

“This [roadshow] aims to strengthen the positioning of our European chapters and bring us closer to our member communities and partners in different countries,” says Moreno, a 20-plus-year industry veteran and outgoing president of the MPI Iberian Chapter.

The program will leverage the impact of face-to-face meetings to share the work that is being done by MPI to enhance the experience and value proposition specific to European industry professionals.

“Additionally, because we are an industry of people, our objective is to bring MPI’s leadership closer to the main actors of each country in order to establish personal collaboration and development ties that benefit the event industry and its professionals,” Moreno says.

A renewed focus on growth and development in Europe, Moreno says, will increase awareness of MPI—especially on the heels of the European Meetings & Events Conference (EMEC) in The Hague, The Netherlands, Feb. 9-12, 2019. The theme of EMEC, “Changing the Game,” has a clear tie to the association’s ambitions in Europe—suitable since The Hague will be the second stop for the European roadshow. As the roadshow continues in February after EMEC, MPI leadership will visit Köln, Germany; Brussels; Paris; and London.

“MPI will have a more active presence in Europe in 2019, beyond the chapters that already do a magnificent job locally,” Moreno says. “We are in the process of analyzing and selecting events, CVB actions, economic impact studies and the various projects in which we will actively participate during 2019, including with economic support from the MPI Foundation.”

MPI would like to thank all members of the 2018 EAC—Ángeles Moreno (chair), Pieter Allaerts, Brigitte Boone, Remy Cregut, Heidi Hughes, Giovanna Lucherini, Miguel Neves and Hector Venegas—for helping to guide the association’s efforts in Europe.

Moreno says that as her one-year EAC chair term ends on Dec. 31, new volunteers will have the opportunity to take on a leadership role of this exciting project to guide European growth of the world’s largest meeting and event industry association.