Collaborations are pivotal to MPI’s growth, reach and influence within the global community—we are so much stronger when standing with others. The spirit of collaboration has been part of MPI’s DNA from the very beginning, and it remains a core focus after all these years. Studies show that collaboration encourages innovation, sharing of resources and fostering connections, and it can begin organically from a casual meeting or deliberately at a networking event.

For example, a couple of years ago I met up with Carl Winston, a friend and former MPI board member who is the director of the L. Robert Payne School of Hospitality & Tourism Management at San Diego State University (SDSU). It was an informal meeting on an outdoor patio at a local San Diego bar, and two of my children joined us, so business was not on our agenda. As we were catching up on our respective lives, we found ourselves brainstorming on ways that MPI and SDSU could work together to strengthen our industry. That’s when the idea of partnering to develop the first meeting and event management graduate-level degree program in the U.S. was born.

I am so excited to see how this idea and collaboration between the MPI Academy and SDSU can flourish. Within the first week of the program’s announcement last month, more than 400 people had registered their interest in the program. Our teams are thrilled with this positive response.

As Helen Keller said, “Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much.”

The SDSU partnership is just one example of the many collaborative initiatives we have embarked on to enhance our portfolio of professional development offerings for our members and the industry. In addition, we’ve partnered with Indiana University to enhance our CMM Program and with the NYU School of Professional Studies (NYUSPS) Jonathan M. Tisch Center of Hospitality on a research program that will influence our Inclusive Experience Strategist Certificate Program, scheduled to launch early next year. We also partner with Event Design Collective to deliver the Event Design Certificate (EDC) Program at locations around the world. The EDC course is an immersive, three-day training course that teaches a systematic approach to event design leveraging the #EventCanvas method and was used to reimagine MPI’s 2018 World Education Congress.

And just last month, we engaged the MPI Mexico Chapter to serve as an authorized training partner for the MPI Academy, thereby extending our education capabilities in Mexico and other Spanish-speaking countries. This collaboration is the first of its kind for MPI and will entail the delivery of both in-person and online educational offerings slated for launch in the first half of 2019.

All these efforts strive to grow and elevate the meeting and event profession, while supporting your professional development. I encourage you to check them out, sign up and take your career to the next level.

Paul Van Deventer
MPI President & CEO
pvandeventer@mpiweb.org
Follow me on Twitter @MPICEOPaul

IMEX America

MPI’s strategic partnership with the IMEX Group is another collaborative effort that has been going strong and unrivalled for nearly a decade. Learn about Smart Monday powered by MPI and other MPI programming at IMEX America at www.mpiweb.org/events/imex-america-2018.