To understand the essence of the game-changing Meeting and Event Master’s Degree program that will be rolled out next year by San Diego State University (SDSU) and MPI, start with a couple of popular slogans.

First, there is the MPI mantra that applies to the moment the program was born two years ago: “When we meet, we change the world.” Second, there is a phrase that has emerged to describe the fundamental essence of the program itself: “It’s not just a master’s, it’s a movement.”

Three presentations on the MPI/SDSU master’s program will be offered at IMEX America in Las Vegas next month.

• Monday, October 15: 11:15 a.m.-12:15 p.m., “Senior Professional Masters Series:Data Driven Event Design”; 1:45-3 p.m., “Senior Professional Masters Series: Applying Data to Event Design”

• Wednesday, October 17: 4-4:30 p.m., “A Master’s Degree in Meeting and Event Management? Oh my!”

The program concept was actually born in a meeting—albeit a small and informal one—when Carl Winston, founding director of the L. Robert Payne School of Hospitality & Tourism Management School at SDSU, got together with Paul Van Deventer, MPI president and CEO, in a San Diego sports bar. That one-on-one meeting would set in motion a process that will create the first master’s-level degree program in North America for meeting and event professionals, and it will not just serve to increase the expertise and level of strategic skill sets of the program’s graduates, but will increase the status of the profession itself, according to Winston and the MPI/SDSU team formulating the curriculum for the program.

Almost like something out of a movie script, the foundational concepts for this ambitious academic program were jotted down on a cocktail napkin that the two men pondered as they sat there two years ago sipping a couple of beers, Winston says.

“My pitch to Paul was that for one thing, there’s nobody doing a master’s degree in this incredible profession,” Winston says. “I told him I think it’s a big idea—it’s so big that I can’t do it without both a marketing and distribution partner and without getting some serious input from meeting professionals. I asked Paul if he would consider a collaboration between MPI and SDSU. I said, ‘Help us bake this idea and as part of the process become our business partner.’ Paul said, ‘Carl, that is a big idea—write it up.’”

From that brief discussion came a lengthy, detailed memo of understanding (MOU) between an acclaimed hospitality school at a major university and the world’s pre-eminent meeting professional association.

“It took about a year to get the rest of the team at my university and at MPI Global to say, ‘Yeah, let’s do this; let’s sign an MOU and execute this thing,’” Winston recalls.

In November 2017, MPI and SDSU announced the plan to create the master’s program, with MPI lending its expertise and worldwide network of professionals to help in the lengthy and detailed process of creating the curriculum for the 18-month-long course of study, designed for experienced meeting professionals who will continue their daily jobs while being SDSU students who study remotely and visit the SDSU campus for a week at the beginning of their studies and a week at the end. The program is scheduled to begin operation in fall 2019.

Winston says the key initiatives in which MPI has been involved are two-fold. First, MPI has gotten its staff and its members involved in providing ideas and feedback on what will be a game-changing, skills and perspective-broadening curriculum for meeting professions seeking to propel their careers forward. Second, MPI has helped SDSU reach out to MPI’s worldwide membership base for their opinions and degree of interest in the program.

In August and September, MPI did two email drops to its membership, asking for responses from meeting professionals who would be interested in the program. About 600 members had responded by mid-September.

“The names on the list are extremely impressive, companies like Boeing, VISA, Harvard Law School,” Winston says. “They are saying, ‘Please give me more information about this.’ The response has been just incredible.”

By mid-September, the SDSU team was reaching out to those who responded to the email, doing one-on-one telephone interviews to get more detailed opinions of how the program could enhance its students’ skills and career advancement trajectories.

Both Winston and Tracy Judge, MS, CMP, founder of Soundings Connect event consulting and staffing of San Diego, a graduate of the master’s degree program in hospitality services at SDSU and part of the team propelling the MPI/SDSU partnership forward, say that among other things, what’s spurring interest in the new program is the nature and quality of what it’s designed to provide.

For instance, the program is not designed to teach meeting planning fundamentals that experienced professionals already know. The program is looking for students who already have years in the industry and are interested in upping their game, preparing themselves to interact with C-level executives and develop a strategic view of the industry instead of just being focused on day-to-day operations.

Mentorship, both formally and informally, is a key part of the program that is designed to deliver results in mastering a C-level perspective, Judge says. For instance, when she was in the SDSU program while working at Maritz Global Events, David Peckinpaugh, president of Maritz Global Events and chair of the PCMA Board of Trustees, became a mentor.

“David was extremely supportive of me furthering my education,” she says. “He connected me with others inside the organization who provided me with real world context to my coursework to enhance my understanding of the third-party business.”

The goal of the mentorship program is not only to give the students access to the knowledge, contacts and perspectives of their high-level mentors, but to boost their standing in the companies at which they are employed while they are SDSU master’s program students.

In fact, a big-picture goal of the program is to increase the perception of the value meeting professionals bring to the business world.

“That’s one of the reasons we say, ‘It’s not just a master’s, it’s a movement,’” Judge says.

“It’s time for meeting professionals to receive the recognition they so richly deserve, and we think this program will help achieve that,” Winston says.