The return of face-to-face meetings in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic will be both a shot in the arm and a challenge for association professionals in the meeting and event industry.

Association planners, who make up 25 percent of MPI’s membership, face specific challenges not experienced by corporate planners due to their organizations’ structure, not-for-profit status and governance.

Add to that the push for industry recovery from the devastating pandemic, which brought business events to a standstill and led to a reliance on virtual meetings. While some U.S. states have been more lenient in allowing small-scale meetings in person, the vast majority of meetings have been via digital formats.

That is soon to change. With more of the population having received and having access to vaccines and more states beginning to loosen regulations to allow increased meeting size, a new focus begins for association professionals.

“The most pressing concern for association planners is COVID compliance as we start to plan in-person events again,” says Lindsay Plath, CMP (MPI Chicago Area Chapter), senior professional development coordinator for the Illinois Association of School Business Officials in DeKalb and chair of MPI’s Association Professionals community. “There are so many factors that go into designing and implementing a COVID compliance strategy and it is truly unique for each organization. Where are attendees traveling from? What are the restrictions that they are used to? Will your organization perform onsite testing? Who will act as your compliance officer to enforce the guidelines? Those questions just scratch the surface. Add that many associations face budgetary restrictions and have strong governance, and it is no small feat.”

“From transitioning back to in-person events to incorporating virtual elements at said events, we will all be learning and growing together.”

And it’s not just the return of face-to-face that has association professionals scrambling to get training and insight. Successfully designing and coordinating hybrid meetings also presents a learning curve, starting with constantly changing COVID restrictions and shortened timelines.

“Don’t forget about the budget,” Plath says. “In essence, planning a hybrid event is planning two events at the same time. There are articles, webinars and other resources that are being published, but just like virtual, we all will have to go through planning our first hybrid event to really know what it is all about.”

It’s no surprise then that the Association Professionals community has grown more than 175 percent since the start of 2020 to provide resources, education and support to association planners, who, like most planners, faced a great deal of change and pressure over the past year.

Plath and her fellow volunteer committee members realized the community needed to be a place for members to share ideas and resources while connecting with others who understood the unique challenges they were facing. The group started Hot Topic Chats last summer to enable association professionals to network and come together in an informal setting.

“We are continuing these chats in 2021 to provide a space for connections and idea sharing as we face more unique challenges this year,” Plath says.

The first chat in March was appropriately titled “Restart…Where to Start?”

Association Professionals community. MPI supports its community of 2,000 professionals through targeted educational offerings and social activities.

Plath says the top priority for this year is to provide members with a go-to resource to discuss all the new changes coming their way this year.

“From transitioning back to in-person events to incorporating virtual elements at said events, we will all be learning and growing together,” she says.

Plath’s leadership is not just a continuation, but an expansion of the work done by last year’s committee chair, Molly C. Marsh, CMP (MPI Kentucky Bluegrass Chapter), director of education and engagement design for AMR Management Services in Lexington, Ky. The level of interaction among the community has impressed Marsh.

“This community has, for the most part, really asked great questions of one another, and people contribute to the online community regularly,” she says. “Many of the connections made at that first Association Professionals Meet-Up at the World Education Congress in 2019 have led to additional offerings for MPI chapters, development of resources and personal connections that sustained us through this crazy last year. I feel that association planners are more connected to one another than we were before within this membership community and that is really what it’s all about.”

Plath began her career at a nonprofit where she did a little bit of everything—fundraising, volunteer management, meeting and event planning and member services.

“I feel that association planners are more connected to one another than we were before within this membership community and that is really what it’s all about.”

“We hosted a large continuing education event every February and after helping coordinate the first one, I knew that I wanted to pursue a career in the event industry,” she says. “I love watching everything come together and the fact that no two workdays are alike. This career is a perfect fit for my strengths and personality. Plus, I love the sense of community that comes from being in the events world.”

Plath joined the community last year and so enjoyed working with her peers that she “jumped at the chance” to lead the group.

“When I think of professions that are poised to handle the change and uncertainty associated with a pandemic, meeting professionals are definitely on my list,” she says. “We are thrown curveballs and must deal with the unexpected all the time. That, and having a strong network that I can turn to, have helped tremendously over the past year. I am also an introvert at heart. My husband and I joke that we have been training our whole lives for a year of isolation.”

Professional development is at the top of the list of key initiatives for 2021, along with education around COVID compliance.

“We are all in this together,” Plath says. “We will get through this and come out more resilient. If you would have told me at the beginning of 2020 that I would learn all there is to know about Zoom and host over 35 virtual meetings, I would have laughed you out of the room. Now, I and many meeting professionals have a whole new skill set that we will use for many years to come.”

Association meeting and event planners make up 25 percent of MPI’s membership. These professionals face specific challenges that corporate meeting and event organizers do not because of their organizations’ structure, not-for-profit status and governance.