CAL Offers Meeting Planner Certificate

Staff -- Tradeshow Week, 11/8/2004

The Center for Assn. Leadership is offering a new certificate program that focuses on the business of planning meetings.

The program is geared toward senior-level meeting professionals with eight or more years of experience, said Susan Sarfati, CAL president and CEO, and executive vice president of the American Society of Assn. Executives.

"We've heard loud and clear from many meeting planners that there is a lot of information and programming for entry-level planners, but not as much focusing on the business of meetings," she said.

The program is an outgrowth of surveys and focus group research conducted over the past five years by ASAE's Meetings & Exposition Section Council. It will include five core competencies: strategic planning and environmental scanning; marketing, sales and branding; core business management; leadership and communications skills; and meetings and expositions operations.

Amy Ledoux, vice president of meetings and expositions for ASAE and CAL, said the program would meet a longstanding industry demand. "We are very excited about filling what we perceive as a gap in traditional educational offerings for senior-level association meeting professionals," Ledoux said.

Although a fee schedule has yet to be finalized, an initial course will be rolled out in several major U.S. cities in the spring of 2005 and throughout the year.

A couple other educational programs for meeting management already exist. Meeting Professionals Intl. members can get their Global Certification in Meeting Management (CMM), which MPI recently extended to Europe. The Convention Industry Council also offers the Certified Meeting Professional (CMP) program as a credential for planners.