MPI Renews Alliance, Offers ROI Series
Staff -- Tradeshow Week, 2/14/2005
The acronyms with the most buzz at Meeting Professionals Intl.'s Professional Education Conference-North America, Jan. 23–25 at the San Diego Convention Center, were ROI and NBTA.
MPI introduced the ROI Platinum Series to its members last month in an effort to "prove the value of meetings," said Kelly Schulz, MPI's director of communications.
The Dallas-based association also renewed its partnership with the Natl. Business Travel Assn. at the annual mid-winter meeting, which drew a record 2,733 attendees.
MPI and Jack Phillips, chairman of the Birmingham, Ala.-based ROI Institute, recently hosted a weeklong training session to certify 12 MPI members as official ROI series trainers. A total of 32 programs are scheduled for MPI chapters through June.
MPI and the ROI Institute will publish a book of case studies from the trainers, including one analyzing the Jan. 24 PEC Expo, which brought meeting planners together on a near-70,000 net square foot showfloor with 347 exhibitors, including CVBs, hotel chains, audiovisual providers and event production firms.
Randy Miller, vice president of sales for Nashville's Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center, said the ROI series is essential since "there are a lot of senior-level people that have an emotional tie to meetings, but don't understand where it falls on the revenue side of the equation."
Miller said he is interested in renewing Gaylord's current contribution of $225,000 to the MPI Foundation, because the ROI education is increasingly in demand among meeting planners.
