MPI Event Scaled Back Due to Death of Prince Rainier

Staff -- Tradeshow Week, 5/2/2005

The April 6 death of Monaco's Prince Rainier III forced changes to Meeting Professionals Intl.'s Professional Education Conference-Europe, held April 10–12 at Monaco's Grimaldi Forum.

Kelly Schulz, MPI director of communications, said some festive aspects of the conference's networking events were eliminated and the MPI Foundation Europe Rendezvous fundraiser was canceled. Instead, a $5,000 donation will be made to the Princesse Grace Foundation and sponsors Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide and the Vancouver Convention and Exhibition Centre will convert their sponsorships of canceled events into donations.

The 515 attendees from 30 countries surpassed last year's record of 502. New this year was a program entitled "Influencing Senior Decision-Makers," which gathered procurement professionals, in-house meeting planners and agencies to discuss issues and ways to explain the value of meetings to senior management at their companies and associations.

Caroline Hill, head of conference and events for Roche Products of the United Kingdom, was named 2005–2006 president of the European Council, succeeding Eric Rozenberg of Ince & Tive of Belgium. The 2006 PEC-E will be held March 26–28 in Davos, Switzerland.