It’s been quite a year of changes for Meeting Professionals International (MPI). Last June, MPI President and CEO Bruce MacMillan stepped down suddenly and the chapter-based association of more than 20,000 members was forced to seek out a brand-new president and CEO. In April, MPI’s Board of Directors hired Paul Van Deventer, former vice president in the health and wellness division at Walgreens and senior director of multinational sales and operations for American Express for 22 years, to lead MPI as it embarks on a major “transformation.”
At this year’s MPI World Education Congress (WEC), held from July 20-23 in Las Vegas at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center, “transformation” was not only the theme but a prime objective for MPI’s newly appointed leadership, which also includes MPI Chair Michael Dominguez, senior vice president of sales for MGM Resorts International. During the conference, Successful Meetings sat down with both leaders to discuss MPI’s current challenges and objectives, and its direction moving forward. Here’s what they had to say.
Choosing a New CEO
“We’ve had a change in leadership, but we’ve been consistent in executing a strategy that’s already been put forth,” Dominguez said regarding Van Deventer’s appointment. “That’s been the challenge for us this past year: We needed to have someone with the business acumen and sense to execute that strategy, and someone who would be consistent with listening to our members and addressing their needs. [With Paul], I’m very confident that we’ve hired the right person to lead MPI.”
MPI’s Strategy
Although MPI has undergone a tremendous number of changes, new President and CEO Paul Van Deventer says that the organization’s main strategy, which focuses on building community and offering opportunities for professional development and business solutions, will remain in place.
“The core approach and strategy that MPI is built around is all about professional development, community, and offering a marketplace,” Van Deventer said. “When I came on board, I knew those pillars would be a major part of my strategy, and we are still on target with those principles. To continue doing that, we need to expand the type of content that we are providing to our members. We also need to expand the reach and scope of our MPI community. And we need to ask ourselves how we can provide opportunities to do business outside of traditional markets.”
Both MPI leaders also stressed the importance of building partnerships and alliances and serving as an industry advocate. Dominguez added, “We want to be the collaborative organization in the meeting industry. We have a responsibility to be a collaborative organization.”
Addressing Criticism
When asked about negative criticism of MPI, the majority of which followed the sudden departure of Bruce MacMillan last year, Dominguez acknowledged that some of the criticism was not entirely unwarranted. “The proof is in the pudding. [Some of that criticism] is fair,” he said. “People will always have their own perceptions, but I think it’s important to keep in mind that we [as an industry] don’t always look outside of our industry to see how things really work.” Dominguez noted, for example, that the average term for a CEO in most industries is only five years.
“Not everyone knows what’s going on behind the scenes,” he added. “Still … it’s better to have critics than to be irrelevant. It’d be worse if there were no criticisms.”
Both Dominguez and Van Deventer said that, going forward, they will communicate more frequently with their MPI members to keep them informed.
New Partnerships
Shortly before the start of WEC, MPI announced its founding partnership with BOB.tv (short for Best of Business) to provide educational content to the start-up business-to-business video channel. Van Deventer said that the decision to partner with BOB.tv was partly motivated by the diversity of MPI’s membership. “We have a very diverse membership and this will be a great way of distributing content to those members who want to receive our content through this type of medium,” Van Deventer explained.
On Sunday, July 21, MPI also signed a memorandum of understanding with the Thailand Convention & Exhibition Bureau (TCEB) to provide education for Thailand-based meeting and event planners. Of that new partnership, Van Deventer said it addresses “a huge need to educate people who will need to provide these services. It’s a natural mix,” he said. “We don’t have be putting up new MPI chapters around the world to spread our global reach. Our value that we have for new marketplaces, especially those that take an investment approach like Thailand does, is huge.”
Van Deventer added that MPI is currently in talks with other convention and exhibition bureaus to form similar partnerships, and that Asia and Latin America are particularly significant regions for growth.
Listening to MPI Members
From the beginning of Van Deventer’s appointment, he has embarked on a “listening tour,” in the hopes of eliciting feedback from MPI members around the globe. “I hear a lot from members and the outpouring has been significant. They have a strong voice,” he said. “I’m hearing a consistent message from them, that they are passionate about MPI but they do want us to be more relevant, to add more new members and to help those new members.”
Cultivating Leadership Within MPI
Dominguez said that one of his major goals as the new MPI chair is to help both newer members to MPI — especially students — and senior members and leaders from the organization. To do that, he is in the process of assembling two different task forces — one focused on students and future leaders, and another on senior leaders — that will have time-specific goals to identify the greatest needs of both types of MPI members.
On a relate note, Dominguez said he hopes MPI will be influential in impacting MBA programs to demonstrate to future business leaders and CEOs the economic value of holding face-to-face meetings.
Focus on Advocacy
Concurrently, both Van Deventer and Dominguez said that advocacy will also remain a top priority for MPI. “One of the biggest challenges that we face as an industry is in speaking as one voice to our government and getting people to understand what it is that we do as an industry,” said Dominguez. “We are a target for everything … one way or another, we have become that punching bag. Our legislators forget how vital we are, and it’s an overreaction.”
He added, “There will always be challenges. We’re not yet out of this economic downturn and who knows when the next one will take place. There’s always a need for us to take a lead and we need to address them always, even when there’s no immediate emergency.”
“I’ve been in the unique position of going back to [this] industry but also being outside of it for a while,” said Van Deventer. “Having done that, I think that one of the industry’s biggest challenges will be getting the rest of the world to understand what it is that we do. It’s critical that we advocate for our industry, and that’s why we’ve been forming alliances with such organizations as HSMAI and GBTA.”
Van Deventer said that one of the industry’s biggest challenges will be to “prove there’s value to holding meetings.” He added, “How do you know the return on investment of a face-to-face meeting? How do you begin to measure the emotional attachment, the impact, of meeting face-to-face?” Referencing WEC’s moving performance during the opening general session, when a handful of MGM Resorts International employees spoke about their personal challenges and triumphs, he said, “People here may not remember exactly who said what on stage but they’ll remember that message: ‘I see you.’ We as an industry need to stress that value of a meeting, too.”