To help meeting planners who are in transition, Meeting Professionals International (MPI) has expanded its MPI Career Connections Program with new scholarships, enhanced live event career networking and expanded online resources, it announced last week.
"There is no doubt that our industry is in recovery and the business forecast is increasingly positive," MPI Chairwoman Ann Godi said in a statement. "But the recession displaced many meeting professionals and also created re-skilling opportunities for others. Sometimes it's just not enough to acknowledge there's a problem and offer words of encouragement. We felt compelled as an organization to help our unemployed members stay connected to opportunities and content that can advance their careers."
MPI's newest Career Connections addition is a scholarship program to help send unemployed MPI members to a career fair at its World Education Congress (WEC), July 23-27 in Vancouver. According to MPI, scholarship recipients will be able to participate in networking events, onsite interviews, a professional development educational track and more.
For those who can't attend WEC, MPI has announced that it also will expand its online career database by allowing HR professionals to advertise open meetings industry positions at no cost, using a special discount code.
More than 10,000 job seekers have signed up for the Career Connections website, where posted jobs have been viewed more than 80,000 times this year to date, according to MPI.
For more information, visit www.mpiweb.org/careers.