To help it fight undue public criticism, Dallas-based Meeting Professionals International (MPI) has launched a new Web site for the meetings industry. Designed to keep meeting planners abreast of industry-wide advocacy efforts, and to give them tools for defending and promoting the value of meetings, the site—
www.MeetingIndustryCrisisCenter.org—features information about the federal government's Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP), as well as news updates, action items and career tips for meeting planners.
"There is a perception that meetings and events need to be curtailed," MPI President and CEO Bruce MacMillan said in a statement. "In our view, it is quite the opposite with meetings and events providing the solutions not the problem. Organizations that use meetings and events effectively will stay closer to their employees and customers, emerging sooner and stronger from the crisis."
MPI is part of a meetings industry coalition—along with the American Hotel and Lodging Association, the Destination Marketing Association International, the International Association of Exhibitions and Events, the National Business Travel Association, Maritz Travel, the Professional Convention Management Association, the Society of Incentive & Travel Executives, and the U.S. Travel Association—that has joined forces recently in order to develop a unified message in support of meetings, events and incentive travel. Together, the coalition members are responding to media and policymakers who have unfairly characterized corporate meetings and events as excessive and expensive.
"It is vital that governments recognize the importance of the meetings and events industry," MacMillan continued. "Our industry is responsible for 15 percnet of all travel, creates over an estimated $200 billion in spending annually, generates nearly 2.4 million jobs and provides around $40 billion in tax revenue in the U.S. alone."
For more information, visit
www.MeetingIndustryCrisisCenter.org.