Corporate Meetings Network

May 3, 2012

MPI creating breakthrough sustainability leadership with association industry’s first Global Reporting Initiative™ event report

Meeting Professionals International (MPI) and its Foundation is committed to thought leadership in corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainability efforts. In demonstration of that, MPI is setting the example for standards-based reporting that everyone in the industry – no matter how large or small the event – can use to benchmark their own reporting programs.

March 30, 2012

Seven tips for doing more with less

Managing budgets – developing, tracking, and sticking to them – is a fundamental skill for planners and suppliers alike. They don’t seem that hard to develop; after all, most of us have a template or checklist that includes a line item for each of the disparate elements of a meeting. After that, it’s pretty much arithmetic: 100 breakfasts at $22 equals $2,200 plus plus plus. Where’s the challenge in that? Source: By Helen VanDongen

March 28, 2012

Survival of the fittest - what’s the future of event planning for associations?

Have you noticed numbers declining at associations’ annual conferences and tradeshows? If you are a professional member of an association, do you know why more of you aren’t coming out? Are you unsatisfied with the education and networking?

March 28, 2012

Biggest challenges facing meeting planners today

Short lead times, the Ontario Travel Industry Act and the need for transparency are just a few of the biggest challenges facing meeting planners today, says Katherine A. Wright, CMP, President of TheWrightSolution and Christine Gruber, CMP, Event Coordinator, Conferences and Meetings at OREA Ontario Real Estate Association.

March 1, 2012

Establishing trust and rapport in non face-to-face situations

When I was approached to write this article I thought, “sure, no sweat.” After all, I run a company that helps meetings industry organizations grow their business through phone and email lead generation programs. I’ve been teaching my clients and employees how to build trust and rapport for the last 14 years we’ve been in business.

December 6, 2011

Why event planners should 'start with why'

The concept is simply this – it doesn’t matter what you do, it matters why you do it. Citing examples ranging from Apple and Harley Davidson to Martin Luther King, Simon convincingly argues that the one thing these and other successful organizations and leaders have in common is that they answer the why questions before the who, what, when, where and how questions. This basic distinction permeates everything they do. For their companies and organizations, this can be seen in everything from their corporate culture to their marketing, and their overall strategic direction, vision and purpose. Source: By Martin Perelmuter, President, Speakers’ Spotlight

December 1, 2011

Conference explores new value measures for meetings industry

This event brought together not only senior representatives of the industry but a range of academics, government policy experts, media, medical and other professional organizations and those familiar with the economics of business in order to take a multi-dimensional view of the situation and to make recommendations as to how the industry could better measure, document and present its value proposition.

November 30, 2011

MPI introduces the Business Value of Meetings toolbox

Meeting Professionals International (MPI) recently introduced the Business Value of Meetings (BVOM) toolbox, a collection of resources created from research findings unveiled at AIBTM in June that indicated meeting and event professionals are challenged with five primary barriers to successfully proving the business value of meetings and events.

November 2, 2011

Opinion: Economic challenges require a new meetings industry value proposition

While Canada fared relatively well in the face of the economic chaos that has shaken the international scene over the past few years, we're not exempt from what's going on elsewhere in the world. As a largely resource-based economy, we're now hearing that we may actually be even more vulnerable to a second recession than many other countries, however sound such internal factors as our government and banking institutions may be. Source: Executive Director, Convention Centres of Canada

May 1, 2011

Event Portfolio Alignment

The following is a question and answer session between Susan Radojevic, president of The Peregrine Agency, and Sandra Eagle, CM&E managing editor, about Event Portfolio Alignment, a strategy to help corporations achieve strategic business goals through the power of meetings and events.

March 1, 2011

Making the case: Meetings matter and so do planners

The meetings and event sector has been hit hard in recent years, however, the outlook for 2011 looks much rosier. According to the latest MPI Business Barometer Report and the IMEX Global Insights Report, organizers are reporting increased demand for meetings, with the number and their associated budgets on the rise. Source: By Clare Tattersall

March 1, 2011