To support the growing health-care meetings sector, Meeting Professionals International has launched the MPI-MD membership community and supporting advisory council. Available to members in the health-care realm will be career-development programs and resources, an exclusive online member community and private consulting. For the association's upcoming World Education Congress in Atlantic City, June 11-14, MPI also has added more health-care education, covering topics such as strategic meetings management and industry trends.
These changes were put in motion almost two years ago, when MPI acquired the Healthcare Meeting Compliance Certificate from the International Medical Meeting Professionals Association, which then dissolved. MPI began forming this special-interest group in February; it currently has more than 800 planner and supplier members.
"Medical-meeting professionals operate in a very complex regulatory environment, and as a result, this segment of our membership has campaigned for more specialized training and resources," said Paul Van Deventer, president and CEO of MPI. "Since acquiring the HMCC Program almost two years ago, we have expanded our offerings to include health-care webinars, the HMCC Refresher Course, the CMP-HC Prep Course and now MPI-MD. We anticipate the MPI-MD advisory council and community will be instrumental in shaping our health-care meeting education for years to come."
The MPI-MD Advisory Council will provide guidance on educational offerings and contribute to the MPI-MD forum within the MyMPI Online Community. The current council, listed below, will serve two-year terms ending in December 2018, and will hold its first face-to-face meeting at the WEC.
In other WEC news, MPI's opening general session will feature keynote speaker Mike Shea, executive director of South By Southwest (SXSW), who who has been the lead planner for the cultural festival since 1990. Also speaking at the session, which will be held June 12 at 9:30 a.m., will be Amy Blankson, co-founder of GoodThink, who will talk about managing stress in a positive way.
MPI-MD Advisory Council Members:
Jacqueline Beaulieu, HMCC, BlueHive Inc.,
Mary Davar, CMP, CMM, MBA, HMCC, Merck ESS Meeting Services
Kathi Donovan, CMP, HMCC, Bristol-Myers Squibb
Mozelle Goodwin, CMP, HMCC, Eisai Inc.
Isabelle Gordon, Bayer Healthcare
Bonnie Grant, HMCC, Greater Philadelphia Life Sciences
Deborah Hinson, HMCC, The Hinson Group
Jennifer Kamins, CMP, HMCC, Takeda
Michael Mahoney, HMCC, Genentech
Diana McClure, CMP, HMCC, Hilton Worldwide
Steve O'Malley, Maritz Travel
Kathleene S. Opperman, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals Inc.
Taya Paige, HMCC, ITA Group
Charlene Rabideau, CMM, HMCC, BCD Meetings & Events
Chelsea Rowe, HMCC, Baxter Healthcare Corp.
Cheryl Smith, HMCC, Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority
Debi Smith, HMCC, CMP, CMM, McKesson Corporation
Michael Varlotta, Janssen Immunology
Bonnie Weiss, Hyatt Hotels
Maggie Young, CMP, Medtronic
Tanya Zuckerman, CMM, CMP, Bayer CropScience