Colin Rorrie of MPI
In January 2006, Dallas-based Meeting
Professionals International will launch the first two phases of its
new MPI Member Solutions, designed to help planners determine where
they are in their careers and how to reach their professional
goals.
To be unveiled at the Professional Education ConferenceNorth
America in Charlotte, N.C., are My Professional Pathways and the My
MPI website, along with other services. The association’s main home
page also will get a new look.
My Professional Pathways will be a web-based self-assessment
and development tool through which planners will be able to
identify the skills they possess and pinpoint what they need to
learn to move on or up. My MPI will offer education and other
content specific to the individualized career path, plus an archive
of articles from the organization’s magazine, The Meeting
Professional, that fit the user’s profile, along with an
industry calendar and more, all free for members.
“Our industry has perfected the tactical execution of meeting
planning, but now it’s time to work more strategically and take our
industry to the next level,” said Colin Rorrie, Ph.D., CAE,
president and CEO of the association. “It’s time to define meetings
management as a true profession backed by a body of knowledge,
standard job descriptions and trained professionals who have a
lifetime of professional advancement opportunities.”
Planners will be encouraged to complete the skills assessment
portion in January; some of the data collected will be used to help
chapter leaders plan educational offerings at the local level.
Planner members also will be urged to complete a profile at the new
site to help MPI direct personalized content to their My MPI
pages.
Services to be unveiled later will include the ability to
customize the My MPI home page with news and topics of specific
interest to the user, opportunities to serve as a mentor, and other
new resources and features.
Ultimately, added Rorrie, “governments and universities
worldwide will consistently recognize meeting planning as a
profession. [It] will become a career of choice, not chance.”