Our industry is in a SHIFT. I cannot be prouder to be your new President during this industry SHIFT. MPI International has challenged each Chapter to BE BOLD, BE BRAVE, BE BRILLIANT! How exciting is that? For those of you that did not attend the May Gala, I want to recap a couple of the initiatives that I talked about: With everything we’ve experienced in our industry in the last year, one of the most important things we can do is to help find ways to engage as many people as possible in making this a great chapter – to keep building on the successes the past presidents, boards and chapter members have created. We are facing a lot of change in our world and that can be unsettling. I have a favorite quote...“When you face the unknown you will either find a firm place to stand on or you will learn to fly.” We are facing a lot of unknowns. The meeting industry is in a rather dark tunnel right now. We’re not sure where we’ll be or what things will look like when we come out at the other end. But I believe we can play a huge role in influencing our own futures. One of the opportunities we have is to build on what’s been happening on the national level – to make the business case for the meetings and events we create… to make the connections between what we do and the success of the organizations we’re serving… One thing we do know: our meetings provide real value. It’s a lot easier to look at them as investments and business builders instead of an extravagant use of valuable resources. What I’d like to do this year is focus on the idea of “meeting on purpose.” To make sure everything we do in our industry provides real value to the businesses we serve… to make sure the events we plan are designed with an eye on the bottom line success of our companies… to make sure that those who are scrutinizing our industry see that our meetings are about learning, collaborating, sharing ideas and information, inspiring greater individual performance, and making businesses more successful. I’d like to spend my year as your chapter President flying, rather than standing firm and hoping everything settles down and eventually turns out okay. We will be trying some new things this year and I hope you’ll join me whenever and however you can.
There has never been a better time to get involved in our chapter by joining a committee. There are so many changes and challenges going on within our industry and by keeping in close proximity to the pulse of our chapter will ensure that you are armed with the right tools to tackle those challenges successfully. There will be a few changes and challenges presented within our chapter too with some cool new tools for communicating our message and exciting developments for our membership. This month we feature an important communiqué from our MPI President, Bruce MacMillan as well as some very inspiring words from our own new Chapter President, Jaimie Mattes. His vision and drive will ensure this coming year will be a very exciting one for all our membership. Finally, our Immediate Past President, Ann Margaret Young dons a new hat with the first of her new columns, “Young” and Restless which will feature personal news updates on our members. I am confident this new segment will prove very popular. Finally, for those of you savvy on the social media sphere, we have a Facebook group page, and now you can keep up to date on a daily basis with our new Twitter account @MPIMN. We promise to communicate to you, our members, through whatever medium, everything that is relevant and important within our chapter and in the MPI world as a whole. Slán abhaile.
This is your place to share your news – job shifts, promotions, births, awards, etc. It can be news about yourself or your fellow MPI member. Please note I will be checking with everyone to make sure they are ok with us sharing their news in this public forum. Here is a couple interesting additions to the MPI family: Janelle Murphy and husband, Joe, welcomed their daughter, Shealyn Maeve, on Friday, March 13th at 3am – 7lbs and 2oz. Staci Kvasnik and husband, Steve, would like to announce that Samuel Mason Kvasnik arrived Tuesday April 28th! He was born at 2:28 pm and is 7lbs 11ozs and 20.5" long. Mom and baby are doing fantastic! If you would like to submit news to this column, send your information to:
What is your current job description? What has been your greatest professional challenge? In your past history, has anything happened that was unexpected? We are always planning for the “what ifs”. Our imaginations always come up with far worse scenarios than the reality of our experiences. I’ve been fortunate to work with peers and business partners that are really invested in the outcome. How long have you been in MPI and what have you learned since becoming a member? What is something you would like to share with us about your personal life?
Monday, June 8, 2009 Dear MPI Presidents and Presidents-Elect: As you know over the past year, MPI re-imagined our awards program to recognize exceptional performance and best practices within the context of MPI’s new vision, mission and strategic objectives. The RISE Award (Recognizing Industry Success and Excellence) for Organizational Achievement acknowledges the transformational impact an organization has envisioned and achieved. The organization must exhibit leadership to advance organizational strategy, drive business results, or create change utilizing meetings and events. At this year’s WEC in Salt Lake City, we will award the Obama for America campaign with our first-ever RISE Award for Organizational Achievement. Awareness of the continually evolving communications culture placed the campaign in a league of its own, resulting in an operation run true to the times. By leveraging the power of human connections online and during face-to-face meetings, the campaign made it easy for people to get involved. And when they met...they changed the world. Betsy Myers, chief operating officer and senior advisor for Obama for America, will accept the MPI RISE Award on behalf of the campaign. The presentation and reception are set to take place 4 p.m., July 10 at the Grand America hotel in Salt Lake. For more details, please reading the following article in Meeting of the Minds. Thanks for your ongoing support. Bruce M. MacMillan, C.A.
DALLAS (June 8, 2009) – For its unprecedented ability to utilize meetings and events to accomplish transformational change, the Obama for America campaign has been chosen to receive Meeting Professionals International’s (MPI) first-ever RISE Award for Organizational Achievement, recognizing industry success and excellence. The award will be presented at MPI’s annual World Education Congress (WEC) in Salt Lake on July 10, 2009. Achieving success by maintaining relevancy, simplicity and consistency, the campaign delivered a 21st-century template for impactful, exceptional, domestic and international events. Betsy Myers, chief operating officer and senior advisor for Obama for America, will accept the MPI RISE Award on behalf of the campaign. “I am proud to accept this award on behalf of Obama for America and the thousands of the people who worked hard on this campaign. We’re honored to receive such significant recognition from MPI,” Myers said. Awareness of the continually evolving communications culture placed the campaign in a league of its own, resulting in an operation run true to the times. “We used the Internet in a way that no one had ever done before,” Myers continued, “to not only raise money but to include people by getting them involved and organized. We took what [former chairman of the Democratic National Committee] Howard Dean did in 2004, raising money on the Internet, to the next level by incorporating real time social networking interaction.” By the time the campaign was over, volunteers had created more than 2 million profiles on the website, My.BarackObama.com, planned 200,000 offline events, formed 35,000 groups, posted 400,000 blogs, and raised $30 million on 70,000 personal fund-raising pages. The idea of doing things differently compounded the relevancy of the campaign, with people feeling that they were being heard and their voices valued. This multitiered approach to reach the population, such as going to the people, exampled some of the respect Obama demanded be given to the voters. “Whether or not you agree with U.S. President Barack Obama’s politics, the vision and strategy created transformational change. That is what we all should do when we bring people together,” said Hattie Hill, chairwoman of the MPI Awards and Recognition Task Force and CEO of Hattie Hill Enterprises. “You didn’t have to ask permission to get involved,” Myers said. “You got involved on the Internet and via social networking…we set up some of the infrastructure for you to participate. It was infectious, and people got involved because they wanted to be a part of something bigger than themselves, because they believed they could make a change in their lives and the lives of others.” Hill recalls the reach of the campaign: people met at small churches, multiple generations of participants gathering online and massive global meetings for the masses. By leveraging the power of human connections online and during face‐to‐face meetings, the campaign made it easy for people to get involved through myriad access points. “It’s about relationships,” Myers said. “People came together because of this common desire to make the world better.” The presentation and reception set to take place 4 p.m., July 10 at the Grand America hotel, right before the start of the World Education Congress in Salt Lake City, will also recognize MPI’s Community of Honorees. About MPI: Meeting Professionals International (MPI), the meeting and event industry’s largest and most vibrant global community, helps our members thrive by providing human connections to knowledge and ideas, relationships, and marketplaces. MPI membership is comprised of more than 24,000 members belonging to 71 chapters and clubs worldwide. For additional information, visit mpiweb.org. About MPI’s RISE Awards: The RISE Awards – Recognizing Industry Success and Excellence features seven annual awards in three primary categories—organizational achievement, individual achievement and community achievement. Recipients are recognized for innovation, global transferability, impact and influence. Winners will join the MPI Community of Honorees, a group composed of past award winners and distinguished MPI leaders. About the World Education Congress: The World Education Congress (WEC) is MPI’s largest gathering of meeting and event professionals from around the globe. This annual conference and expo draws thousands of business professionals including industry planners and suppliers to learn, to connect and to exchange ideas. 
1. You are running a series of six educational seminars during your three-day meeting.
2. For a meeting of 100 people, your program format consists of several speakers, each giving 20 minute presentations. One of your goals is to have the audience become involved by providing feedback to the speakers on their topics. You have included time for open questions and audience response to the presentations. To best facilitate audience involvement, your room should be set in which of the following configurations?
Congratulations to the following members who have been recognized for their continued commitment to MPI Minnesota and who celebrated their monumental anniversary in May or June. Thank you for your continued involvement and commitment within our chapter. 5 Years: 10 Years:
Meeting Professionals International is the association for the global meetings industry and is committed to delivering success for its 21,000 worldwide members by providing innovative professional development, generating industry awareness and creating business development opportunities. Founded in 1972, the Dallas-based organization delivers success through its 68 chapters and clubs in 20 countries around the world. For more information, visit www.mpiweb.org. Minnesota Chapter Office International Headquarters
Meeting of the Minds is the official publication of the Meeting Professionals International Minnesota chapter and is published 11 times yearly. Statements of fact and opinion within this newsletter are the responsibility of individual writers and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the officers or members of MPI. Articles submitted are subject to editorial revisions. Articles for Meeting of the Minds are always due on the third Wednesday of the month prior to distribution, and articles for News Notes are always due on the first Thursday of the distribution month. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
As I write this, I am just returning from the Chapter Leadership Conference in Fort Worth, TX. I was able to spend three days with the Chapter Executive Team and meet with other MPI Leaders from all over the world. Be prepared, because your team is energized!!! Every single chapter is facing some of the same obstacles. We can all help each other get through this. MPI International has some great initiatives planned and we as your elected board want to make sure you as members can benefit to the fullest extent.
Welcome to the June/July edition of Meeting of the Minds Newsletter. This is the first newsletter since we elected our new board and of course, President, Jaimie Mattes. I am also personally delighted to have been elected to the board as the Director of Communications. I am hoping that over the summer we can find a new editor for our newsletter.
Welcome to “Young” and Restless.
How did you get to your current position?
