Meeting Professionals International
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Monday, July 26th, 2010Corporate social responsibility (CSR) should be renamed collective social responsibility, said Paul Salinger, vice president of marketing at Oracle, during MPI’s 2010 World Education Congress on Sunday afternoon. “It’s disappointing to me that [citizens] haven’t started doing what we would like corporations to do.”
“A lot of people know the problems, but don’t know what to [...]
Measuring Business Benefits Communicates Value of Meetings
Sunday, July 25th, 2010Building professional capacity through face-to-face meetings is a cornerstone of the meeting planning industry, a field often praised for delivering intangible, values-oriented benefits to businesses and professionals. Theresa Breining, principal of Breining Group LLC in Encinitas, California, told participants that for the industry to progress and survive—especially in a challenging economic climate and an increasingly [...]
The Only Way to Change the World is to Meet: Gobillot
Sunday, July 25th, 2010The only way to change the world is to meet, keynote speaker Emmanuel Gobillot told participants at the Opening General Session of MPI’s 2010 World Education Congress Sunday morning.
At a time when more generations are working together than ever before, everyone is suffering from information overload and the world of work has become more temporary [...]
Audience Profile Drives Technology Choices
Sunday, July 25th, 2010Before deciding dates, location and venue for a conference, meeting planners and suppliers must understand who should attend, why they would want to and what they’re most concerned about, social media specialist Paul Salinger told participants in a Sunday morning breakout session.
Salinger, vice president of marketing at Oracle Corporation, described a plethora of technologies to [...]
Meetings that Change the World
Tuesday, July 6th, 2010All this month, The Edge will carry advance and onsite coverage of MPI’s 2010 World Education Congress, July 24-27, 2010 in Vancouver. Posts are linked to an online community produced for MPI by Fusion Productions in partnership with The Conference Publishers, Clever Zebra, and master of ceremonies Glenn Thayer. Join the discussion today!
At any hour [...]
A Meeting Worth Holding
Tuesday, December 8th, 2009At a time when conferences are cancelling, participants are staying home in large numbers, and the flavour of the month is to replace live meetings with webcasts and virtual events, there are two sure criteria that still make it essential for groups to gather in person:
• A clear, immediate purpose that is best served by [...]
The Conference Publishers Turns 25
Monday, October 5th, 2009I still remember exactly how things unfolded on October 5, 1984, the day The Conference Publishers was born.
I had been in my job for 3½ months, after reluctantly leaving Canada’s Parliamentary Press Gallery and a career in freelance journalism. I had joined a small policy consulting firm as its publications director, hoping to spend all [...]
A Dynamic Dozen: The Making of a “Killer App”
Sunday, September 27th, 2009Everywhere you turn these days, meeting professionals are searching for the “killer app” that will make social media and virtual technologies more an opportunity and less a threat for face-to-face events.
The language of hybrid meetings, virtually unknown a year ago, is quickly gaining currency. MPI experimented with a Virtual Access Pass at its 2009 World [...]
Fight Like Hell for the Living
Tuesday, August 4th, 2009SAN FRANCISCO – In the week since Terri Breining announced the closure of Concepts Worldwide, the San Diego County firm she built into a meetings industry icon, I’ve been thinking about the capriciousness of a market that rewards the most arbitrary successes, while devaluing or ignoring the most genuine achievements.
When we celebrate flash over substance, [...]
A Quiet Sense of Duty
Saturday, July 18th, 2009Late last month, I received a surprising email that will shape the lion’s share of the volunteer time I devote to our industry over the next two years.
I wouldn’t normally be quite this excited about an opportunity to pack dozens of extra hours into a schedule that is already overloaded. But this isn’t just any [...]

