Corporate Buyer At MPI's Helm Aims To Achieve Balance

<B> Corporate Buyer At MPI's Helm Aims To Achieve Balance</B>

By Chris Davis

With the economy running smoothly, much of Corporate America in sound shape and many companies having "settled into a groove" regarding meetings budgets, new Meeting Professionals International chairman Ed Simeone thinks it's a good time for planners to take stock. The theme of Simeone's year-long chairmanship, which began July 1, is "a matter of balance," with programs and forums designed to help planners align personal and professional lives.

Simeone will preside next week in Philadelphia at this year's World Educational Congress and trade show, which will include nearly 70 educational workshops, and new wide-ranging forums and single-topic workshops in tracks for corporate, independent and organization planners, and suppliers.

MPI CEO Ed Griffin said "the forums allow for more panels and interactivity, and are the best way to stimulate interest and present information."

A recent survey of MPI's corporate members found that the most often cited concerns were about the ability of their managers to make timely decisions, their salaries and the level of appreciation of their work within their companies--all topics that now will be addressed.

MPI should be able to understand the corporate segment in particular this year, with one of its own at the helm. Simeone, who in his day job is manager of global event management for Hopkinton, Mass.-based EMC Corp., said his focus on balance "is not going to be touchy-feely. We want to help people balance their personal and professional commitments while still performing their work at a productive and efficient level. What that means for specific program content is still being developed. But with the spate of mergers, acquisitions and consolidations, there's a renewed vigor in the corporate and association communities. This is the time to talk about these things."

While it's not definitely on MPI's plate, Simeone also is hoping to convince the association to consider educational programming about the convergence of corporate meeting and travel departments.

"Most corporate travel departments aren't equipped to handle group and meeting travel, because it's such a different skill set," he said. "It ends up getting outsourced. But if corporate travel managers understand that meeting travel involves a different set of parameters that don't focus squarely on the bottom line, meetings and travel will integrate further."

Indeed, Simeone believes that the outsourcing trend in the corporate meetings industry has leveled off. "Some years ago, it went way over the edge and everything was outsourced, but companies found nobody was familiar with the corporate culture," he said. "Then everyone was brought back. Now, we've settled in the middle, where there are some core in-house people who know the culture, and meeting functions are outsourced."

Meanwhile, Bob Moore, the former vice president of the Los Angeles Convention and Visitors Bureau, whom Simeone replaced in the top MPI slot, said he was pleased with his accomplishments during his tenure. "Our goal was to move quickly from a North American-centric to an international-centric organization, and we're getting there," he said.

MPI's focus now will shift to adding new members in Mexico and South America.

Moore has exited not only the MPI presidency but also his CVB position. Late last month, he accepted the position of senior vice president of sales and marketing for North America for Starwood Hotels and Resorts.

But at MPI, he passes the gavel with the belief that the organization must focus even more on strengthening its activities on the chapter level, particularly in the areas of educational programming and networking opportunities.

"Many of the 16,000 members are only fed value on the chapter level, so we have to provide quality chapter meetings that have substance," he said. "We'd love to get them to the WEC and the national events too, since that's where the major amount of our money is spent."

Moore pointed to MPI's deal with Internet startup broadcast.com (<I>Meetings Today,</I> May 17) that will provide broadcasts of WEC general sessions on MPI's Web site (www.mpiweb.org) as a way to get members more involved and draw them to national events.

Simeone, the former president of MPI's New England chapter, agreed that the group's 58 chapters have the most direct impact on membership. But he argued that the national organization needs to set the tone of educational programming, particularly in an area like technology. "People don't know what they don't know," he said. "It's incumbent on the Information Technology Advisory Council to figure out what the membership needs.