BMB - BOUTIQUE MICE BUSINESS MULTIMEDIA PRODUCTIONS PRESENTS EMEC 2021 ‘THE HIGHTLIGHS’.

EMEC 2021

VIRTUAL -

THE HIGHLIGHTS BOUTIQUE MICE BUSINESS

CONTENTS

02

01 Welcome 02 Exclusive Talk with MPI Leaders

03 Key Headlines Executive Producer EMEC 2021 Virtual

& Special Review

03

IMEX Group - CEO

04 MPI’s growth in Europe

05 Revealing Interview about EMEC Brighton 2022

04

05

Presents EMEC 2021

VIRTUAL

THE HIGHLIGHTS MPI

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is making its debut delivering the first fully virtual format for the European Meetings and Events Conference. EMEC is the flagship event in Europe for MPI. Recognized by Best Event Awards (BEA) with the Best Conference Award. The European Meetings & Events Conference (EMEC) has long been acknowledged by the industry as the leader in progressive meeting and events conceptual design and development. EMEC plays a critical role for both the advancement of the industry in general and MPI’s European community. Utilizing innovative design and an incubator mentality to rethink to MAKE YOUR FUTURE at EMEC. The 32nd edition has been a fully digital event and experience in which attendees benefited from a meeting and business environment designed exclusively for them and from all the competitive advantages that strategically place the virtual presence at the forefront.

Boutique MICE Business Multimedia Productions features exclusive conversations with MPI's executive management team, revealing top growth opportunities. The best representatives of Meeting Professionals International discuss and debate some of the most important issues affecting the industry. The positive impact of the strategies and solutions that MPI offers to its industry partners, members and to meetings and events professionals. Their views and opinions shed a new light and their know-how is a hope for our industry, specifically for the European business community.

Highlighted reflections gathered live from The World Education Congress (WEC) in Vegas to the EMEC 2021 virtual audience and the exceptional team behind the successful execution of MPI’s very first fully virtual experimental European Meetings & Events Conference (EMEC).

Irene Fernandez CEO Boutique Mice Business

MPI President & Chief Executive Officer

“The good news if you look out into the not too distant future, we're actually seeing stronger bookings across the industry that we had in 2019 which was a record setting year.”

Mr. Paul Van Deventer, MPI President & CEO shared his views and opinions with Ms. Jessie States, considered one of the 25 Most Influential People in Meetings and Events, according to "Successful Meetings Magazine.“ She brings together some of the latest MPI news, plans and engaging initiatives from her base in Las Vegas.

Jessie is going to explore how you can get the most out of Meeting Professionals International to develop your career. Let's give an enormous global welcome to Jessie States, Director of the MPI Academy.

(JS): “Good afternoon EMEC, and welcome to our Hyatt studios, powered, by Freeman, live from WEC Vegas. I know so many of my dear friends are attending the EMEC event today and I know you had a fantastic time, connecting, learning and leading with each other.”

“I want to send my heartfelt congratulations to my favorite MPI Italia Chapter’s Leaders for earning the Rise Awards for membership achievement and industry advocacy. It is so well deserved, I am so proud of all of my Italian friends, I can't wait to see you all again soon.” “It's early here in Las Vegas, but the buzz is already starting about the first day of our WEC event (World Education Congress) which starts six hours from now; but our WEC digital experience kicks off at 10 am local time with some exclusively digital content, including some education from our European colleagues and friends.”

“Another introduction, I want to welcome our two guests today in Hyatt studios, powered by Freeman, MPI President and CEO, Paul Van Deventer and International Board of Directors’ Chairman Mr. Stephen Revetria. Paul, I know you have a special message of hope for our industry, our community and our business, specifically for our European family members.”

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Exclusive talk with MPI Leaders

Paul Van Deventer (PV): “Thank you so much Jessie and hello everybody, I miss you all so much. Before I get into the comments, I just want to echo Jessie’s congratulations to our friends in Italy. What an amazing accomplishment. Before the pandemic shutdown, my last stop internationally was in Rome and I miss you so much. I can’t wait to be back out in Europe again and back with all my friends.”

“We have had such a tough year it's been a difficult year, we being rocked by the pandemic and impacted by the economic fallout from that. We have lost friends and we've seen friends lose their jobs, it has been so difficult for everyone.”

“The positive side is that we are seeing a recovery not just in our industry but in the economies overall. We are seeing it slowly happening, because of the great scientific advancements and what's happening with the rollout of the vaccine is enabling us to reopen and that reopening, will impact us very shortly.”

“In The United States, we're already seeing live large events going on, in other parts of the world and regions in Asia, in South America and in Africa we are seeing large events going on; so it is on the cusp of happening again.”

“So I am very, very optimistic right now as I look forward, I'm still struggling to fight through the impact of the pandemic but I look to the rise and for hope and I look to my colleagues and friends like all of you, and all of us here in Vegas to get through this together.”

(JS): Paul what is the most, critical element of a global industry recovery? and how can meeting and event professionals support that on a regional or a local level ?

(PV): “Well, Jessie I think we need to start at the fundamentals of our overall economies need to get back, we need to enable the ability for global interaction, for travel and tourism to rebuild themselves. Until organizations, governments and our scientists, have enabled us to safely travel and meet again. That is what is happening and as I said we are starting to see some really great positives there because of the scientific breakthroughs, so we started that overall economic recovery that follows with travel and tourism; the ability to actually get out again, from there it's up to us as an industry to bring back an event experience in a safe way with duty of care, the attendee wellness at the forefront of everything we do, so that people feel safe they feel secure, and they know that we are focusing on them, as we bring those life experiences back together.”

“The pent-up demand is there, the desire is there, our society and our customers want to get back together again in person, and we as an association, we as meeting professionals, can help meet that turnaround.”

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7 “There is a big role for us as an industry, the biggest challenge that we are facing and we’ll talk about this a lot through out the next few days here in WEC Vegas; the challenge is we’ve let go a lot of our workforce, we have lost a lot of our workforce and we now have major gaps in bringing people back into this industry rehiring, reskilling and then bringing new people in. And bringing those people up to a town level of understanding the service mentality, the event design experience mentality and really being able to bring back great events and experiences again.” Paul Van Deventer

Chariman of the IBOD at MPI

(JS): Stephen first thinking is important, as well as nurturing our connections with young workers, is why we offered a really low student rate for this event that included membership.

What role does fresh thinking play in our marketplaces recovery?

Stephen Revetria (SR): “We see this industry, reinvent itself constantly and that's so critical over the past fifteen months; we're tagged windows of innovation, we are thrust upon us from our time in lockdown right? and it's just been really tough for all of us.”

“Just getting into this industry or having been around for decades, this is being just a real challenge and in that innovation is bred really through fresh thinking, and that's why such an emphasis is really put on students and people coming into this profession because we need to nurture that, we need to support that and provide the mentorship and guidance that they are looking for and that’s what I think.”

Stephen Revetria

“It’s critical and innovation starts really with this next generation and our students are those who are really right at the forefront of fresh thinking, a fresh ideas and our academy is critical to that success, as well as giving them opportunities to find their way through MPI and all of its offerings.”

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Exclusive talk with MPI Leaders

(JS): Stephen, how is MPI supporting and helping its members toward recovery?

(SR): “Well through several ways, and one of the critical ways is we've been there for all of our members and fortunately the foundation is provided really an opportunity to fund a lot of that and we only do that with everyone's support.”

“We had over 40,000 hours of academy education but more importantly we have also provided the platform for career advancement for networking, mental wellness, support for all the professionals in our universe and what we continue to do, is provide research insight, show the trends, and really give that back to the community in a way, that they can consume through our publications and MPI outlook.”

(JS): Paul How is MPI supporting and helping its members, toward recovery?

(PV): “I think Stephen pointed out and that’s important to keep in mind. ”

“We're not just supporting our members, we are supporting an entire event professional community.”

“We have two real key focuses as we came into the shutdown. The first is to sustain MPI, to make sure we are here to support future generations and then the second overriding issue was, What do we do in immediate to give to our community?

To help them through these challenging times? ” “Then Stephen talked about the complementary education we provided; the resources, around career and health support. We also went beyond that in What is important to our industry from an advocacy perspective? Working with header organizations, teaming together with industry organizations, like ‘The Event Industry Council’, ‘Meetings Means Business’, ‘JMac’ in Europe, making sure we got together, so that governments understood the importance of our industry.”

“Making sure our governments understood the importance of the individuals and small businesses and support this industry and provide them the necessary needs as well.”

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· THE HIGHLIGHTS ·

EMEC 2021 Remarkable Speakers - www.mpi.org/events/Emec21

Exclusive talk with MPI Leaders

(PV): “If you look at everything we've done, from a chapter level, keeping people connected, it's been difficult without getting together in person. Our chapters have been so critical in those fundamental resources, keeping people connected, bringing them together digitally, and another creative ways throughout the pandemic.”

“It's a small indicator, one of the great things for me, positive indicators as we just finished our latest research on chapter and member’s satisfaction.”

“Our Chapter and member satisfaction in Europe actually increased over the pandemic.”

(JS): Stephen, collaboration is going to be key to that recovery, collaboration like Paul just talked about amongst the MPI chapters and our community members in Europe.

How is MPI facilitating collaboration across borders?

“Well in many ways, and collaboration is really one of our key components of our vision and our international community; after all it's the I in MPI and it’s really a focus for us. Is making sure that we stay connected across the globe and around the world, through our regional member councils, EMEA, Canada, Latin America. Assuring regional voices are heard, in the board room and that is so important to our success.”

(JS): Paul, In what ways specifically does Europe play a critical role in the future of MPI?

" Europe is one of the two bedrock foundational, market places for Meeting Professionals International.”

(PV): “It is where our first international chapter began with our friends in Italy, it is our second largest membership and community outside of North America and the work we do, across the path together is so significant and how we support each other as a community.”

“Stephen mentioned the incredible work of our councils.”

" Our first council was our European Council which is now been in place for five years, and what they've done really well is help us understand in a global level, that importance of integration and cross-border cooperation and with the work of the council we’ve been able to bring together the MPI community much more seamlessly in a worldwide basis.”

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"Europe and North America, are the bedrocks of that, together we can also expand the opportunities to support communities whether that be Asia, South America, Africa and other markets in the world so we are together MPI.”

(JS): Paul we have a little bit of extra time so I'm going to put you on the spot; Before the pandemic, MPI had brought in an outside group to help us understand, how we could get to a new goal for 2025 and really take this association to the next level?

I'd like to hear a little bit more about that work and how that impacts the future for the international community?

(PV): “Well, I'm very excited by the work that went on and actually Stephen was really into helping us go through the process, I will talk a little a bit about that but I am sure he will want to add some pieces in.”

“We were going into the pandemic, so back to 2018 November, December time period, looking at the future saying: our strategic plan, our vision, needs to be refreshed, it needs to be updated. We need to remain relevant, as an association and relevant as an industry.” So we did engage an organization to come in to help us think about:

Where do we want to take the MPI vision and mission? How do we want to refresh that?

“It is so important for us to understand different cultures, different business approaches, different business practices, and the learn from each other; and the more we do that by bringing different market places together, the more we do to support what we are which is an international organization.” “and then very importantly if we have a very clear vision and mission, what is the strategy to get us there? We set the vision and mission up and in 2025 as the objective or goal of our aspirations.”

“Underneath that you then have to take a strategy and create operational plans, and we worked through that process with internal and external voices. We have reached that across our "Europe and North America, are community and actually outside of community.”

the bedrocks of that, together we “So It has been an exciting time, we created the can and also expand thethe opportunities vision mission, we created strategic plan, and we’ve put together an operational plan tothen support communities whether with some key components, to help us to bring that be Asia, South America, Africa that to life.” and other markets in the world so we are together MPI.” 11 10

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Exclusive talk with MPI Leaders

(PV): Stephen are you going to talk about the process?

(SR): “It was extensive and it was thorough, we truly included all the stakeholders also those that we inspire and we want to bring into our community and it was really thoughtful, it occurred over a long period of time, but we also got a lot of free time to be honest over this period. We had a six or eight months of serious reflection and research so the net result is that we have a great vision for going forward and where we want to be in the next few years.”

(PV): “What was really interesting Jesse, is that we developed the aspiration and the aspirational goals, they were baked in February so Covid hadn't really hit yet. When we got six months in the Covid we looked at them and said that they are still relevant, that is still where we want to be in 2025 and what we had set up to do as an organization to support our community was needed even more right now through the pandemic, so the vision and that strategic aspiration were spot- on, for what our community needed out of Covid, what they need for going forward. So really we are well on track to get there.”

Help to inform, what should MPI be, how can MPI be effective and relevant as an organization, as association to help our industry, help professionals in the industry and help individuals outside our industry as we think to the future.”

(SR): “Yes, that’s very true.”

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7 (JS): Paul, Steven last minute thoughts before we send it back over to our friends in EMEC? (SV): “I just want to say thank you, thank you for taking the time to participate, to engage and to be a member of this community and just by participating in sessions like this and what you've experienced over the last day, you know that We are so grateful.”

“I have to say, be advocates for our industry but also help support MPI and its endeavors because we are a trusted voice and without your help and support we really can’t be successful; I know the future is bright and I know leaders like you really do make a difference. I can't wait to be in Europe next year for EMEC and this is exciting, it’s fun.”

(PV): “The pandemic was tough, it was difficult it challenged all of us but there's a lot of positives, that have come out of it .”

(JS): Paul and Steven are meeting with the rest of the MPI International Board of Directors, now, thank you to both of you for your leadership through the international health crisis. I know the future is bright because we have skilled leaders like you.”

“The positives for me , what I saw was the way our community the MPI staff, our volunteers rally together, it was inspiring, the courage you showed, the leadership you’ve shown and the support you gave to each other was amazing. I've been inspired by that, I am so excited to be part of this community and pleased to be with you all.”

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· THE HIGHLIGHTS ·

EMEC 2021 Remarkable Speakers - www.mpi.org/events/Emec21

EMEC Executive Producer 32nd Edition

Mr. Paul Cook "That is my Wake model"

Mr. Paul Cook

Paul Cook is one of the UK’s leading voices on virtual and hybrid •

Helps organizations by providing event content, research and strategic solutions.

•

He brings his extensive knowledge of the events sector, his leadership experience and his business insights into client and project work.

•

Paul has enhanced the work of the Hybrid Event Centre, of which he is founder.

•

Facilitator and expert in Strategy and Production.

Mr. Paul Cook, the person who likes to challenge the events constantly, I think that's also known as a troublemaker, favorite troublemaker, he is also Director of the Hybrid Event Center . Let’s get ready to take notes, let’s get prepared to take action for some reflections, and takeaways, from this amazing day, please welcome your guide, Executive Producer of EMEC 2021 Paul Cook.

(PC): “What a welcome, the trouble maker right? but at least you know, it's right. I do like to challenge not just for the sake of challenging but because it makes sense to consider what we are doing and really develop some of that critical thinking.”

“That's what the point of the next few minutes is really all about; it's about saying OK now with the participation of all the great speakers, there’s a lot to take away already but I want you to stop for a moment, to pause and to just think about

Key Headlines – Executive Producer Emec 2021

What are you going to do? my question to you is What's next for you? I think it is important that we reflect in what we are doing.

“When I was looking at creating this particular session, I wanted to have something that would help everybody and I think that making the difference and it’s down to all of us to do that as we’ve got choices in how we do it, it’s also about waking the opportunity as well, so I’ve used the world WAKE and I Just put a question next to each of those first lessons creating like mottos is a bit of way to reflecting and I am going to briefly step you to that.”

Why Why are we doing things?

Is it because you want to do it?

Is it because you’ve been pushed in to do it?

Is it something that’s really driving you or not?

So that’s the first thing I would like you to consider, we need to look at it

E- Evolve

What What do we want to achieve?

What is it about achievement?

Do we want to get more money?

Is it that we want to be accelerated, enhanced, recognized by different people across the globe?

What is it?

What are we are pre-achieving?

Then knowledge which said to me the K is knowledge. I want to do this thing.

K- Knowledge How am I going to do it?

What do I need to do to be able to take you forward?

And finally this one takes a bit of time the E for Evolve and quite simply because sometimes we need to let things go the time you need to reflect on what’s been going on?

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7 Key Headlines – Executive Producer Emec 2021

“When I think of One of the things that Covid did when it came alone, it did press the pause buttom and said, really, why are you doing that? For us in the events sector as well, it absolutely impacted in a way that would never come see before.”

What is the future for events professionals?

(PC): “That’s the question that I had, therefore asked this question to Carina Bauer, CEO of The IMEX Group, and I would like to share with you let’s listen to what she says.

“I think, the future is really bright for events professionals but I do think that we as events professionals have to be very agile without thinking and also without upskilling.”

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CEO of The IMEX Group Carina Bauer

“This period has shown that it's not enough, and it was never really was enough to just focus on the logistics of an event. We as events professionals need to provide solutions to our stakeholders, we need to showcase how the events that we put on for them, can advance their business goals and that is the key element that we as events professionals need to focus on to really get ahead.”

“There are loads of new skills to learn, we all know that digital event specialist are not going away, content specialists, contents producers are not going away, but the key I would urge people to focus on is that strategic element.”

“Because if you really want to get ahead, you really want to position yourself, as a business solution provider then you need to be having a different kind of conversation with your stakeholder and then whatever kind of event you put together it will deliver the solution that your stakeholder is looking for and that’s the key thing to be ensure your viability going forward so upskilling focus on that.” 14

7 Key Headlines – Executive Producer Emec 2021

(PC): “I cannot said it better myself Carina, I have hidden so many notes on the head, but the point I really want to highlight, she talks about strategy super important but also about this business of upskilling and I think that’s where the WAKE MODEL can really help.”

“I want to look at that knowledge. For me personally I get a lot of knowledge from reading books, other people get it from podcast, from videos or others things but for me I’ve got 3 favorite books that just wanted to share with you since they inspired me but they also kick my backside as well .”

Inspirational Readings My final book that I love is this book that goes back to 1930s but still applicable today and it’s been respected for the people and how to interact with them and that’s always a good feature to look at.

EMEC 33rd Edition

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www.mpi.org/events/emec-brighton

Key Headlines – Executive Producer Emec 2021

(PC): “If I'm not looking at books, I'm also looking at people’s insides as well because it’s a lot you can get from just understanding how people react to things.”

“That's what the point of this next few minutes is really all about; it's about saying OK now with the participation of all the great speakers, there’s a lot to take away already but I want you to stop for a moment, to pause, I think we need to really take the time now to have a look and just think about the following questions .”

“In order to reflect on those questions you need to have the space that enable you to do that. You can’t do it when you are under stress, it doesn’t work so you need a nice relaxing arena to be in .”

What are we really doing?

“The books and looking at the people, that’s where I get my knowledge from and I think today EMEC has been a massive catalyst. it’s not meant to be something that has all of the answers because we always work in progress.”

“I just want to say thank you for coming up onto this, what I would like you to do is think about some of the things that are being raised throughout the day, and just sit back, get comfortable and enjoy. .”

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Ms. Annette Gregg Senior Vice President of Experience - MPI

“MPI is going to be 50 years old next year when you think about 15,000 members around the world and 70 chapters, 900 of those members are in Europe.”

Annette Gregg (AG): “EMEC 21 what a year we've had and I hope you had a wonderful day of learning and collaboration thank you Tiffany, Alastair, and of course our producer Paul Cook, for designing an amazing event for you all and for our European community.”

“ Few of the fun things I get to do is I help close out EMEC2021.”

“The winner of the collaboration challenge, is the UK, Ireland chapter along with the Netherlands, so that tandem won the collaboration, challenge.” “ Then we had another challenge going on, we called the chapter challenge and that was the percentage of members that attended EMEC and that is won by the Finland chapter. They had 33% of their members attending today ”

“ Thank you all for your participation in that and really driving interest in collaboration to EMEC.”

“Well when I think about that video we just saw for Brighton, how excited we are to be together and how we need that as people. I think about how we came up with solutions that we needed to during this pandemic and I think about the community that MPI is. This truly is a global community you heard Paul and Stephen just talk about that. ” 24

“The value of belonging to a global community is really reaching across borders, and collaborating, it's not just about business opportunities, although that is important, we need those business opportunities; but it's about doing business smarter, doing business together.”

“ I've been really encouraged especially by the European chapters, I think you all are leading the way, in breaking down barriers, and working with each other.”

“I've heard about chapters over there doing joint events, doing joint fundraisers together, sharing administrative duties together and that is just the spirit of the region.”

“I think that you all work so well together and you're an inspiration to the other chapter so we can really learn a lot from you.”

“I really challenge you to do that, you can take away one or two key things that you'll commit to really making your future and doing things differently; and maybe even to hold yourself accountable, commit to reaching out to someone, and saying, hey here are the two things I'm going to do differently here's what I heard at EMEC, here's what inspired me, and hold me accountable, I'm going to commit to this one or two things.”

(AG): “When I think also about Jill Hicks’ message, she was such an appropriate keynoter, when you think about 15, 16 months here and what we've all gone through and it in her perspective, her experience really puts this all into perspective for us.”

“When you think about OK we're faced with this grand challenge of this pandemic, we will recover, we are recovering, as you heard Paul talk about but what will we do differently? ” “As we get back to our lifes in some sense of normalcy, I didn't say back to normal because I don't think that's going to happen, but as we get back to some sense of normalcy.”

“How can we take what we learn even today at EMEC? if you participated in the business track or in the personal track what are those one or two takeaways, that you'll commit to? not only as a business owner as a meeting professional, but just again, as a human, and use this opportunity, to reinvent in some way.”

“I really hope you'll, take advantage of that, I also hope you will reach out and mentor a younger person in our industry, I know we had a very great showing with a lot of students and a lot of support.

A lot of the chapters pay for students to attend today; so What can we do to bring that next generation of meeting professionals up into our industry? Specially during this pandemic, it's probably been a little frightening for them as they launch their careers so that's my other big challenge to all of you: How can you help someone else in the industry?.”

MPI's growth in Europe

(AG): “They don't even have to be a student, maybe it's someone that is struggling and is looking for work. How can you make an important connection for them that might get them that job or I might get them that learning?”

“You can imagine we planned Brighton about a year and a half ago, before all this, so we have a lot of those plans already in place and a lot of the support from the local chapter there. We look forward to seeing you, online, or in Brighton with us at the end of February.”

“ MPI is here for you, we want this association to be what you need it to be. We have again a big association 50 years old but we are always open to learning and adapting and Europe is a very special group for us. We know that in Europe also there are many, many cultures, so please let your chapter’s leaders know what's missing in MPI, and they can let us know over the global headquarters, what we need to do better for all of you to better support you as we move forward .”

“We are excited about Brighton next year we are planning on another hybrid offering. IMEX thank you”

“ IMEX is a huge strategic partner for us and they will continue to be the signature sponsor for EMEC. They will continue to be very involved with the Brighton effort.”

“Thank you, for your support for each other, for your support for this global industry, for your optimism and positivity in a very challenging 15 to 18 months.”

“You're an inspiration to all of us so thank you to our European friends.”

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LEADING SPONSORS

BOUTIQUE MICE BUSINESS

Mr. Drew Holmgreen Vice President of Brand Engagement - MPI

“MPI works a lot with local government associations to understand the scope of impact that our community creates and through that we help advocate and provide them with resources so that they can help bolster their own resources to help grow the industry internally.”

“A good example here within the States is The US Travel Association, responsible for working with the United States government to try to secure funds, so that this industry can continue to grow and so that tourism continues to be a great driver of the economic impact within the country.”

“One of our primary functions is advocacy, one of the things that we really push for is to ensure that governmental entities, have a firm understanding of that tourism impacts, that economic impact, that $2.53 trillion of impact that the industry worthy represents.”

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“People don't necessarily associate all of these massive change - creating functions, that event and meeting planners are responsible for. They just kind of show up to a concert, show up to any type of meeting and assume that just happens. When the reality is that it's our individuals, our professionals who are making that happen.

Which is why we are trying to provide them with the connections, the education that they need but also try to really advocate for them with other partner associations, to ensure that we're getting the resources and the visibility to continue to grow the industry.”

Our primary mission is to collaborate, innovate and advocate for this industry. What that means is that we try to make sure that we bring strong connections through our chapters and through our network of members, and then we try to provide a very strong education, our education and chapters is what really sets us apart. There's really no other industry resource that provides the high-level, award-winning, education that we do or the vast amount of connections that we provide.

In fact we're just in Europe alone, the largest multinational association for meetings and events planners; we have over 1, 200 members throughout Europe.

“Europe has always been a strong market for MPI. We've got some incredibly strong leaders within Europe that we work with very directly to try and grow the brand, our presence, our impact within each country but also within the individuals to make up the profession.”

“MPI is a truly global association, we are heavily focused specially at this time on growth within Europe. Meeting Professionals International started an entire strategic plan for marketing, communications and growth in 2019 with Europe and it’s been continuing that.”

“The European Meetings and Events Conference is critically important for MPI, Europe provides us with the exceptional opportunity to kind of test concepts, and to build out things that we can then replicate on a larger scale, here at WEC, our big worldwide conference, which is more an education congress.”

7 Revealing Interview about EMEC Brighton 2022

(BMB) Could you please give us a review on EMEC basic principles?

Mr. Drew Holmgreen (DH): At EMEC we´ve got four core principles:

01

To make it financially environmental and contrarily sustainable.

02

To grow that local flavor grounded to make it globally transferable.

03

To make sure that the event itself is designed, for and by our European members for this community.

04

To really try to push our boundaries in order to explore how we can meet, learn and experience things a little bit different.

“When you're planning an event, when you are planning a meeting, three of the takeaways are: you want to learn something, you want to connect, you want to be able to tell a story.”

EMEC Brighton for the first time, MPI's European Meetings and Events Conference (EMEC) will be a hybrid event. That means a live in-person and a live digital experience.

EMEC Brighton (28 February - 1 March, 2022) will push the limits of what modern meetings and events can be, showcasing innovative learning formats, future-focused education and engaging networking opportunities.

“One of Brighton's taglines is ‘feel the love’. There is a great opportunity for us to have that kind of passionate come together feeling, when we all get back together in Brighton.”

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“ If you've never been to Brighton before, that was my second time to go there and just from a cultural perspective is a remarkably interesting city and we are really excited to go there.”

(DH): Going in to Brighton: “The bar continues to get set higher and higher for MPI, when we had EMEC for the Hagues in 2019, again for Sevilla and during 2021 on a fully digital format, so that the bar continues to rise in Brighton. We have such a great partners with the city of Brighton and Imex group, we’ve already met with them to start planning EMEC 2022 and it started to kind of cultivate, work together on a theme and we've got some really really strong concepts that we are starting to tailor and pool together.”

(BMB): What will provide the 33th edition of EMEC 2022 in Brighton to all the new members that will surely be joining the European MPI’s community on February?

(BMB) MPI created the community of those professionals that would like not only to get more but to experience, share and learn. As a Vice President of Brand engagement at MPI, and obviously focusing on the development of the next EMEC edition.

What are the priorities on your agenda 2021 2022?

(DH): “Our first priority is always to make sure that our community has the resources they need, that’s top level all the time and that extends towards our over 15.000 members. But to be honest it goes beyond that, we want to make sure that those professionals have what they need as well .”

Could you please Mr. Holmgreen provide further details?

(DH): “ Myself I'm a big pub guy so I like going to pubs therefore Brighton fits really well with my persona. There are ways that you can actually use that pub culture to start working in the aspect of sustainability; you can use that pub culture to start to cultivate the aspect of being inclusive, and there's something really brightness such as an open passionate city Brighton is a very inclusive and sustainable city so we can start to see the building blocks of how that could potentially be turned into a theme.”

We hope that we can continue to grow our community of more than 15,000 members, especially within Europe and there's such great opportunity, for us to bring all of these individuals together, in that one place this next year and it's going to be such a right time for us to do that.”

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“I think what's really going to be interesting, when we get to Brighton, when we are all going through as a culture right now and specifically as an industry, EMEC in February 2022 is likely going to be one of the first times that we as an industry globally, can get back together again.”

“One of our priorities is to assure that those brand pillars are always kept frank forward, and that we are always making good on them and fulfilling them .”

“The third one is to deliver experiences. We want to make sure whether those are face-to-face experiences like: EMEC like WEC, or if those experiences are virtual which is extremely important in our current environment like our European Meetings and Events Conference 32nd edition.”

“MPI offers free education, we do offer free resources and hope that when individuals take advantage of those they want to see the benefits of being a member and then join the world’s leading association for meetings and events professionals. That is our first priority is to make sure that the community is taken care of.”

“Our second priority is to protect the brand and make sure that the brand is always positioned in the right way, that the brand is always lifting, living up to expectations. Meeting Professionals International mission is like I said earlier, to innovate, collaborate and advocate for the industry. Those are our brand pillars.”

“MPI need to make sure that those experiences are valuable and those experiences are providing the right level of opportunity that our community needs.”

“Then, finally our chapter network with our 70 chapters around the world, we always want to make sure that they are given everything that they need to operate. we have to ensure that they are well-maintained, that they are given the resources they need. Whether that's from a logistical perspective or from a financial perspective, we want to make sure their position for success.”

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Revealing Interview about EMEC Brighton 2022

(BMB): Fantastic, so you're providing the resources and you're also mentioning the webinars, so that people can continue to develop regularly on a daily basis. MICE professionals can keep on withdrawing everything they have learned together. What it means to learn and innovate with MPI and EMEC from your home and from any country around the world. Because the resources and the voice of the industry take care of all those members and people who would like to keep on growing and take it to the next level.

EMEC as part of MPI signature events actively participates with international key associations, events councils, incentive and travel societies.

“MPI is always looking for new opportunities, like that and we have a very strong relationship with Executives associations, Destination Management Organizations and other events councils, we work very closely.”

(BMB): Why is it important to continue to strengthen your partnerships and collaborations? Affiliations and alliances with international associations for becoming even bigger than you are today?

What would collaborations?

you

highlight

of

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(DH): “Absolutely, we're really focused on partnerships, especially now more than ever there are many other industry associations, who operate within some spaces than we are but not necessarily competitive so we always want to try to supplement each other.”

“Working closely from an experience point of view with those CDBs, but then we also work really close with them whenever they need any type of resource, we want to make sure that they get the proper possibility that they need.”

“Meeting Professionals International always work really closely with DMOs they are extremely tight partners of ours, when we are looking at EMEC in 2022, Brighton is one of the key contributors to help form and shape that event.”

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“The ability for individuals to really have that release of what they need, right now more than ever and Brighton is going to be a great place for it.”

“ A good example is EMEC 2021, They were all extremely passionate, optimistic and just virtually, reconnecting that hope, and that drive is there, which means, as we get past this, we are going to be resilient and happy and good. ”

“When you look at and talk to and hear from our community right now it's really impressive and remarkable because their optimism is there. Yes it is incredibly impressive the passion, engagement and interest of our community .”

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“When we put on our own events, we want to make sure that we are showing you how to design experiences to create that change and our hope is at our events that's exactly what you walk away with, you walk away having had an experience that it changed you in some positive way.”

(BMB): To finalize with Mr. Holmgreen, Could you please send a message to the European and International MICE Business Community?

(DH): “Yes sure, so one of the things that I've learned recently is, there is a big ever stream between positively and optimistic.”

MPI wants you to design an experience because experiences are what change people, to create authentic experiences. At the end of the day when somebody attends an event you as an event professional want to be the facilitator of change and experiences create that change.

“A positive cheerleading is saying: well yes it's going to be OK; Optimism is I know it's going to be OK , I know that this is going to work out. Optimism is confidence so the biggest message that right now is: is that we need to be optimistic, to have optimism because we are a strong culture and strong profession.”

“What's amazing about our industry in particular is that we are going to be the ones who are holding the flag, we are going to be the ones to drive our global economy back to stability, and back to growth and strong profession.”

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“Make things happen”

“A smooth sea never made a skilled sailor”

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