In an email sent to the MPI community earlier this month introducing the latest edition of The Meeting Professional, MPI Editor in Chief Blair Potter described MPI’s World Education Congress (WEC) as “the meeting industry’s absolute best ‘my people’ gathering.”
And Jessie States, vice president, MPI Consulting, would probably agree. When asked what she’s looking forward to most about this year’s WEC—which is taking place June 18-20 in St. Louis and expected to draw 2,000 attendees—States answered, “the opportunity to see all my people.”
“I think that’s why people keep coming back to WEC, and all of our industry events; it’s a time to connect with each other and talk about things that our families and friends in real life—they don’t understand. They don’t get it,” States said. “I want to talk to my people. It’s all about the people—and connecting in ways that you can’t do in a digital environment.
“That’s what excites me the best,” she continued, “bringing everybody together and having this time to connect and celebrate.”
Here’s how you can expect to connect and celebrate at this year’s show.
‘Let’s Rally!’: The Meaning Behind This Year’s Theme for MPI WEC
Celebrating is actually what this year’s WEC is all about. The conference’s “Let’s Rally” theme is described as “a call to celebrate the power, resilience and innovation of the meetings and events industry and the people behind it.”
“We’re not rallying back from something. We’re not coming back from a challenge. This is a rally that’s a celebration of our community, and that’s infused in everything we did with the education for the event,” States said. “It’s a celebration of our individuals, organizational innovation and the change that’s happening in our industry.”
“We’ve gone through many crises before, and through MPI’s 50-plus years of existence, we’ve rallied around each other,” said Paul Van Deventer, president and CEO, MPI. “This community is so strong. It’s built around inclusivity, it’s built around diversity, it’s built around social responsibility…That’s what’s built this community. People are here to get educated and do business, but more importantly, what I’ve learned in my 13 years now is they’re here because it’s their community. It’s their home, and they’ll always rally around each other, help each other and hold each other up.”
“There’s rarely an opportunity where we can come together and just celebrate all of the success that we have, as individuals and as an industry and community,” States said. “This is our chance to really get together and celebrate, from the moment people get onsite to our closing reception—with a special guest that we can’t speak about,” she added with a wink. “We’re just here to celebrate.”
[Related: Highlights From the 2024 MPI World Education Congress in Louisville]
What’s New at MPI WEC This Year?
Every year, the MPI team strives to offer a WEC experience that is unique, new and innovative while continuing to deliver the same top-tier education and networking opportunities. Here’s how MPI is taking this year’s WEC up yet another level.
Learning Journeys
Perhaps the most exciting new offering for this year’s MPI WEC attendees are the four “Learning Journeys” to choose from, scheduled from 2-5 p.m. CT on Thursday’s agenda. These first-of-their-kind sessions for up to 200 blend education with destination immersion through offsite experiences at iconic venues in the heart of St. Louis.
“We are doing Learning Journeys for the first time at WEC, which is a big deal,” States said. “We’ve done Learning Journeys at our smaller events for up to 300 people but putting that against an event for 2,000 is a big risk for us, and I’m excited to be taking on the challenge of taking people out into the city.”
Each Learning Journey is designed for discovery, connection and experience through dynamic conversations and hands-on learning led by local changemakers and experts. The goal is not only to provide a unique education experience that’s both engaging and informative, but to also give attendees an opportunity to get out into St. Louis and experience what the city has to offer.
“That’s a big commitment of what we’re doing this year is trying to give people a sense of place, and the Learning Journeys is one of the ways how,” States said. “They’re led by really unique thought leaders, facilities and venues in the city that we want people to be able to experience and see—outside of the incredible, recently expanded America’s Center, of course.”
Van Deventer said the process of developing these Learning Journeys started about five or six years ago at MPI’s European Meetings and Events Conference (EMEC), when the team began working on the concept of taking the learning experience offsite and immersing attendees in different elements of the local community.
[Related: MPI EMEC Celebrates Istanbul's Crossroads of Culture]
“We’ve been working closer and closer with the destinations to really showcase the destination, and it fits well with where our industry has been heading in that planners want to find more experiences for their attendees,” Van Deventer said. “The Learning Journeys our team has put together in partnership with Explore St. Louis this year are really exciting, and they’re meant to create a confluence of benefits: you get to see the market a little bit, and while you’re there, the venue selected adds to the particular educational session itself.”
For example, the “Women in Business: A Journey of Resilience & Connection” Learning Journey at Energizer Park is taking place at the home of St. Louis CITY SC, the first majority female-owned club in Major League Soccer history. (Learn more about the session in this sneak peek Q&A with one of its hosts, Dare to Interrupt’s Courtney Stanley.)
“We have our consistent educational track around women’s leadership, and we will be hosting sessions at Energizer Park with the team owners—these women who’ve been so successful in the sports world, which is a bit unusual for that path,” Van Deventer said. “But they’ve cut that path, they’ve been very successful there, and we’ll be able to link those two confluences together of, here’s a successful women-owned business in sports, here for our conversation about women in leadership—all right in the heart of St. Louis.”
The other three Learning Journeys taking place at MPI WEC this year include:
- “The Role of Events in Black History, St. Louis” at the Missouri History Museum
- “Power of Play, Transform Your Meetings & Events With Games” at the City Museum
- “Executive Three | Sixty: Disruption, Neuroscience and the Science of Happiness” at Washington University in St. Louis
For more information and register to attend a Learning Journey, click here.
[Related: MPI WEC Sneak Peek: Unlocking the World of Women in Business With Courtney Stanley]
Showcasing St. Louis
In addition to the Learning Journeys, MPI WEC attendees will have the opportunity to experience St. Louis as a destination through even more of its people and places, from local leaders and legends to post-education celebrations at more iconic venues around the city.
The “St. Louis Legends Series,” for example, which is also new to WEC this year, will feature St. Louis thought leaders, from entrepreneurs to creatives who bring outside-industry insights to inspire cross-sector leadership and innovation.
“Too often, we’re almost in an echo chamber of just talking to ourselves,” States said. “It’s great to bring people from outside of our space in to learn lessons from other sectors and industries, and why not showcase the great thought leadership of St. Louis?”
[Related: How to Collaborate With DMOs to Tap Intellectual Capital for Your Next Meeting (And Why You Should)]
This year’s MPI WEC resident emcee is Carol Daniel, senior producer and host at Nine PBS in St. Louis, and the conference’s first keynote general session, or “Rally,” will be delivered by St. Louis native Brittany Packnett Cunningham, an award-winning activist, educator and author. (To learn more about this year’s four general session keynotes, click here.)
This year’s Opening Celebration will offer the iconic backdrop of Busch Stadium, home of Major League Baseball’s St. Louis Cardinals, and promises to be “pure St. Louis,” with classic ballpark snacks, St. Louis food stations and desserts. The Closing Celebration will take place in the heart of St. Louis’ Grand Center Arts District and feature St. Louis music, food and culture through public art, performance venues and more activations, including a performance by a special Grammy-winning and St. Louis-born mystery musician that will be revealed only to registered attendees.
On Thursday evening, the President’s Dinner will celebrate the RISE Awards and MPI’s leadership at Union Station, one of St. Louis’ historic venues, followed by Rendezvous—an event benefitting the MPI Foundation that requires an additional ticket—which will run late into the night at The Pageant, a nationally acclaimed concert venue in the center of St. Louis nightlife.
[Related: Q&A With Explore St. Louis' New President & CEO Brad Dean]
Social Impact Focus
For this year’s WEC, MPI is engaging with local organizations to direct social sustainability efforts where they’re needed most, from planting trees for carbon offsets to tackling food waste through pre- and post-event audits.
“The work the team is doing around lightening the footprint of the event through sustainable efforts is very exciting,” Van Deventer said. “The reality is the world is concerned about the impact of events, and if we don’t address that, we’ll have a big microscope put on us as an industry and be challenged of the value we deliver.
“We have to be smarter about how we put events on,” he continued. “We have to demonstrate how to do them more effectively, and we have to be really thoughtful about how to then take those lessons and learnings and convey those back outside of our community to talk about the great benefit of events and how that relates to concerns around environmental impact, and how you can actually leverage meetings to be more environmentally friendly in the end.”
To learn more about MPI WEC or register to attend, visit the MPI WEC website.
