Tradeshow season does more than send you home with great ideas for your next meeting or event; there’s also all of that booth swag—a seemingly endless array of trinkets and gadgets. While that tote or T-shirt felt like a must-have at the show, it often ends up forgotten in your closet or cluttering up your office. Even if you plan on using the items, consider this—what did you do with all of last year’s swag? Chances are if you didn’t keep and use it then, it’s now this year’s garbage. Why not repurpose it?

In the age of ever-evolving gender diversity acceptance and recognition, creating warm and welcoming experiences for all attendees is becoming increasingly important as meeting professionals. At MPI's WEC 2018, Bernadette Smith offered the following action steps for designing LGBTQIA-inclusive meetings and events.

MPI is collaborating with NYU to develop a four-hour course on how to make meetings and events more inclusive for attendees.

Like everyone else, the staff of Meetings Today was shocked to learn of the suicide of Anthony Bourdain.

Following a morning of intriguing sessions in its newly designed “village” format, MPI’s 2018 World Education Congress (WEC) wrapped Tuesday, June 5, with a rousing pep rally, show and luncheon, followed by a trip to Indianapolis Motor Speedway for a bucket list-level closing experience.

There is still much confusion in the meetings industry following the May 25, 2018, implementation of the Global Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Bruce Smith, managing director of London-based Tenax Analytics, helped explain some of the intricacies of the EU and UK regulation and risks for planners and suppliers during his MPI WEC 2018 presentation: “How to Thrive in the New Era of Data Privacy: A Forensic Insight to the GDPR.”

Meeting Professionals International (MPI) announced it will publish “The Essential Guide to Safety and Security: Best Practices for Meeting and Event Planning 2018” by the end of June 2018. In addition, the association will develop education, research reports and case studies based on the guide’s recommended practices, with launch plans slated for later this year and in 2019.

One of the hot topics at MPI’s WEC 2018 is sex trafficking, as it relates to the travel industry. Michelle Guelbart, director of private sector engagement for ECPAT-USA, detailed some of the signs and ways to help during her presentation “ECPAT: The Meeting and Event Industry’s Role in Combatting Sex Trafficking,” which took place on Monday, June 4, 2018. ECPAT-USA is a nonprofit organization that exists to end human trafficking.

During Meeting Professionals International’s (MPI’s) 2018 World Education Congress (WEC) in Indianapolis, we checked in with MPI President and CEO Paul Vandeventer for his take on this year’s show and how MPI is helping planners address major issues and excel professionally and personally.

Meeting Professionals International (MPI) is turning heads in Indy with its completely overhauled annual World Education Congress (WEC) 2018.