MPI Sees Need for More Agent-Planner Collaboration

Meeting Professionals International (MPI) hopes to build on a partnership with the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) that saw the two groups last year joining to relaunch the Certificate in Meeting Management (CMM) designation.

“Travel planners, whether they are meeting planners or travel agents, will inevitably have to put together events somewhere along the line,” said Kevin Kirby, MPI’s chairman. “That’s why they have to keep up with all the changes.

“What you may have learned 15 to 20 years ago, even if you received certification for it, won’t help you now,” Kirby said. “That’s why we had to redesign CMM.”

More collaboration
Kirby doesn’t believe planners, travel agents and other travel professionals can compartmentalize themselves any longer.

Kevin Kirby

With their respective associations competing for members and influence, “We have become a more collaborative organization and that is why we partnered with GBTA [which is composed of corporate travel managers],” he told Travel Market Report.

MPI is looking for other partnerships within the travel industry to maximize potential for its members, according to Kirby.

While MPI claims more than 18,500 members – probably the largest organized collection of travel professionals – Kirby believes it’s time to look at “how we can complement each other? How can we educate each other, make presentations at each other’s events and so forth?”

Gaining strength
The meetings business, after years of softness during which it lagged transient and leisure travel, has finally regained traction but Kirby told Travel Market Report it’s time for anybody involved in the meeting business – including travel agents – to take a fresh look at the way they approach  customers and at meetings themselves.

“Our membership will be completely different over the next few years as far as what they know and what they do,” Kirby said. “We have a task force and other initiatives in place to determine what the membership should and will be in coming years.

“One thing we have to look at is how the consumer world has changed,” he added. “If you go to Amazon and buy something it will say ‘If you bought this, you might like this.’ A similar kind of interesting marketplace of preferences and products could emerge in meetings. “

The importance of ‘soft’ skills
There is a generational aspect to this transformation as both younger travel agents and meeting planners must be educated about the soft skills involved in their jobs – including developing relationships, as opposed to focusing on technology alone, said Kirby.

“We do have a younger demographic in MPI that is significant, and you will soon be seeing university degrees in event professionalism as well as in hospitality,” he noted.

“And we all have to think about what an event will be in the near future. Will it be a meal in a hotel ballroom or a product launch in Times Square?” he asked.

“We may be sitting in beanbag chairs instead of traditional seats.  I just visited the headquarters of Zappo’s [the online shoe seller] and it was nothing like what you always thought of as a corporate office.”

Kirby stressed, however, that for any organization of agents or meeting planners, “you will always need to advance your knowledge through education and networking.”

“And you will need a broader view of your job,” he added. “You can’t just plan a trip or a meeting. You have to be familiar with all of the needs of C-level executives – beyond those trips and events.”