MPI’s signature education event, the World Education Congress, has been recognized by Eventex as one of the best association meetings in the world for the third year in a row.
WEC Grapevine, which was moved to November from June last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, received a silver award in the 11th edition of the Global Eventex Awards, which celebrate creativity, innovation and effectiveness in events and experiential marketing. The global competition included 561 overall entries from 37 countries competing in nearly 20 categories.
MPI’s event took place in at the Gaylord Texan Resort and Convention Center in Grapevine, Texas, and, despite pandemic, executed a successful duty of care that contributed to more than 600 attendees in person, an accomplishment considering the overall impact caused by the pandemic.
“We are thrilled to be honored once again by Eventex,” Annette Gregg, senior vice president for experience at MPI, said Monday. “WEC Grapevine was a project we are all extremely proud of, showing the industry how to hold a safe, in-person conference with a robust duty of care program. It brought hope to our struggling landscape, and a template we’ve freely shared with our community as they move forward with their own in-person events.”
WEC 2019 in Toronto received a bronze Eventex award, while WEC 2018 in Indianapolis received a gold award.
MPI’s goal at WEC20 was to demonstrate how to safely bring back business meetings and events. Behind a theme of Reunite for Recovery, the four-day WEC showcased duty of care for live attendees in the midst of the pandemic while successfully incorporating a digital audience through the first fully live, hybrid meeting industry education event since March 2020. While the event tested the boundaries of a large in-person gathering, the result was a blueprint for how the meeting industry could move forward with recovery.
The more than 600 who attended the event in person followed strict duty of care protocols that included a daily questionnaire and temperature check and agreed to wear a mask at all times unless they were actively eating or drinking. The association also asked anyone testing positive for COVID within 14 days of leaving WEC to contact MPI so attendees could be notified regarding contact tracing. Following the 14-day period, one person informed the association of a positive COVID-19 test, while another attendee notified MPI of a positive test after they returned home and were exposed to someone there who had tested positive. A third attendee reported a positive test 11 days after WEC, but reported no symptoms.
MPI has produced a documentary on WEC20, telling the story of the event through the voices of the association’s leadership and event team, sponsors, partners, attendees, health professionals and even some who elected not to attend because of health concerns or travel restrictions.
“MPI WEC Grapevine was a huge success and allowed Grapevine to showcase our city to hundreds of meeting professionals,” Thompson said. “We were proud to show how Grapevine could both safely and successfully host in-person events again as we ‘reunited for recovery.’”
MPI will again bring the meeting and event industry together for this year’s WEC, June 15-17 in Las Vegas.
