The term “pushing boundaries” has taken on a whole new meaning of late.
Take MPI’s signature European education event, the European Meetings and Events Conference (EMEC), which concluded its three-day run in beautiful Sevilla, Spain, last month.
The event, designed for Europeans by Europeans, aimed to push boundaries in the city from where Iberian explorers Magellan and Elcano set sail 500 years ago, returning three years later having completed the first circumnavigation of the globe. It was with that spirit of exploration and discovery that conference planners built an education platform for more than 300 attendees around four learning journeys—leadership at an Andalusian horse ranch, managing stress through a program at Airbus, exploring social impact with the Alalá Foundation and storytelling through the majesty of the Teatro de la Maestranza—and shared dinners hosted in the homes of Sevilla residents.
There was Manuel Macias Moreno, director of the Seville Congress and Convention Bureau, which organized the conference, capturing the hearts and admiration of attendees when he played guitar during the opening general session at Pabellón de la Navegación.
There were attendees Suzy Krol, Roël Frissen, Lizzy Matthews and Taru Maija, who pushed their personal boundaries by sharing their powerful and inspirational stories about defining moments in their lives during the Dear World keynote. And Anna Leonik, a third-year student at the Warsaw School of Tourism and Hospitality Management who won the IMEX-MPI-MCI Future Leaders Forum International University Challenge, earning the right to compete at IMEX in Frankfurt in May for an opportunity to attend MPI’s World Education Congress in June or next year’s EMEC in Brighton, England.
MPI and the IMEX Group will continue to push boundaries together, as the two organizations announced they have renewed their strategic partnership.
Global boundaries also factored into the current news topic of the day, the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). There’s much to sort out about the long-term ramifications, while some meeting and event attendance has been impacted. My colleague, Senior Editor Michael Pinchera, wrote that “with so much talk about this virus in the media, it may sound like we know a great deal about it, but the truth is that perhaps the most important unknowns remain.”
We sent a survey to our Business Research Panel, and 34 percent of respondents identified as “extremely concerned” about COVID-19 and its impact on meetings and events. Overall, the vast majority of respondents (90 percent) expressed some degree of concern. Attendance and travel disruptions were the most significant ways in which meeting professionals feared COVID-19 could impact their events.
MPI has posted a statement and links to resources, including our published editorial content, at mpi.org/coronavirus. We’ll continue to update that page and our e-newsletters as this story develops.
We hope you enjoy reading this month’s issue of your member magazine, which is completely focused on food and beverage trends, topics and features.
Send your comments and suggestions to editor@mpiweb.org.
Until next time…
Rich Luna
Editor in Chief
rluna@mpiweb.org
