For several years now, most of us have experienced firsthand the massive influx of new professionals and talent entering the meeting and event industry, as our industry scrambles to meet accelerated demand while backfilling the massive loss of talent that occurred during the pandemic. In keynotes, Ken Holsinger, Freeman’s SVP of strategy, has shared research that found that 74% of event industry workers are new to their roles since the onset of the pandemic. The increase in newcomers was also apparent at MPI’s World Education Congress (WEC) Louisville in May, which saw a large percentage—more than 50%—of first-time planner attendees.

While there exists a large number of fresh faces across our industry, this has been a sustained trend since 2020-2021, with many of those event professionals now practically viewed as seasoned veterans.

The reality is that many of these newer entrants joined our industry at a time when formal training may not have been readily or realistically available, but more of a nice-to-have because many organizations were so stretched for staff. Now, as these 202-2021 newcomers have been working full-time for several years, many are entrenched in their own operating procedures, having learned on the fly. Forced to develop in a trial-by-fire environment without the knowledge and shared learnings of their immediate predecessors who left our industry, they often lack basic knowledge about our business, processes and procedures.

Regardless of how we got here, the reality is that today we face a massive knowledge and skills gap across all manner of roles in the event industry’s workforce.

But there is a readily available solution: think back to the years immediately leading up to 2020, when many workers were debating the value proposition of professional association membership. Now, it’s clear there has never been a better time and place to be involved in a professional association such as MPI that offers unique and unmatched value, professional education and leadership growth opportunities.

There is no better time than now to lean into our professional associations and their networks of senior event pros and professional development opportunities. At MPI, we put in the time, resources and knowledge across the generations to curate and codify the education and content necessary for you to grow as you want and as you need—and provide the networking opportunities for event professionals to learn from each other.

Understandably, we’ve been talking a lot about workforce development recently, as that’s the key to not only bring more people into the event industry but also to ensure they have the knowledge base to succeed. Here are but a few examples of what MPI is doing to alleviate this widespread industry challenge:

• Offering and regularly updating our Basics Bootcamp Meeting Fundamentals program.
• Delivering scores of education sessions—in person at events such as the World Education Congress, IMEX America, the EVENT and more, plus on-demand, online—across all of the essential mainstay topics as well as those necessary to future-proof your career.
• Looking at ways to provide more content—curated, quicker to market and more relevant to your needs, resulting in an ever-broader pool of education opportunities.
• Adapting content and delivery methods to the changing needs and demands of modern event professionals, such as the design and content refreshes applied to The Meeting Professional magazine and MPI’s digital newsletters earlier this year.
• Providing leadership opportunities and professional development growth paths within MPI chapters worldwide through volunteer leadership opportunities.

Our industry is full of enthusiastic and brilliant up-and-coming event pros, exemplified this year by 2024 MPI Young Professional RISE Awards recipient Evan Nielson, CMP and 2024 MPI Member of the Year RISE Awards recipient Jenny Dao. They are shining examples of individuals taking full advantage of all that MPI offers, spanning education, networking and volunteer leadership within their chapters and MPI Signature events. (Learn about all of the incredible 2024 RISE Awards recipients in this issue.)

Undeniably, the most important step in building the event industry of the future is setting up this newest generation of professionals—and professionals at all levels—for sustainable success.

When we meet, we change the world, and this new generation will design and execute the meetings of the future.