With strong demand for in-person events, myriad geopolitical concerns and record-breaking tourism numbers all influenced by quickly evolving tech innovations such as artificial intelligence, the dynamic global events landscape can at times be a wild setting for industry professionals.

To ensure industry leaders are equipped for current and future challenges, this April, the MPI Academy is launching the revamp of its flagship designation for senior-level meeting professionals, the Certificate in Meeting Management (CMM), in conjunction with the association’s longtime education partner San Diego State University (SDSU).

“After operating in a fully virtual format for the last five years, it was clear the industry had changed: leadership expectations are higher, complexity is greater and professionals are navigating rapid transformation across technology, talent, risk and business strategy,” explains Lori Pugh, vice president of the MPI Academy. “This reimagination was driven by a simple but important question: Does the CMM still reflect what it means to be a senior leader today? The answer required a refresh—one that restored the program’s immersive leadership experience while modernizing its content, delivery and outcomes.

She says it was equally important that this effort clarified the CMM’s role within the meeting and event industry’s greater career development pathway.

“As professionals earn their CMP and move into people leadership, enterprise decision-making and P&L responsibility, the CMM should be the automatic next step—the designation that signals readiness for director-, VP- and executive-level roles,” she says.

Accordingly, the program now places a greater focus on strategic decision-making, leading teams and organizations through change, financial acumen and business impact and executive-level communication and presence.

Immersive blend of in-person and virtual education

While not all enhancements will be “in your face,” participants will quickly recognize meaningful shifts that are all designed to make the experience more engaging, more relevant and better aligned with how senior leaders learn, grow and lead.

“One of the key challenges was designing a structure that works for a global, senior-level audience—professionals with demanding schedules, varying travel constraints and high expectations for value, Pugh says. “Every decision required thoughtful consideration to ensure the program remained rigorous, accessible and impactful while still delivering a meaningful in-person experience. Balancing flexibility with depth was critical—and essential to the success of the reimagined program.”

The CMM will include on-campus learning followed by 10 weeks of online education giving ah-ha moments more time to reveal themselves, says Carl Winston, founding director at SDSU’s Payne School of Hospitality.

“What we’ve learned in all of our years doing online programs is that students get way more effective education if there’s also an on-campus experience,” he says. “And part of the outcome of the CMM program is networking and it’s hard to become friends solely on Zoom.”

To ensure accessibility for busy meeting professionals, Winston also notes that the material will be recorded.
“They might have an event one week and need to miss a session, but we’re going to accommodate working professionals,” he says.

Following is an example of how the weekly online process is expected to work: A lecture is posted on Sunday, followed by a live instructor-led session on Tuesday, a “homework room” with CMMs to help interpret that week’s content on Thursday, then a quiz and starting on a new topic the next week. Repeat.

In addition to adding back the on-campus experience to the CMM program, Winston says the goal is to offer this education throughout the world rather than limit the in-person interaction to San Diego.

“Ideally, we’ll have CMM programs a few times a year. The in-person component might be at SDSU every winter—San Diego is a pretty good place to be in the winter,” he says. “The vision is to have different destinations sponsor and host. It’s pretty nice for a destination to have 20 mid-career meeting professionals visit for a few days.”

Leveraging, empowering the community

The updated CMM is designed to deliver both immediate and long-term value by which students will gain advanced leadership skills and access a highly curated peer network of industry leaders who are navigating similar challenges.

“Graduates leave with tangible outcomes—a refined leadership mindset, a vetted capstone project they can apply in their organization and a professional network that extends well beyond the program itself,” Pugh says. “Just as importantly, the CMM now more clearly represents a career milestone—the point at which a professional moves from managing events to leading teams, shaping strategy and influencing the future of the organization.”

The intention is for all of the instructors to be industry professionals, including a significant number of CMM holders, Winston says.

“This is a really special tribe and we need to treat them as such. The peer-to-peer learning is so important,” he says. “We have a whole bunch of people who are trying to move up in their career and the best way to do that is to get people who are already elevated in their career to help guide them.”

Community building and networking are big pieces of the program’s vision, and the team has many ideas for how to better activate the CMM community.

“To support year-round engagement and long-term program strength, MPI has also established multiple dedicated CMM committees: Content & Academic Oversight, Marketing & Awareness and Alumni Engagement & Community Building,” Pugh says.

And the education goes beyond what’s directly listed in the weekly curriculum.

“Our students know what they’re doing, they’re just not confident about it all the time,” Winston says. “While ‘build confidence’ isn’t explicitly in the curriculum, it’s absolutely in the DNA of what we’re planning. We’re not going to teach you about tables and chairs; we’re going to teach you how to be a businessperson and how to speak and act with confidence in your role.”

Ready to take the next your event industry career to the next level? Register for MPI’s refreshed Certificate in Meeting Management program and become a CMM.