Meeting Professionals International (MPI)
Driving the industry forward with successful and safe hybrid events
combined virtual and in-person attendees
engagement points across 46,500 minutes spent in mobile event app
raised for charity through hybrid event
As the largest meeting and event industry association in the world, Meeting Professionals International (MPI) understands the value of providing powerful in-person experiences for attendees. With a community of over 60,000 industry professionals and 70 different chapters and clubs around the globe, the industry-leading organization has been at the forefront of the changing events landscape during the global health crisis.
Leading the Industry through Hybrid Events
After seeing the swift pivot to virtual across the industry during the global health crisis, MPI leadership knew they needed an innovative approach for their WEC Grapevine conference in late 2020. With the goal of leading the industry to return to safe in-person experiences, they decided to host a hybrid event in early November. “We knew we wanted to go hybrid because we needed to be able to connect with our constituents and be able to move forward,” says Melinda Burdette, Director of Events. “We were bold in our commitment to move forward with an in-person and a fully live, digital event.”
Safely executing the hybrid event meant crafting a strategic plan for both the digital and in-person experiences. “You’re planning two events, essentially, not just one,” explains Jessie States, Director of MPI Academy. MPI needed to track and measure data points across both audiences using a centralized platform. They used Cvent’s Event Management solution to ensure a seamless registration process, allowing attendees to choose the right experience for their comfort level and education needs. MPI knew the flexibility of the system could field changing attendee needs as the global situation evolved. For example, the registration system could easily manage cancellations or conversions to digital with unique price points and other mitigating factors. “We also implemented a risk-free registration opportunity because so many of our attendees were experiencing hardships due to the pandemic,” explains Melinda. MPI integrated the registration tool with the Freeman virtual platform to ensure a seamless data flow between systems. This gave their team on-demand reporting to help prove event ROI.
“We knew we wanted to go hybrid because we needed to be able to connect with our constituents and be able to move forward. We were bold in our commitment to move forward with an in-person and a fully live, digital event.”
Melinda Burdette, Director of Events
WEC Grapevine included 23 concurrent sessions and five general sessions attended by 1,739 total attendees. Of those, 1,131 attended digitally and the other 608 attended in-person. In addition to both general sessions and concurrent education sessions, the event included onsite food and beverage as well as offsite receptions and fundraisers. The program also consisted of a Hosted Buyer Program, live Digital Connections for business appointments, and a Thought Leaders Summit. Digital attendees accessed a special live broadcast while in-person sessions followed all designated safety protocols.
Ensuring Duty of Care for Attendees
The MPI team faced significant challenges in ensuring the safety of onsite attendees. “Certainly, the safety of our attendees, the vendors, and the staff at the hotel meant we all had to figure out the common denominator of how we were going to move forward to minimize the exposure you would typically see at a conference,” explains Melinda. They worked closely with the venue and their technology providers to ensure the proper duty of care for all attendees. Attendees had to agree to a personal accountability statement during the registration process in order to mitigate against risk. The same information was communicated diligently throughout the event lifecycle. “We put together an entire digital experience around duty of care for our attendees,” explains Drew Holmgreen, VP of Brand Engagement. “We created a web experience and video that reinforced and demonstrated acutely how we would be ensuring duty of care for onsite attendees.” Branded signage and other marketing materials helped underscore onsite best practices to ensure attendee safety throughout the event.
The MPI team worked closely with the Gaylord Texan throughout the planning process to create a detailed strategy for the in-person experience. “Having a fully transparent relationship with your venue is key, and we certainly had that with every member of the staff at the Gaylord Texan,” says Melinda. The venue worked closely with the MPI team to mitigate risk by providing ample hand sanitizing stations, wiping stations, advanced cleaning protocols, temperature checks for hotel staff, contact tracing, and much more. Deep cleaning after sessions and each night helped create fully sanitized spaces. Following the CDC guidelines, MPI included additional protocols for such as a personal attestation from attendees that they were in good health. They also partnered with InHouse Physicians to create a full-service clinic. Branded signage with reminders to “Mask Up” were placed throughout the space, as were social distancing markers. Masks were required at all times unless actively eating or drinking, and all meals were “grab and go” or pre-plated with plexiglass barriers between staff and attendees.
Creating a Safe Onsite Experience with Social Tables and OnArrival
MPI used Cvent's Social Tables solution to manage seating and diagramming requirements in line with designated safety protocols. “We were able to use Social Tables to plan out the entire room set for this hybrid event,” says Melinda. They were able to collaboratively design all spaces to meet safety requirements, such as implementing 72-inch rounds with four at a table, rather than the usual eight. They also diagrammed ingress and egress pathways in education spaces and created color-coded General Session zones for a controlled exit strategy. For hosted buyer appointments, the team created one-way lanes and used plexiglass barriers between suppliers and planners. Equally important, the added social distancing measures meant the MPI team needed to optimize the space as efficiently as possible. Real-time edits allowed the team to adjust as needed based on changing registration numbers and safety requirements. This eliminated the cumbersome back-and-forth with the hotel, creating a truly streamlined process. They were also able to run diagram checks to ensure layouts met all health and safety guidelines.
“We were able to use Social Tables to plan out the entire room set for this hybrid event.”
Melinda Burdette, Director of Events
To create a risk-free first touchpoint for onsite attendees, MPI used Cvent’s OnArrival 360 solution to pre-print over 600 badges. These were mailed in advance in designated safety kits that included masks, sponsor gifts, and more. This created a controlled access point to enter the conference through fully contactless check-in. “We needed to avoid touchpoints for contact or queue lines,” explains Melinda. With the onsite tools, they could print new badges as needed and were able to track session attendance through contactless session scanning. This ensured staff and attendee safety while allowing the team to capture key data points.
WEC Grapevine: One Event, Two Experiences™
In order to create value for both in-person and virtual attendees, content needed to be timely and relevant to the concerns of the pandemic. Jessie explains that meant completely reimagining their previously planned content to fit the new hybrid experience. “We needed to create a separate agenda for the in-person attendees versus the digital attendees, while still finding areas for those synergies,” adds Melinda. Rather than simply livestream all sessions, a separate green room gave speakers the opportunity to present directly to the digital audience within a collaborative Zoom environment. “We really wanted our audiences to see each other, to have the ability for breakout spaces, and for people to be able to connect with each other in a different way,” explains Jessie.
These sessions were aligned to four learning pathways around business strategy, meeting design, professional development, and wellness concerns relevant to the global health crisis. The packaged virtual experiences offered exclusive interviews and content as a value add for digital attendees. They were also hosted by a virtual emcee, who helped guide the digital user experience and drive session attendance. MPI brought virtual presenters to the stage where possible and highlighted digital attendees through talk-show style general sessions featuring “fan cams.” In addition, the digital experience included an onsite studio with broadcasted interviews exclusively tailored to the remote audience.
“You’re planning two events, essentially, not just one…We really wanted our audiences to see each other, to have the ability for breakout spaces, and for people to be able to connect with each other in a different way.”
Jessie States, Director of MPI Academy
Onsite, the MPI team needed a cohesive solution to create attendee engagement and help facilitate certain safety protocols. They used the CrowdCompass mobile event app to manage daily health checks, with attendees required to attest to their health status each day in the app. “The CrowdCompass mobile event app had a health check that included four questions and gave you a thumbs up or thumbs down,” explains Melinda. “If you had a thumbs down, it meant you needed to dive a little deeper into why you were feeling bad, so we were able to mitigate against that risk onsite.” Next, attendees completed required temperature checks with the InHouse Physicians, who then distributed color-coded wristbands specific to that day. This guaranteed only approved attendees and staff were present onsite. They used daily push notifications within the app to remind attendees to complete their required safety form and temperature checks. The app also housed a variety of other tools used to engage attendees across the event including interactive maps, sponsors, schedules, agenda items, an integrated social feed, and gamification to encourage attendee interaction through safe, digital means.
“The CrowdCompass mobile event app had a health check…so we were able to mitigate against that risk onsite.”
Melinda Burdette, Director of Events
Showcasing the Future State of Industry through Hybrid Event Technology
With a 93% approval rating in the post-event survey and the safe onsite experience completed, the hybrid event was a clear success. MPI tracked over 51,000 engagement points, 9,630 social shares and messages, and 46,500 minutes spent in the app through Cvent reporting. Not only did the hybrid event help support industry professionals through career counseling and educational content, but the MPI Foundation raised more than $31,000 for scholarships and grants during the event. They raised an additional $25,000 through a Silent Auction and a third charity initiative garnered $6,250 in donations, bringing the total to over $62,000.
“It was important for us to do these types of hybrid events and show people that you can do them safely.”
Melinda Burdette, Director of Events
As they look towards WEC Las Vegas in 2021, the team offers key advice for executing a successful hybrid events. They note that having a flexible registration process is key, as the audience mix can shift drastically – and quickly – based on the changing global landscape. In fact, over one-third of attendees for WEC Grapevine registered in the last six weeks before the event. Drew advises maintaining fully-transparent communication strategies throughout the event lifecycle so attendees feel comfortable and safe with the onsite experience. Lastly, documenting all risk mitigation and assessment strategies across the entirety of the planning process is vital. Melinda explains, “It was important for us to do these types of hybrid events, and show people that you can do them safely.” While there were some challenges associated with going entirely live for both the digital and in-person experiences, it was a decision the MPI team fully supports. As Jessie explains, “It’s so incredibly important for us to bring our community together like this.”
Become the Next Hybrid Events Success Story
Explore our integrated solutions today to transform your hybrid meetings and events.
Meeting Professionals International (MPI) is the largest meeting and event industry association worldwide. The organization provides innovative and relevant education, networking opportunities and business exchanges, and acts as a prominent voice for the promotion and growth of the industry. MPI has a global community of 60,000 meeting and event professionals including nearly 14,000 engaged members. It has It has nearly 70 chapters, clubs and members in more than 75 countries worldwide.
6 Ways Event Technology Can Help You Combat Inflation
As in-person events return in full force, the industry has undergone a dramatic shift. Meeting and event budgets are being impacted by rising costs, inflation, staffing shortages, increasing meeting volume shorter lead times, and competition for event space.
As you begin to re-strategize your events program, it’s important to find ways to control costs and combat inflation.
Venue Sourcing Tools
The venue is one of the largest costs for your event, typically 30-40% of your budget goes to meeting space. The return to in-person events is not only affecting costs it’s making the race for space more competitive. Leveraging venue-sourcing technology can help you control your event costs and find the perfect venue for your conference, meeting, or trade show. It will also free up valuable time by automating processes and cutting your search time down significantly.
Here are just a few benefits the right venue-sourcing tools can bring you:
- Rate data by location so you can compare different cities and dates to find out what fits your budget. The best tech has cost-estimator tools to estimate total event costs in different locations.
- RFP technology allows you to send one RFP to multiple venues so you can compare bids easily and see what venues work within your budget.
- Budget tools that integrate with your bid information to save time and more efficiently track spend.
- A database of preferred venues and vendors in your centralized tool. In difficult times, it’s more important than ever to leverage preferred venues and vendors.
- Ability to negotiate with venues easier and faster than ever through streamlined communication.
Technology cuts out the pain of manual processes, saves you time, and can provide insight into where you have deposits, where you have credits, canceled space to re-use across your entire company and identify the venues where you have negotiated rates, even moving your business towards those preferred vendors.
Room Block Management Tech
In 2023, your attendees will be looking for the best rates possible for housing than ever before. It’s just the reality that comes with shrinking budgets. Tech can help. Make it easy for attendees to book the rates you expertly negotiated with the venue through room block management technology. Create easy-to-use booking sites that integrate with your registration website so attendees can book rooms in a few clicks. The best part about using technology is that event organizers can see room pick-up in real-time. You’ll be able to forecast and report on attrition and in-person attendance to save valuable dollars on your event.
Some additional benefits of room block management technology include:
- No more sending excel spreadsheets back and forth to the hotel, integrate data into any hotel reservation system
- Leveraging your registration tools to encourage attendees to book travel as soon as possible to try to get the best rates possible.
- Access data so you can evaluate meeting format and location to reduce costs – consider a virtual option or smaller regional meetings to reduce event costs.
Online Vendor Marketplaces
Searching for vendors that meet your specific event needs can be a challenge, especially when our service needs have changed. Save time by using a network of vetted vendors that are waiting for your request. Centralizing your venue and vendor sourcing provides efficiencies across your organization; you can even use your event RFP details to easily start your search.
Digital marketplaces allow you access to hundreds of global vendors to help service your next virtual, hybrid, or in-person event.
Key money savers:
- Find new vendors to compare rates in less time
- Mark preferred vendors to leverage spend
- Input information into the budget to track and manage spend
Event Budgeting Software
Event budgeting and spend tracking are tough enough without having to factor in inflation. Tedious data entry, time-consuming Excel formulas, and disconnected systems lead to an overall lack of visibility and more wasted resources (time/money).
In 2023, Lacking visibility into how many dollars are being put into events is a recipe for disaster, so take advantage of available budget management tech and get full visibility on your spend.
How it will help:
- Track your budget and more importantly track your negotiated rates and cost avoidance to highlight how much you’re saving your organization through your efforts.
- Gain visibility into where and how money is being spent.
- Holistically understand market share across vendors.
Meeting Request Forms
Visibility is a common theme here and this can be a real pain point for many organizations. In 2023, lack of visibility means it’s only a matter of time before disaster hits.
Meeting Request Forms (MRFs) are essential when event costs are on everyone’s minds. MRFs provide you with the ability to capture and centrally store information about all meetings happening throughout your organization.
By streamlining your process for collecting meeting requests, you'll have the visibility you need to make better business decisions, including a view of all meetings, what departments are hosting them, who’s planning them, estimated budgets, meeting size, location, or any other details important to you.
This means you’ll have the ability to evaluate where meetings can be combined or eliminated, including doing away with redundant meetings.
The full view MRFs provide helps in other ways:
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- Consider the options smaller regional meetings with less air travel can provide.
- Gain visibility to trade show participation to reduce redundant, costly rentals.
- Validate participation for events you attend by leveraging defined metrics to standardize return on events (ROE).
Virtual Event Tech
Most events professionals were given a crash course in virtual events not too long ago. While the results varied, the convenience and cost savings attributed to this event type were undeniable. Additionally, the right technology solution will offer a heightened, engaging experience for attendees, and also offer you options, so the move to virtual won’t be so jarring.
Having the ability to switch from in-person to virtual or to hybrid is critical when you’re focusing on costs. This technology provides you with the ability to:
- Consider keeping/taking the event virtual, especially if the goal is content consumption and not networking – webinars are still a highly effective part of the total event program
- Consider a virtual option to reduce air travel and hotel costs.
- Consider a virtual option for employee flexibility.
Again, the key here is to find an integrated virtual event technology solution that offers you the ability to pivot from one event type to another without missing a beat.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, organizations inherently know events are successful, which is why everyone is itching to get back to in-person. But when budgets get tight, events are on the chopping block.
These forces combined make it more important than ever to set up your event program to be prepared for anything – with the ability to showcase your value to the organization and prove your event’s impact on the organization.
For more on cost savings, and the other ways you can fight inflation in the new events landscape, check out this resource.
Julie Haddix
Julie Haddix is the Senior Director, Industry Solutions for Cvent, Inc. She has worked for Cvent for over 13 years and helped to build the company’s Enterprise sales and marketing divisions, including its approach to Strategic Meetings Management. Julie has also been a part of the planning team for Cvent CONNECT, Cvent’s annual user conference, leading the event marketing and content development efforts. In her current role, she oversees strategic content direction for the event marketing and management platform. Julie graduated from the McIntire School of Business at the University of Virginia with a B.S. in Commerce and concentrations in Marketing and Management. She lives in Westchester County, NY with her husband and 2-year-old son.
