Three organizations — International Association of
Exhibitions & Events, Meeting Professionals International and the Society
for Incentive Travel Excellence — have
relaunched the Global MICE Collaborative, a joint endeavor designed to provide education
and training for the business-events industry.
Created in 2018, the collaborative
delivered educational content in Shenzhen, China, and Abu Dhabi; it paused activities due to the pandemic, before relaunching this year.
The group will deliver a keynote, Business &
Event Trends for MICE Professionals, at Northstar Meetings Group's The Meetings
Show Asia Pacific, which will take place April 17-18 at the Marina Bay Sands in
Singapore.
On May 13, the collaborative will present a one-day course, MICE Fundamentals: Conference,
Exhibition & Incentive Events, in Frankfurt, Germany, prior to the start of
the IMEX Frankfurt trade show. The course will be available at future industry
events, yet to be announced.
Working together again
In announcing the renewed alliance, IAEE president and CEO
Marsha Flanagan, CEM, said, "The Global MICE Collaborative brings three of the
industry’s best-known associations together to provide the global community of
business-event professionals with a 'best of' collaboration, initially focused
on education."
Paul VanDeventer, president and CEO of MPI, commented that in
the past three years, the industry has seen significant changes
in workforce composition, with some reports revealing that more than half of
industry professionals are new and the average age has declined by nearly 10
years.
He added, "This brings forth a significant opportunity for fresh thinking, yet also
demonstrates the need for skill development. Our MICE Fundamentals course
provides the perfect pan-industry immersion for those new individuals entering
this amazing industry."
VanDeventer pointed out that the initiative "provides the perfect primer for the more specialized
certification programs that each of our individual associations offer: IAEE’s
Certified in Exhibition Management Learning Program; MPI's Certificate in
Meeting Management; and SITE’s Certified Incentive Specialist and Certified
Incentive Travel Professional."
SITE CEO Annette Gregg, CMM, noted that as more
regions, countries and cities around the globe recognize the hard-dollar and
soft-power contribution of meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions,
the demand for professionally trained business events executives is increasing.
"That’s why the leading associations in the industry have joined forces to
develop the best MICE workforce in established and emerging markets worldwide," she said.