Meetings + Events

By Sandra Eagle

Get ready for a totally new way to experience MPI’s World Education Congress (WEC). Building on the award-winning program that Meeting Professionals International (MPI) designed for last year’s event, planners can expect to be integrated into the 2019 conference theme: Start Planning Experiences. WEC is coming to Toronto this year from June 15 – 18. Last year’s WEC won first place for association meetings from the 9th Annual Eventex Awards. 

The MPI events team did a radical redesign of the WEC experience in 2018 in collaboration with Event Design Collective based in Denmark, and will tweak sections of that design for 2019.

Numbers are tracking higher than usual for the Toronto WEC and Melinda Burdette, CMP, CMM, HMCC and director events for MPI, says the combination of the destination and the fear of missing out has certainly helped with the draw for planners to attend.

Burdette explains, “We really threw everything against the wall last year and tore it apart and this year will be another shared experience. We are going to continue with short, focused general sessions that are very high energy, with entertainment values mixed in with education.” There will be a mindfulness lounge, the popular puppy-cuddling area, a trade show woven throughout the village experience and brain-friendly foods to keep energy high. Burdette adds, “We really feel that it’s important to bookend each day, to gather everyone together so that planners will share all that they have learned that day with each other.”

Burdette says, “It was so different from any other conference then they had ever been to. We’ve mixed it up so that planners can craft whatever experience they want.” Burdette understands who the audience is and the pressure to produce a meeting for meeting planners is understandably daunting. But at the end of the day, Burdette says, “Planners have to make the conference work for them, you have to be there for your own professional development.”  

As part of Ignite’s 10^th year anniversary, we’re giving away passes to major industry events in Canada, check out our Learn on Us page on our website.