Responding to the needs of meeting and event professionals as they face a resurgence of industry business levels, Meeting Professionals International (MPI) today revealed a redesigned World Education Congress (WEC) in Orlando, Florida, July 23-26.
The three-day event, the largest annual global educational conference for the meetings and events industry, will have an array of new marketplace features and educational experiences aimed at delivering face-to-face business conversations and innovative professional development sessions.
“We’re facing a new business paradigm in the meeting and event industry,” said Bruce MacMillan, president and CEO of MPI.
“There are truly new rules of engagement and ways to do business in our post-recession world. That’s why we chose to redesign WEC this year instead of delivering the same WEC experience as we have for the last decade."
"WEC 2011 remarkably delivers more face-time with your partners, more brain-time for the latest ideas, more brand-time for your business story and more you-time for your success.”
While the traditional tradeshow is no longer in the WEC lineup, the marketplace experiences have been redesigned around personal conversations for suppliers and planners to connect through scheduled business appointments including:
- WEC Hosted Buyer Program: For qualified planners to meet with suppliers in a one-on-one setting focused on pending business
- WEC Buyer Connect: A free option that enables planners who do not or cannot participate in the Hosted Buyer Program to schedule appointments with Hosted Buyer suppliers
WEC 2011 also launches two new networking experiences:
- The Blitz! is where attendees experience an entertaining and interactive environment created by venues, destinations and other business and encounter the wow and must-know facts they would normally gain on a site visit.
- MarketSquare allows businesses to fully integrate their brand within the attendee community during the length of the show by participating in the WEC Global Village.
“We’re very excited that the WEC is in our back yard this year, so we wanted to roll out the red carpet for attendees, Kissimmee style,” said Debby Rivera, manager of sales and services for the Kissimmee CVB.
“Since they will not have time to visit many of Kissimmee’s meeting options, we thought The Blitz! and MarketSquare would allow us to be creative while exposing attendees to all that Kissimmee has to offer. MarketSquare also allows us to create a relaxed, common area for Kissimmee industry partners and meeting planners to gather and reconnect.”
Because of the industry’s substantial changes over the past two years, WEC 2011 will deliver an unprecedented selection of innovative educational experiences.
FlashPoint will include a line-up of ten diverse speakers who will inspire ideas and conversations with their powerful, condensed presentations.
For the first time at WEC, MPI will enable attendees to direct some of the programming by voting online for topics they want to explore. There will also be on-site voting for sessions that should be repeated.
Peer-to-peer learning further expands the innovation with the North American introduction of the Solution Room, a crowd-sourced experience where attendees break down challenges and find real solutions by leveraging their collective expertise.
The Hive delivers the buzz on all things technology. In this shared space, subject matter experts will present on the latest in social media, hybrid and virtual meeting tools and trends, while a tech concierge answers attendees’ questions.
“Innovation and imagination are the hallmarks of an Orlando meeting, and WEC 2011 will be no different,” said Gary Sain, President/CEO of Visit Orlando.
“Focus on relationship building and actionable education is exactly what is needed as demand increases. Attendees of WEC 2011 will find these elements in Orlando, in addition to inspiration from Clean the World and other corporate social responsibility initiatives.”
Registration for WEC 2011 opens April 6 and access to information on the WEC Hosted Buyer Program and other new features options is available here.
