Miguel Neves is the inaugural recipient of the MPI Foundation Student Scholarship Award.
This award marks the newly consummated global partnership between IMEX and the MPI Foundation, a reflection of both organizations’ commitment to supporting young talent and providing opportunities for personal and professional development for future industry leaders.
The prize was awarded to Miguel as the winner of the 'International University Challenge', where each student attending the IMEX Future Leaders Forum is invited to put together a bid for a gala dinner at an MPI event of their choice.
The bids are judged on the bases of their creativity, detail, sustainability, marketability and presentation. The contenders must present their bid on stage in front of a live jury, first at their regional MPI event and subsequently present an extended version of their bid for the final challenge at the IMEX Exhibition in Frankfurt.
Miguel’s winning bid proposed an MPI European Meetings and Events Conference for 2014 to be held in his hometown of Estoril, Portugal, at the Estoril Congress Centre (the recipient of the 2009 IMEX Green Exhibitor Award).
The gala dinner involves beach front canapés followed by a sailing excursion on board 16th century "caravela" replicas.
The guests are then welcomed to Portugal's most prestigious monastery (Mosteiro dos Jerónimos) where a typical feast of the period awaits them. Entertainment is provided during the meal by several jesters, musicians and artists, followed by a guest speaker who will tell attendees of historic meetings that changed the world and how the meetings of today will change the future.
The evening ends with a "Fado" by world renowned music star Mariza.
For Miguel, this award represents the culmination of two years of a conscious effort to learn and grow within the meetings industry. He is currently a full time member of the SYNAXIS team, overseeing the London office.
He is also involved with MPI’s United Kingdom chapter, serving on the membership committee, and will be involved in all local efforts for MPI to further recruit and engage their student members.
In his own words, "my journey over the past two years has been truly amazing and I owe much of that to MPI and IMEX. I am in the process of completing my masters degree and I now have a job that I love which involves planning meetings and events on both sides of the Atlantic.”
Charles Massey, CMP, Founder and CEO of SYNAXIS Meetings & Events, says “I am extremely pleased and proud that Miguel received the inaugural MPI Foundation Student Scholarship Award. I initially met Miguel at the MPI European Meetings and Events Conference in London in 2008, where he was a student volunteer, then subsequently offered him a summer internship in 2008."
"When his internship was complete, we made the mutual decision to continue working together and he now works with our company full time, based in London. I am both personally and professionally proud of Miguel’s accomplishments, which once again proves that the students that we mentor are indeed our future leaders”.
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