Meeting Professionals International (MPI) announced today during its 2018 World Education Congress (WEC18) it will develop new education and resources to help meeting planners design more inclusive experiences.

For this, the association is collaborating with the NYU School of Professional Studies (NYUSPS) Jonathan M. Tisch Center of Hospitality to conduct a research study that will examine tactics, which can be utilized to make all attendees at meetings and conferences feel welcome through inclusive event design.
 
The findings will be presented at the MPI 2018 Thought Leaders Summit in November. The association will collect feedback from industry leaders and senior-level meeting planners during the summit, and their insights will then be used to influence development of the MPI Academy’s new Inclusive Experience Strategist Certificate Program, which is scheduled to launch in the first quarter of 2019.
 
The new program will entail a four-hour, interactive training session that addresses how to make practical inclusion decisions and the tactics for doing so. Participants will learn the business case or rationale, key principles and strategies, and outline of tactics for planning for inclusion.

MPI is partnering with Dawn Snyder, Ph.D., C.P.T., Prosci CCMP of Dawn Snyder Associates to lead the development of the initiative.