Oct 29, 2020
The Changing Role Of The Meeting Planner
James Taylor interviews Jessie States and they talked about the changing role of the meeting planner.
In today's episode Jessie States they talk about the changing role of the meeting planner.
Jessie States, CMM, is the manager of professional development for Meeting Professionals International, where she delivers education in support of MPI’s global live event portfolio. Jessie has been a part of the meeting and event community since 2006 when she joined MPI as a storyteller for The Meeting Professional magazine. Since then she has written hundreds of articles and blogs on meetings and events; penned six editions of the International Association of Venue Managers’ Business Barometer; and served as primary editor for MPI’s research initiatives on strategic meetings management, meeting design, business value of meetings and virtual and hybrid events. In 2017 she was named one of the 25 most influential people in meetings and events by Successful Meetings Magazine.
What we cover:
- The Changing Role Of The Meeting Planner
- From event tactics to event strategy
- The rise of Flipped events
- Inside the mind of the event professional
Resources:
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Read full transcript at https://speakersu.com/the-changing-role-of-the-meeting-planner-sl085/
James Taylor
Hi, it's James Taylor, founder of SpeakersU. Today's episode was first
aired as part of International Speakers Summit the world's largest
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but not before you listen to today's episode.
Hey, there is James Taylor, and I'm delighted today to be joined by Jessie States. Jessie States CMM is the manager of personal development for meeting professionals International, which delivers education in support of mpis Global live event portfolio. Jesse has been part of the meeting and event community since 2006, when she joined MPI as a storyteller for the meeting professional magazine. Since then, she has written hundreds of articles and blogs on meetings and events pinned six editions of the International Association of venue managers business barometer, and serve as primary editor of mpis research initiatives on things like strategic meetings, management, meeting design, business value of meetings, and verge on hybrid events. In 2007, she was named at one of the 25 Most Influential People in meetings and events by successful meetings magazine. It's my great pleasure to have Jesse join us today. So welcome, Jesse. Thank you so much. So share with everyone what's going on in your world just now.
Jessie States
Well, right now I'm gearing up for the CMP conclave, it's coming up
in a few weeks in DC. I'm also working on some of our regional poi
events planning to be a gbta in Frankfurt and putting together
educational program for next year. Awesome.
James Taylor
So I mentioned at the start there, you kind of came into the
meeting and events industry in about 2006. How did that all kind of
began, just tell us that the early journey for you and interesting.
I mean, who were those early mentors for you when you first got
started?
Jessie States
Yeah, I think that I've always been a storyteller at heart. And so
I took my degree in journalism, and was offered a job here at an
industry magazine. And I was able to convert that love of
storytelling into selling the stories of meetings and events, and
the true behavior change and business drivers that they've become
over the past decades, and really taking the opportunity to truly
help businesses understand how important meetings are for creating
new business for creating new growth for for growing organizations
for changing behaviors within organizations. And I converted that
as I moved throughout my career into the research initiatives. And
again, making sure that those initiatives, not only academically
were rigorous and valid, but also had that storytelling to them. So
that it wasn't just a series of statistics and data, it was a story
that we could share. And then I started to realize, through no
fault of our own, but meeting professionals are just a little too
busy to read 100 pages of research. So I took that same
storytelling strategy and started to create education out of those
research initiatives. Because while we can't always take a couple
of hours to sit down and try to understand what research is telling
us, we can sit and listen and discuss what that research means for
the future of meetings.
James Taylor
So I'm interested as well, I mean, when you first started was Was
there someone at MPI that was a key mentor for you. Was it maybe
someone in the industry that can take you under their wing? Or did
you just kind of have to like gonna build your own way into the
business?
Jessie States
No, I think that there were there were several women who were
important parts of my early and mid career, who I could definitely
call out now Vicki Howerton, who went on to be the CEO of the venue
managers Association, Cindy Diaz, who is now the head of CLIA, the
cruise line Industry Association. There were many, many women here
at MPI, who were mentors and who took me under their wing and
really encouraged me to grow
James Taylor
in that. I'm just thinking now, I mean, I'm sure that in the course
of your work, you're always meeting people are just coming into the
industry for the first time. They're just getting started. You
know, what's that maybe a key piece of advice that you give them,
someone that's just just getting on that note that first year of
themselves themselves in some point at some part of the events
industry.
Jessie States
It's funny that you asked me that just earlier today, someone sent
me an email and said, Hey, I was a homemaker for a long time. I'm
now going back and getting my degree in marketing, and I'm really
interested in readings, what should I do? And so I really love the
opportunity and cherish the opportunity to to help people who are
entering the industry, the The great thing is, is that it's the
perfect time to enter meetings and events. The research shows that
30% of organizations are hiring full time employees right now.
That's a huge number. US Bureau of Labor Statistics says that
industry job growth is going to increase by 10%, between 2016 and
2026. So it's a great time to be in meetings. And absolutely, I
think that one of the biggest pieces of advice is to get out there,
be part of industry associations, go to networking events, go to
educational professional development events, find a mentor, someone
who's going to encourage you to grow, and just really put yourself
out there, even if you're someone who's not comfortable in these
types of situations, set goals for yourself. I'm not the easiest
person at networking events, either. It's really, really hard for
me to go to people, I don't know. But if I set goals for that
networking event, if I know what I'm trying to accomplish while I'm
there, if I've set objectives on how I'm going to do it, then I
feel much more comfortable stepping out of myself and meeting new
people.
James Taylor
So you mentioned you kind of started in the industry about 2006.
I'm interested in, because you're right, you're dealing with people
in the industry all the time. How is that? How is the role? I mean,
we often will hear that phrase that your event planners, let's say,
and I tend not to use it that that that phrase, so my event
professionals is the one I tend to use because it's it's a broader
category. But how has the role of what we maybe think of as an
event planner, or event professional changed since you started to
where we are, where we are today, and where perhaps we're going to
be going in the future? I think
Jessie States
that's a pretty loaded? It's a pretty interesting question. Um,
when you look at what happened to meetings, when the great
recession hit, you look at the way organizations cut them as if it
was something that was expendable, as if it was something that
wasn't a business necessity. I think that that's when the role
would our role in meetings truly started to see as a huge paradigm
shift. Before that we had meeting professionals out there who
understood the strategy behind meetings, who could articulate their
value to organizations who could share how much ROI was being
delivered by their meetings. But if we weren't able to, to
conceptualize that, if we weren't able to communicate that to our
senior leaders, that's where we truly ran into trouble. And that's
why our own meetings outlook business barometer, right before the
recession hit about six months before it hit, we started to see a
huge cut in meetings and events that we couldn't articulate or
understand. And about six months later, we realized it was because
the recession was coming. And the first thing that businesses were
cutting were their meetings and events. And so what we don't want
to see is for that to happen again. But we don't want to see as for
businesses not to understand the crucial role that meetings play
in, in the strategy behind their businesses, and how meetings truly
drive change, impact the bottom line, and positively, positively
impact the business. And so the better we're able to articulate
that as an industry and take our role away from what you described
as the logistics of meeting planning and truly describe the value
that we're bringing to businesses, we're going to be much better
off the next time we had an economic cycle, I guess also applies in
terms of in the world of politics and policy, public policy,
because the thing I never realized until very recently was was that
the events industry is bigger than the automobile industry. I mean,
it's just I mean, it's a massive when you take all these different
component parts of it as well, but always feels like, you know,
there's some other great recession when that happened. You know,
there's a lot of automobile companies getting bailed out for the
different things. But it felt like the events industry maybe kind
of got overlooked. It didn't seem to have a seat so much at the
table at that point. Exactly. There was there, there wasn't any
kind of a realization, any kind of research out there, really, that
was showing the value that meetings but now, we do have research
now you have studies now that show that businesses that didn't cut
their meetings fared better than the competition that did we didn't
have it at that point. So so it's I think it's it's very
interesting way for us to look at the way we articulate our value
to to these event owners to these business owners.
James Taylor
Now know one of the things that you and I both really passionate
about, and really kind of interested in is how things like
artificial intelligence are changing the events industry as well.
Can you maybe talk now what you're saying, because because part of
your role is really looking at the research and looking at where
things are going to in order to help train, you know, meeting
professionals to what's what's going to be coming up soon. So what
are some of the things that you're starting to see, especially when
it comes to AI, perhaps automation and robots I watched,
Jessie States
I watched a really interesting YouTube yesterday about a product
that's just come out into the marketplace. It's an artificial
intelligence personal assistant. And this personal assistant will
schedule meetings for you. They'll reach out to the other person
who you want to hold a meeting with. Find a common time put it into
your calendar, if you need to cancel the meeting or reschedule this
artificial intelligence service will go and reschedule find a new
time where you both can meet sending emails back and forth to this
other person. And I started and I've been thinking but but if this
video Kind of illustrated what I've been thinking. And that is
these logistical roles that meeting professionals do now the
ordering of meals, the finding of venues and destinations, all of
these things are something that in the near future are going to be
very easy to automate, they're going to be very easy for our
artificial intelligences to to calculate the different things that
we use formulas for now to to book meeting rooms to to do some of
the the the tactical elements that make up the meeting profession
right now. And so what does that mean for meeting events, when and
looking back at some of the industries that have been lost to
automation in many ways, is that is that future meetings is the is
the meeting profession as we know it going to be gone in 10 years.
And if it is, if that is the case, that all of these things will be
automated that AI and robots will be taking care of all of these
things they'll be doing. But we have algorithms that calculate the
perfect number of coffee cups, to put in a room based on your
attendees. last 10 years of consumption. If all of that is true,
then we need to have a completely different value proposition as an
industry, we need to completely change the way we talk about what
our roles are, what our jobs are. And the strategy behind what we
do, we need to really be move ourselves from a logistical
logistical job description to a consulting job description to one
that talks about strategy. And and the words that we use as we
articulate who we are and the value that we bring to the C suite.
And to senior level managers, it's going to be really very
important.
James Taylor
It's funny, I just as you were talking, saying that I'm reminded of
the industry, I first came from the music industry where we first
saw it where if we think about any kind of industry, where you have
the kind of content and then you have the community, you know,
around it, or the you know, the the networking side around it. And
what we saw was that the content part kind of came back in term
stuffing and the value because so much content was very freely
available out there in different ways, watch YouTube videos, watch
TED Talks. But the the community part actually went up. And if I
look at now, live events are absolutely booming, like life
festivals. Absolutely. So it's like, so even though we've seen this
massive new technology and digitalization, actually the community
aspect, and it has gone up, and I don't know how you feel, but I
seem to I feel this as a speaker, where that it used to be it was
like maybe 5050, it felt often like the the content and you know,
the keynotes and the discussions and things. And then the other 50%
was was the kind of community net, the networking, it feels, to me
a long time where the networking part is actually become more
important now, and I guess we're AI, you talk about that, those
tools to be able to schedule meetings and find the right
connections for you to have that that's going to really start to
come into its own now.
Jessie States
Absolutely. And the reasons that people that people attend
meetings, the reasons people come together, they spend money to
come together that's changing. And in the past, it has been to to
listen to the subject matter expert to hear the panel discussion,
to sit back, and, and, and, and receive information. And that's
just no longer the case. Actually, people attend meetings to meet
each other, and they want to meet each other, they want to learn
from each other. And they want to learn from subject matter
experts. And they want to learn in their own context as well,
because they curate their own educational experiences every day
using technology. And when they come on site at a meeting, they
have their own unique challenges that they want answered, and they
won't get ROI. And they won't feel like they had a good conference
unless those specific challenges are answered. So how are we
connecting people together? technology is getting there. Technology
is getting to the point where we're having Amazon type
recommendations based on your profile of who should you should meet
while you're on site at an event. But how are we as meeting
professionals curating those experiences? How are we bringing
people together in new and unique ways? How are we helping them
engage by the ways that we design the experience itself? And so
it's it's a paradigm shift? Again, it's a big shift in the reasons
why people are coming on site to meetings events, if you think
about it, our youngest generation one entering conferences right
now ages 24. So that's, that's Gen Z already. They're coming.
They're here already. They have huge communities, friends, huge
community, industry communities, they've never even met in person
before. So how powerful is that experience to really meet somebody
face to face for the first time. And that's going to be the power
of meetings moving forward.
James Taylor
I guess on that point. Think of it that that Gen Z that's coming
through and the millennials, you could argue is that they've been
that first generations that have been going through the flipped
classrooms at school. So you know, the idea of like, I don't know,
maybe you and I are at school, we we kind of go to that and you sit
there in a lecture and someone would talk for an hour or 90 minutes
or whatever, and then you would make notes and you get up and you
go that's compelling. changed in schools, I, you know, all that
stuff, you know, all that kind of pure kind of content like lecture
style, they're getting online, so that they're actually the time
that they are coming together is much more exploratory, much more
creative, you could argue as well, because they really, they don't
have to do all that stuff. It's, you know, it's there. I love that
there's an expression where we're moving from the stage on the
stage to the guide on the side. And so you're almost at Utah at the
storytelling, like those kind of great event pressures, they're
moving almost in that kind of storytelling curation role, rather
than just being very logistics, you know, thinking about it. From
that perspective,
Jessie States
I think a couple thoughts on that, we're seeing about half of
meeting professionals saying that their audience sizes are going up
right now they're going up by about 1%, about the same amount of
meeting professionals saying that their virtual events are going up
by about 2.5%. And we're finding that meeting professionals are
being much more strategic about when they hold an on site Live
Meeting. And when they have a virtual event, they're realizing that
they can move some of that educational content, some of that hard
content, the thing that doesn't require any interaction that can be
moved online before an actual event, the very flipped classroom
style that you're talking about. So that when people come on site,
they are focused in on that personal experience on having
conversations about that content on creating solutions around that
content on on facing the challenges that they as a group face, and
in creating opportunity out of that. So we're seeing a rise in open
space, we're seeing a rise in in conferences without agendas. We're
seeing a rise in democracies and all kinds of different ways sector
grants, all kinds of different ways that people are engaging with
each other, and these new kind of learner formats.
James Taylor
So it's always isn't that what you're talking about there is that,
you know, the idea of the meeting professional is moving from being
a tactician to being a strategist, that is going up too high. I
mean, that's great. You know, if we think about where the future of
jobs are going with, you know, ai speak on a lot where, over the
next 20 years, 40% of jobs are just going to be gone. They're just
being automated, and obviously new jobs will be created. But what
that requires is that the people are working to invest in those
kind of higher quality skills, like the creativity, innovation, for
example, as well. So like, it sounds like the new event pressures,
many of them are already kind of they get it they're there they can
have they realized that having to rescale for that new new
environment.
Jessie States
Absolutely. So what we're seeing is the rise in strategic
conversations. So instead of being a one way conversation, the
meeting professional as an order taker, the meeting professional as
the consultant, okay, business unit, what are your goals for this
particular meeting? And how can my design my strategic design the
meeting itself, how can we drive your business? So really being the
designer, the mean designer, and saying, okay, you're wanting to
increase sales by this much. This is how we're going to just design
experience that does that.
James Taylor
So I know, one of the things is a top of mind of a lot of people
I've been speaking to recently has been the the safety and security
aspects of events. I guess, and this is something that you're
obviously doing a lot of research on, but you do a lot of training
around this as well. Can you can you give me some of your thoughts
on maybe someone that has, maybe they have their event there,
they're running their event, but kind of the safety and security
is, you know, they've kind of ticked the box to a certain extent,
but they haven't really thought about it in a deep way and built
some protocols and practices in there.
Jessie States
So half of meeting professionals don't have a safety insert
security plan for their events. Wow, 50% of meeting professionals
don't don't have a plan at all. A lot of many, many others have a
plan, but it has to be dusted off the shelf every year, they don't
realize that your safety and security plan needs to change it every
single different event that they have, that every single
destination comes with different risks, that every single event
venue comes with different threats, that they're the very content
of their event could change the security planning that they have.
So analyzing your meetings and events, looking at the different
risks that those events face, categorizing those risks in terms of
what's communicable. What's an acceptable risk for us? How do we
mitigate the risks that we do find access that we do find
acceptable? And how do we create plans, with our venues with our
destinations with local law enforcement with local emergency
management, in order to create safe experiences for our attendees
is absolutely something that we as an industry start need to start
to have a conversation about. MPI has developed a six hour
certificate class in discussing just that. It's the theory of
safety and security and how you can apply that not just in terms of
the risk that you're planning for but impromptu planning as well.
What's that process look like?
James Taylor
I often wondered this when I see some event professionals Well, if
I'm speaking at an event, we'll have some pre using our pre event
conversations call we will touch on the safety security aspects and
definitely when we're on the site, then we'll we'll go through
those things as well. But you shared with me a really interesting
kind of percentages as to, if something happens in a room, what
people do, and this is going to just this is just like behavioral
science really more than anything else. But you told me this, these
numbers, I was really fascinated, and it got me thinking about as a
speaker, especially if I'm that person, the lights on on the stage,
what I need to perhaps do and the way I need to perhaps, you know,
think and respond in situations.
Jessie States
So, this comes from a partner of ours, it's the NCS four group out
of the University of Southern Mississippi, that's the national
spectator sports Safety and Security Center. So they are they are
mega events, they do the safety and security for marathons and, and
Super Bowls. But they have, they have a number that they look at
it, it's 10 at 10. So 10% of people are going to be very, very
active in the case of an incident. In the case of something
happening, safety and security wise 10 are going to be very, very
active and trying to assure people out and get them to the right
place. 80% of people are going to sit there and wait for you to
tell them to do something. So if the fire alarm is going off,
they're still sitting there, they're waiting for the keynote, the
voice of God, whomever it is to come on and tell them what to do.
And then you have an additional 10%, who are somewhat
obstructionist, they're the ones who aren't getting up even after
you've told them to. So
James Taylor
they're sitting there on their laptops, limited, everything's going
on random. Yeah, that 10 at 10. That kind of blew, that blew me
away. And and obviously, with the events recently in the news, it
kind of got me thinking a lot more about it in terms of speakers as
well, what we can do to ensure because if you are in a position
where as a speaker, you're up on stage, and 80% of people are not
going to do anything. That's a pretty mind blowing number that so
thinking about what has to happen there. And I don't know if it was
you mentioned, or maybe one of my other guests was talking about an
event recently where something did happen. Thankfully, nothing, we
were injured or anything but something happened. And the speaker
completely froze on stage. And it is required when one of the
organizers actually come on stage and pick that baton up and deal
with it as well. But you can have lost seconds, you know, maybe
even a minute there as well.
Jessie States
And I think that's part of your crisis planning process is that you
have to be able to plan for the fact that at key times, some
members of your crisis team are not going to be available. And
whether that's because of a medical emergency, whether that's
because communication has been cut off, or whether that's because
they just froze in the moment. That has to be part of the planning
process, too. You have to be able to have Plan A, B, C and D. So
what happens if your first line of defense isn't there? Who steps
in? And what does that look like,
James Taylor
you know, as as someone that is putting together events, you know,
events can be stressful? You know, I think I saw a stat the other
day that that event professionals is like the fifth most stressful
job after like fire and you know, police and is like very out
there. So what do you do in order to stay sane and stay healthy?
Like during events and in the run up to events, when maybe things
you know, there's a lot going on, I
Jessie States
think we as meeting professionals take a lot of care and making
sure that our attendees are having really healthy, relaxing
experiences that they are in the perfect Zen place to accept
learning, you know, we work really, really hard for our attendees,
and we just ignore our own health. So we were so bad, those long
hours, late hours, not taking care of ourselves, or our teams, just
running around being very, very stressed out. So I think that
that's something that we as an industry need to look at, to make
sure that we're translating those experiences that we're telling
our attendees are necessary for them. And making sure that we're we
ourselves are being really, really healthy.
James Taylor
So I know it's through the you have the MPI, the academy there as
well, which kind of has a lot of these kind of training in spirit.
I know you've got a lot of online site as well as the events. You
know, what are you finding just now are people really looking for
when it comes to the training piece? Is it still very much the
tactical level? Or is it something new that's kind of coming into,
you're getting a lot of requests for when it comes to training,
Jessie States
we're getting a lot of requests for experience design, we people
are looking for new and unique ways to create amazing experiences
we no longer talk about sometimes some people have even moved away
from calling them events anymore, you know, with everything is an
experience, people are expecting an experience, not a meeting. So
we're seeing a lot of education in that area. We're seeing a lot of
push in that safety and security area. We're seeing a lot of
engagement. And we're also seeing a lot of investment in time and
thought being put into creative creating inclusive experiences. Our
audiences are so diverse and so global, that they come from so many
different countries and places they come from so many different
backgrounds, it making sure that every single person that comes on
site feels welcomed and comfortable is gonna really be so
important.
James Taylor
Yeah, I know. You mean, it's like, That's it? Yeah. It's like that
it's funny because it's, um, I guess now with with a lot of these
technologies, making some things like, you know, in terms of
registrations much easier technologies around some of the
artificial intelligence, it that time that hopefully is releasing
for us to be able to think, Okay, I think more strategically in
terms of like, what you actually want to achieve with this event,
but then also thinking much more about that experience. And, and,
and just, you know, releasing that time to be able to do that. I
mean, I think about it a lot. Especially when it comes to AI where,
I mean, I actually use AI in my my keynotes, I actually run, I'm
running my keynotes now through IBM Watson, because I because they
can tell me At what point in my keynotes things are gonna be a
little bit flat, and I need to switch things up, you've been to
story, you know, this in terms of a story, arc and things. So the
way I'm using AI is, I can almost see it, this is great, because
it's a tool for me, to allow me to focus on the thing that I'm
hopefully good at, which is that you like telling stories, telling
stories and crafting things and thinking much more strategically
and thinking deeply and being more creative about stuff. And it
sounds to me, like what's happening in the events industry more
broadly, is that's kind of going on. So I don't have to worry about
like, will this person have that vegan meal, because you know, that
the systems will be in place, they'll be able to take some of those
things. So releasing that time to go like, actually, what kind of
experience do we want to create the efficiencies
Jessie States
that are going to be created by this automation or something that
we have to be able to take advantage of? So right now, there's no
real job loss because of automation, we're still so kind of early
in that process. But as those efficiencies continue, what what does
that make more time for for the meeting professional and how can we
utilize that time to create even better experiences I think is
crucial.
James Taylor
So let's go to maybe a little bit the more mundane my new whenever
I go to any event speaking event I have my bag and there's certain
things in my bag I never leave the home or the office without
because they have to be my bag isn't that big school is usually
things like clickers and all those things but but What's in your
bag was in you know, you never leave Ted to an event without
ensuring that it's in there
Jessie States
as a speaker but also as a meeting professional. I'm making sure
that that my that I have everything in there that that helps me
feel comfortable that helps me feel whole like we were talking a
little bit about wellness what is it that you need to bring with
you or what is part of your personal brand that's just going to
make you feel like you wake up in the morning and you're ready to
go and so making sure that you have something that's kind of
personal to you in that traveling making you feel grounded and
whole I think is really important some lady at some people it might
be their you know, their meeting pumps you know, whatever it is
that keeps you focused on business I think is something that I that
I like to keep in the back I'm not sure that's what you're or
James Taylor
no actually funny if I was contacted recently by a friend of mine
is in the music industry is working with Jennifer Jennifer Lopez
and and her thing was candles and like very nice Jerome alone
candles and which is a great British brand new Malone candles and
and it just like sometimes sense for me I'm bigger than that as
well. Like just having this like certain sense kind of makes me
feel like home even if I'm in a different hotel room every night
and everything. So sometimes for me that's the that's that's what
does it.
Jessie States
So that's that's that's awesome. I love that. I mean now I feel
like I'm deficient in some way I need to go find something that I
bring
James Taylor
with me everywhere. We have to have a range of MPI candles. That's
the next thing. We need to do the MPI candle rage for
exclusively
Jessie States
marking that right now.
James Taylor
So what about online resources? Do you are there any kind of online
tools or apps you find really useful to yourself?
Jessie States
Yeah, I think that that? Well, first, I've just wanted to let
everyone know about the MPI Academy. We have an online Academy of
over 200 hours of resources sessions that you can attend, those are
free for our members, but they're pushable purchasable for non
members. And you talk about the tactics of meaning profession
that's going to go all the way from from your contracting
negotiations through to the strategy behind your meetings and
events. So all of those things that we've talked about that are
really really important for us to start concentrating on above and
beyond the kind of booking of rooms and spaces and and making sure
that that our that our rooms are setting the capacities are right
above and beyond all that what makes a meeting experience great
what what drives business for for organizations, when they're
looking at their meetings, that education is going to be crucial,
and we have that that's available for everyone. We do online
webinars every week. We we just want to make sure that the meeting
community is having the right conversation is connecting with the
right people in a truly global way to make sure that we're not
going to be left behind.
James Taylor
Now you mentioned that you know the global aspects. I know you have
these chapters. As you know, all over the, the globe as well. So
when almost becomes an MPI member, as well as getting access to the
academy into the, to the education side as well, I'm guessing
there's a strong, actual live meetup kind of community aspect to
what goes on as well,
Jessie States
absolutely. We've got 16,000 Global meeting professionals who get
together every month, in different ways to connect, to learn from
each other to talk about those to actually host the experiences
that we've been talking about why it's so important for people to
meet face to face. So when you're when you're, it's hard for us as
meeting professionals to explain what we do to our families and
friends. You know, it's always like, Oh, you travel so much, it
must be so much fun, you know, oh, you play in parties, you know.
And so I think that at some point, you just need a family, you
could go to understands who you are, and gets you and you can talk
to them about your challenges. And you can create opportunities
together. And you could do business together, because Gosh, darn
it, you get each other. You know, it's I think that's part of the
value too, in having a global community is the fact that, at least
we don't have to, you know, give each other the elevator
speech.
James Taylor
I'm just as you mentioned, the party planner, thing I'm reminded of
someone I recently spoke to who said, they were at an event, and a
very well known speaker was up speaking and, and it was in front of
actually primarily event professionals as well. And they use the
phrase party planner, like throughout the entire event. And as a
result, that speaker obviously got the worst kind of ratings on the
thing, the thing as well. So, so yeah, I mean, I think I think
there's, you know, obviously, a lot of what the MPAA does, is
educating its members as well. But I guess you've got that big role
of also educating people more generally, including speakers,
including new supply other people within, within the industry, you
know, government as well as to the value of what, what meetings are
about.
Jessie States
Absolutely. And that's, and that's what's going to be crucial,
because you everyone who's attending this meeting today, or who's
getting the this video or this content, you will you all get it.
But there are hundreds of thousands of other meeting professionals
out there who are just still doing tactics, who are just still
being order takers. And and not only reaching them, but reaching
business owners and CEOs and government agencies and sharing the
value of meetings and the value of this role plays in driving
business. Especially when we have people out there who don't know
that yet, you know, how are we spreading that message? How are we
sharing that story, because if we don't, we will be obsolete, and
no one wants that to happen, we all understand the strategy behind
meetings. So that's why it's so key and why I'm so thankful for
your organization for hosting the summit. Because these are the
kinds of conversations that we're going to be able to take back to
our organizations, these are the kinds of global conversations that
we need to be having, if we don't have them, we won't be here
anymore. So not to pump you guys up. ratable what you're doing, and
and it may have seemed small in the beginning, and you know, it's
growing now, but the importance of what you're doing right now is
going to change meetings moving forward.
James Taylor
And I think this is one of the great things about online, I know
you do a lot of webinars as well is that if you know, if you don't
live in some of those big cities as big areas, or places as easy to
get to, for events to meet with other meeting professionals, it's
kind of difficult, you know, finding out and you know, that was one
of the reason we want to do this was like, you know, we're probably
gonna have people in over 100 countries, you know, on this just now
as well. And, and just so they can learn from the best regardless
of where they are in the world. They can just learn from some of
the best experts in this field. I just want to ask you one question
as we start to finish up here as well. I mentioned like apps and
things, but is there maybe a book that you would recommend to
someone I'm a big, I'm a huge reader. And I know a lot of my
friends a huge read is a book that you would recommend around the
events industry.
Jessie States
I wish that I could remember the title of it, my my friend to hear
it and Dean. She's a Canadian, and has been in our industry for a
very, very long time. She just finished her new book on meeting
design. And it's incredible. And unfortunately it's it's it's
it's
James Taylor
escaping my mind right now but look her up Google her name to hear
it and D and E n d e a n, it's it's a really deep dive into meeting
design meeting curation that I would absolutely recommend. Well,
that's what I'm gonna, I'm gonna make sure we're going to put a
link here as well for that. So we're gonna have all these links
here. So and we'll also going to have a link here for MPI Academy,
because we've been talking about this just now and I'm sure that
anyone watching this, if you're attending this event, you're
obviously you care deeply about, you know, continued professional
development as well. So we want to help you kind of continue that,
that journey. So we're going to have have a link here, as well.
Jesse, it's been an absolute pleasure speaking to you today and
learning about the amazing work that the MPI does no amazing what
you're doing with MPI As well, is there any any kind of final kind
of parting kind of parting words that you would give maybe as
someone that's watching this just now listening to this just now
just getting started in the in the industry? Is there any kind of
final words you would say to them,
Jessie States
what we do is so important to small businesses, large businesses,
government agencies, geopolitics, the economics, tax growth, the
number of jobs we touch, the number of jobs we create, the number
of businesses that we drive. When we meet, we had MPI, say, when we
meet, we change the world. And that's true on even the smallest of
scales. Every time you hold a meeting, you're changing lives. What
we do, what we do, to drive career growth, to create change in our
industry is to bring governments together to to enact laws that
help people every time we meet every time you bring people
together, you're changing lives. And so just keep that in mind that
the child struggles the everyday day to day the things that drive
us mad the stress that we put our bodies through, just know how
many lives you're touching. And that every time you bring people
together, you're helping to
James Taylor
drive change. Well, Jesse has a beautiful way to leave this, this
conversation and this interview. Thank you so much for coming on
today. Sharing your brilliance sharing your enthusiasm about this
amazing industry that we're all in as well. I wish you all the best
I wish you all the best in the future as well.
Jessie States
Thank you so much for having me.
James Taylor
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