Meeting planning and hospitality industry associations are no different than any other association when facing the dreaded "A" word: attrition. In order to head off members booking around the block at its 2004 World Education Congress, June 25 to 27 in Denver, Meeting Professionals International is offering a non-transferable $50 coupon good toward future MPI purchases (not including membership fees) when attendees book in the conference housing block.

The coupon will be distributed after the 2004 WEC and is good toward future purchases in the MPI Bookstore, for international conference registration, or MPI's e-Learning Series, expiring August 30, 2005. So members can use the coupon toward registration for the Professional Education Conference, January 23 to 25 in San Diego, or next year’s WEC, July 10 to 12 in Miami.

Also new this year, and another service certain to please members, MPI has integrated online registration and housing, which allows attendees to complete both tasks in one easy step via MPIWeb. MPI uses Passkey for housing and a combination of Cvent and Expo Exchange for registration.

MPI implemented the hotel reservation incentive to reinforce the importance of booking in the block, and to show its support of Convention Industry Council's Project Attrition, according to an MPI spokesperson. The MPI Foundation made a contribution to the CIC to help launch Project Attrition, which addresses short- and long-term solutions to attrition and explores the potential impact on the meeting and convention and exhibition industry.

For more, visit www.mpiweb.org.