It’s been over a decade since Meeting Professionals International selected a Texas city as the site for its World Education Congress, but the association has just announced it’s headed back. In 2006, the WEC convened in Dallas, MPI’s headquarters, and for 2020 the city of Grapevine—between Fort Worth and Dallas—is the destination for the annual event, which will take place June 6–9.
MPI is collaborating with the Grapevine Convention and Visitors Bureau to host the conference, which will be held at the 1,384-room Gaylord Texan Resort and Convention Center. The event typically attracts more than 2,000 attendees, including corporate, third party, and association planners, suppliers, students, and industry faculty.
“This is a great opportunity to showcase some of the unique venues and charm of North Texas, which I have had the pleasure of enjoying since relocating here when I joined MPI almost five years ago,” said Paul Van Deventer, president and CEO of MPI. “With the Gaylord Texan, we will be able to host and house the majority of our attendees under one roof, and they will also have easy travel access with the nearby Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport and Dallas Love Field Airport.”
Before its next WEC in Texas, MPI will bring the educational event to Indianapolis this summer, June 2-5 at the Indiana Convention Center & Lucas Oil Stadium, and in 2019 to Toronto for a June 11-14 meeting at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.
Looking back, here’s recent history of MPI’s WEC destinations:
2001 Las Vegas
2002 Toronto
2003 San Francisco
2004 Denver
2005 Miami
2006 Dallas
2007 Montreal
2008 Las Vegas
2009 Salt Lake City
2010 Vancouver
2011 Orlando
2012 St. Louis
2013 Las Vegas
2014 Minneapolis
2015 San Francisco
2016 Atlantic City, NJ
2017 Las Vegas
