Meeting Professionals International and the Event Leadership Institute are partnering on a new educational program to prepare planners to handle design challenges and risk mitigation for meetings during the pandemic.
The six-week online certificate course, “Pandemic Meeting & Event Design,” starts September 1, with a pre-course meeting August 25. Kevin White, founder of XPL, a Boston-based experiential design agency, will lead weekly online class meetings covering topics such as risk assessment and duty of care, risk-reduced engagement formats, operating procedures for non-compliant attendees, Covid-related supply-chain issues, and more.
The course “directly addresses questions and concerns we hear each day from our members,” says Jessie States, director of the MPI Academy. “We understand the urgency planners face to understand areas impacted most by the pandemic, including risk management and reduction, new venue protocols, contracts, and safer event design.”
The course costs $695, with discounts for MPI and ELI members, and includes a final exam. Meeting professionals that successfully complete the program earn 20 hours of continuing education credits toward their Certified Meeting Professional designation as well as a digital credential displayable on e-signatures and websites.
Earlier this year, MPI and ELI also partnered on a Virtual Event and Meeting Management certificate course in reaction to the pandemic.
