MPI MN President's July 2020 Message

You are probably wondering “where is the Presidents Message video?”  Well I have to say that our Immediate Past President, Nicole Coon is a natural in front of a camera, I get a bit of stage fright so I will start my year with a letter.  

We are resilient and innovative.  We look to the past and future, to look for the best way forward.  We are adapting.  We may have missed some of our favorite industry events, and haven’t yet been able to properly award and celebrate our Excellence in MPI award members; or get to know the great team I’m blessed to sit with together on our board, but we are moving forward with the same optimism and drive that we have always had. In this letter I hope to update you on all we’ve been working on, but mostly I’d like to tell you to be you, and do what we do.  Get on the phone, even if there’s uncertainty about how quickly things will get back to normal. Deepen your connections; look for new angles and opportunities.  Show them your social distanced love and affirmation. 

To help us out with all of this, the board is planning educational and networking events, which will be flexible to meet current and future state guidelines regarding meeting size and venue.  

We have approved our current budget, knowing that historical numbers and estimates can’t be used to guide us. We were lucky to inherit a reserve built from the prudence of our past leaders.

Our most well attended event, the August Summer Social at Cooks on Crocus Hill, is cancelled because Cooks cannot have groups over 20 people.  I’m sure that our next event WILL be the set new records for attendance.  There is pent up demand for all of us to get together, much like the pent up demand for people to travel, eat together in person,  and to stay somewhere nice that’s not the same four walls they’ve stared ate in quarantine.  We are considering an outdoor event in August, stay tuned.

WEC Grapevine has changed dates, its design, delivery, and purpose. The new dates are November 3-6, 2020.

 At our Annual Meeting we took care of the business that is required by Global but this is usually a time of celebration and recognizing our members with Excellence in MPI (EMPI) Awards are given to MPI Minnesota Chapter members who exemplify strong support and participation needed to help the chapter and industry grow and succeed.  Our EMPI Committee is planning an alternative way to announce and present the awards, more to come.

Our Chapter, Hospitality Minnesota and Meet Minneapolis members partnered in “The Services State of the Industry” MSP Metro Survey.  This was conducted by Meet Minneapolis and an overview of the results were shared at the Annual Meeting and the full report is in this newsletter.   This survey will go out again for all of us to measure and gauge the health of the hospitality and meeting planning industry.  You will see a copy of this included here.

As the State of Minnesota and Governor Walz start to slowly turn the dial down on restrictions; we will see business’ opening back up, some people going back to work, some continuing to work from home, and some looking for new opportunities, remember we are part of one of the best communities. We connect people to other people, make sure that they feel taken care of, all with a smile.

We Will Meet Again.
Barb Madigan
President – MPI Minnesota