Solidify your potential as an emerging industry professional.
Career starters:
Emerging Meeting Professional (EMP)
About the EMP
The Emerging Meeting Professional (or EMP) designation differentiates and elevates emerging professionals who want to set themselves apart when seeking employment. Individuals with the EMP designation signify that they possess mindsets indicative of the realities and competencies that make a meeting professional successful.
Wondering if the EMP designation program would be beneficial to your university or college program? Contact the MPI Academy today at mpiacademy@mpi.org to learn more. Or check out the MPI Certified program to learn more about how you can align your education with the best-in-class brand of Meeting Professionals International.
Qualifying for the EMP
- Current College/University Student (Junior/Senior)
- Current College/University Continuing Education Student
- New to Meetings & Events Industry - Career Change (0-3 Years Meetings/Events Experience)
- New to Meetings & Events Industry - Recent Graduate (0-3 Years Meetings/Events Experience)
How to Earn Your EMP
- Complete the application
- If approved, pay the course fees specified for your EMP classification.
- Complete the provided coursework.
- Complete and submit the final exam.
EMP Program Overview
Section 1 | Introductory Assessment
Meeting Professionals International has created a self-evaluation tool used by their consulting clients to help new or mid-level professionals evaluate their knowledge gaps and identify their most important professional development needs.
This tool has been scaled for use in the EMP designation program to allow learners to gain insight into their areas of excellence and challenge and to better assess “job fit” within the meeting and event space.
After the assessment has been completed, prospective designees work through the following activities as it relates to improvement needed in each of the competency areas.
Section 2 | Competency-Based Work Path
Each competency is broken down into three sub-skills that contain two-to-three learning methods or modes of engagement coupled with job aides or resources to help designees in full comprehension of the competency. A complete outline is provided below.
- Emotional Intelligence
- Conflict Management
- Resilience
- Collaboration
- Communication
- Time Management
- Creativity
- Improvisation
- Adaptability
Section 3 | Final Exam
Prospective designees are provided with an exam that is comprehensive of the completed required learning. The exam is comprised of several situational/short answer and multiple-choice questions as well as one video submission that requires prospective designees to provide a holistic summary of knowledge acquired through the EMP learning experience. Exams are reviewed and scored quarterly. Those earning a minimum score of 90/100 on their exams and who have completed the required education will be awarded the EMP designation.
| Component | Exam Weight |
|---|---|
| Multiple Choice | 20% / 20 Points Total |
| Short Answer | 50% / 50 Points Total |
| Oral Exam | 30% / 30 Points Total |
| Component | Score Percentage | Completion Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Self-Assessment | 10% | In-Full |
| Learning Modules | 40% | In-Full |
| Final Exam | 50% | Minimum Score: 90/100 pts |
More About the EMP Designation
As the meeting and events industry continues to evolve, there are not only notable changes in the way meetings are conceived, designed, and executed, but also in the skills employers look for when recruiting new talent. This poses the challenge: How can emerging professionals’ level up to meet the competitive demands of the changing job economy. Simultaneously, they need to outpace perceived threats to the meeting and events space such as automation and artificial intelligence and position themselves as not just a strategic business professional.
To maintain their place in the workforce of the future, meeting professionals must lean into the opportunity to be strategists, brokers of people and ideas through the design and execution of experiences that directly impact the bottom lines of their employers. To accomplish this, the world is embracing a new mindset widely referred to as critical skills (formerly known as “soft” skills).
Even before the onset of the pandemic, Meeting Professionals International has been examining the role of these critical skills, more notably denoted “future skills” by the World Economic Forum, which ensure that meeting professionals outpace the growth of automation and ascend to the role of business strategists with significant impact on organizational revenue.
Fueled by the need to provide the meeting and event professional community with the tools they need to quickly upskill, MPI has sought to examine the concept of future skills in a qualitative research project. After connecting with dozens of senior executives, from 30+ organizations, a clear pattern emerged suggesting a critical role and need for these future skills, particularly for the success of emerging professionals.
With that in mind, Meeting Professionals International has developed the Emerging Meeting Professional (EMP) designation to help new or emerging professionals solidify their competency in critical skills. Students will engage in a variety of learning methods to ensure that they understand and can apply these critical skills in their jobs.
Did you know there is an honors society for hospitality students?
More Career Starters Courses
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Your No. 1 role as a meeting professional is ensuring the security of the people you bring together. How prepared do you feel during a crisis or incident?
Inclusive Event Strategist
Meetings and events succeed when they embrace the ways people are different, and the result is a powerful setting for problem-solving, innovation and success.
Applicants are juniors or seniors enrolled in a college/university
Applicants who are juniors or seniors enrolled in a college/university program are eligible for a course fee rate of $100 which includes student membership, good for one year.
Applicants have 0-3 years experience
Applicants who fall under either of the 0-3 years of experience categories are eligible for a course fee rate of $270 (Planner) or $333 (Supplier) which includes a discounted preferred level membership, good for one year.
For a list of EMP Certified members.