First of all we have a move in staff: Mr. Stijn Paridaens has replaced Ilse Matthe as our full time staff member.  Ilse starts to work with EMIF, one of the tradeshows that sponsors the Meeting Support Institute. After two years of helping the foundation of the Meeting Support Institute, we must thank Ilse for getting our projects to move in the right direction.  We believe Stijn is the right person to take the Meeting Support Institute into its next growth phase. Although membership has increased with a nice 25% (from 19 to 26), he shall aim higher and with your support he will take the Meeting Support Institute to its next level.

Secondly the magazine: It was always a bit of a dream, and now it is coming true. With the support from Headquarters, a Magazine with a European distribution to 6.000 associations and with your participation, it will be a fine development to start our third year. Adding our own additional copies and distribution, this will generate a lot of exposure for all of us. It will be a real professional magazine that will only come out once in 2008 but also the first of many in the years to come.

Susanna Kanervo from Finland is one of our two interns this year and she is helping us with making this magazine a success.  The two interns are proof of the fact that the Meeting Support Institute and its website are also used by universities all over the globe. More and more students will enter the market in the years to come and be well aware of what you do and know your brand as they start in this industry.

Susanna is also working on a prospectus to find new sponsors for an ambitious initiative of the Meeting Support Institute. This initiative wants increase the development of educational programs in Universities and other institutions. Some results are already starting this year in London and the Netherlands, but the goal is to get much more and bigger results, faster. New courses and eventually a new master degree will give birth to a different generation of professionals in the meetings industry. These new professionals will have a strong focus on the meeting objectives and ad meeting support to meeting hospitality; resulting in more opportunity for all of us.

Than we have the Eventia Summer Conference that will have a track on technology for all of us to demonstrate, speak, exhibit etc. The Summer Eventia is a Sunday - Monday - Tuesday conference where more than 200 event agencies and planners get together. Last year a few of us were there and we can’t wait to get more technology sessions on track. If the feedback is as successful as the feedback on last years feedback, this may prove to be a stepping stone to a stand alone conference with exhibition next year.

The Meeting Support Institute wishes to thank these sponsors

© The Meeting Support Institute 2008

stijn.paridaens@meetingsupport.org 

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