Meeting Professionals International (MPI) weighs in on standards development

Roger Simons, MPI's Corporate Social Responsibility Manager, serves as the MPI representative to the ISO 20121 Project Committee, a collective of more than 25 countries and various international organizations to create a flexible management system that ingrains sustainability in the entire event planning and delivery process. Members can communicate directly with Simons to provide detailed input on their perspectives around ISO 20121 via email at [email protected].

Simons represents a strong voice for MPI members and remains connected closely through live event presentations, online engagement in member forums and chapter visits. Simons' proximity to the standards development ensures that MPI members have access to cutting‐edge content, strengthening one of MPI's Thought Leadership Initiatives; Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainable Events.

This initiative was developed in response to MPI members consistently ranking CSR as an increasing area of accountability. The CSR tool development and research by MPI and funded by the MPI Foundations through an investment by Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG), has produced the first Sustainable Events Measurement Tool for the industry, which is free to MPI members, as well as multiple best practice case studies, white papers and event co‐creation sessions where professionals are able to share peer‐to‐peer and gain understanding of the latest knowledge, with upcoming deliverables still to come including a comprehensive study.

MPI is also an official advisor on the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) reporting guideline for event organizers. IHG works with MPI to provide quality input and will be incorporating the framework, and members can also submit ideas to Simons directly on this project. The draft supplement of the reporting framework will make its global debut at WEC 2011 in Orlando, Florida, 23 – 26 July, where MPI will report on the conference's impact and members will be able to gain education around the disclosure framework that will guide the industry into a more responsible future. Feedback from this first implementation will be considered for the final framework to be used at the Olympic Games in 2012.