This post is a short summary of the thinking behind the first Meeting Professionals International (MPI) Young Achievers Award (YAA) event which was held at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre on 03 June 2010.
Basically MPI (Meeting Professionals International) UK & Ireland Chapter and the Switzerland Convention Incentive Bureau worked together to launch the Young Achievers Award. The Award was created to discover and recognise new talent within the UK C&I industry.
The focus of the YAA was to connect new talent with the industry by providing the opportunity to meet key-figures, network and provide further prospects of staying within C & I, instead of branching out to other industries.
MPI and SCIB collaborated together with Universities from across the UK, who offer Event Management qualifications. They provided a challenging brief as close to a real life situation as possible. The brief was given to groups of students who will had a short period of time to write up a proposal and prepare a pitch.
All students had to prepare their proposal before coming to the London venue. They had to then pitch against each other in front of a challenging panel representing the best from leading UK agencies, Corporates, MPI and SCIB. The judges panel decided on the winning team. The event ended with an awards ceremony, attended by the C&I press and industry, and the announcement of the recipients of the 1st Young Achievers Award.
The prize on offer was a trip to Switzerland for the winning team. But actually the prize was equally for the students to be able to get in front of event industry professionals.
Paul Cook and Urs Treuthardt were the key drivers and producers of the event.
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