After arriving in Houston late last night, my publisher (Marin Bright) and I dragged our heavy suitcases into the Four Seasons Hotel downtown and wearily checked in. Too tuckered to join the thousands of meeting planners clinking glasses next door at the MPI-PEC opening night welcome reception, we walked into our rooms only to be greeted moments later with an impressive fireworks display out our windows—MPI really knows how to do it right.
Well rested the next morning, we walked down to the river-boat themed Houston Convention Center for an impressive keynote speech by renowned speaker Tim Sanders. Backed by research from his upcoming book, How to Save the World at Work, Sanders discussed what he calls the “Responsibility Revolution”—and made a strong case that the only companies that will succeed will be those that include corporate social responsibility (CSR) in their business model. Simply put, if you don’t give back, tomorrow’s top talent won’t want to work for you.
With this engaging speech as a platform, I went off to interview Bruce MacMillan, CA, MPI President & CEO, and Angie Pfeifer, CMM, Chairwoman of the Board. Their comments reflected Sanders’, and called for a greening of the meetings industry in general. “The perception is that “green” means “expensive,” MacMillan said. “But that simply is not true.”
