Background

Meeting Professionals International (MPI) is the largest meeting and events industry association worldwide, with a global community of 60,000 professionals. MPI partnered with the Kelley School of Business Executive Education (KSBEE) team in 2018 to create a more rigorous, research-based curriculum for its leadership-focused Certificate in Meeting Management (CMM). The partnership transformed the 8-week CMM into a 1-week residential immersion experience coupled with a 15-week online boot camp. The redesigned program was delivered each year, once in the spring and once in the fall.

Challenge

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in early 2020, it nearly brought the March CMM course to a halt—only weeks before it was supposed to begin.

On March 3, MPI and KSBEE still expected 30 meeting and events professionals to travel to Bloomington, Indiana, for the residential portion of the course later that month. This changed a week later when IU announced the suspension of classroom teaching because of the pandemic.

Could KSBEE convert the 8-hour days in the residential portion to online instruction? Would enough students be willing to take the modified CMM course? Nancy Snowden, MPI’s manager of curriculum and instructional design, began contacting registered students.

All but a handful were still interested. Now, it was up to KSBEE, which had just two weeks to adapt the in-person instruction to effective online learning.

Tom Lenz, professor emeritus at the Kelley School, helped design the CMM curriculum and was involved with the pivot online in March. Moving four 8-hour days of instruction and activities online in just two weeks was challenging, he said, but KSBEE has some key advantages, beginning with the school’s leadership in online instruction.

The Kelley School pioneered online business management education in 1999 when it launched its successful Kelley Direct online MBA program. Kelley consistently ranks as the top-rated business school in the country for online programs, a tremendous asset when facing situations like the Covid-19 pandemic.

“IU has continued to upgrade its investments in online delivery,” he said. “We really have capabilities that other universities just do not have.”

He said the culture of the Kelley School faculty made the change doable, as well. The faculty worked together to make the transition as easy as possible for everyone involved, and adopted a coaching approach to assist those who requested it.

“We have a faculty that takes very seriously customizing executive education for the client and being highly responsive to our client’s need,” he said. “Our culture really is 'all hands on deck.’ When you pair that with our technical capabilities with online education, our clients receive high quality, educational programs designed to meet their needs.”

MPI began receiving feedback almost immediately, and any reservations about 8 hours of daily synchronous online instruction for that first week evaporated. Students said the material was compelling and kept their attention during those initial long days online. The pandemic interfered with childcare arrangements in the US, and travel for international students who registered for the course, so the new format allowed students to still participate without as much disruption to their day.

The CMM format changed out of necessity, but this gave MPI and KSBEE a chance to see if the program could be offered entirely online. It worked so well that both formats will be offered later this year and two times each next year. Jessie States, director of MPI Academy, expects the organization’s international members to welcome the options.

“It’s a hardship for our international community to participate in this program,” she said. “This is a barrier we can now break. Our Kelley team was so incredibly receptive to the idea of trying this out and incredibly nimble in enabling the professors to utilize technology to engage our students. We consider ourselves lucky and honored to work with a partner like the Kelley School of Business.”

The Department of Tourism, Conventions, and Event Management at IU Indianapolis also helped design and teach the CMM since the MPI and KSBEE partnership began.

About Kelley School of Business custom programs

With 40 years of experience and a proven analytical approach, Kelley School of Business Executive Education enables organization to build leaders with the skills to solve business problems and drive future success. Whether partners want assistance with succession planning, improving performance, or the introduction and development of a new skill set, a custom executive education program can advance the capabilities of our partners’ employees—and companies.

Contact us at 812-856-5886 or kimgoad@iu.edu.