Meet Minneapolis, Convention and Visitors Association, is excited to host 5,500 meeting and event planners from three noteworthy meeting planner associations in the next three years in Minneapolis, City by Nature. Conventions include the R eligious Conference Management Association’s (RCMA) 2013 World Conference & Exposition, Meeting Professionals International’s (MPI) 2014 World Education Congress and Society of Government Meeting Professionals’ (SGMP) 2015 National Education Conference & Expo. The attending meeting planners each have the potential to bring future convention business to the destination, making them highly sought-after, and potentially lucrative, for Minneapolis.

RCMA specializes in faith-based meetings and events, and are working to help planners increase event attendance. Members of RCMA currently plan roughly 14,000 meetings and events of all sorts, drawing in more than 11 million participants each year. RCMA’s World Conference & Exposition will bring 1,300 attendees to Minneapolis and take place Jan. 29-Feb. 1, 2013.

MPI is a diverse meeting and event planning industry group that consists of more than 21,000 members from 86 different countries. The MPI community brings together thousands of professionals from around the globe who believe in the power of connecting people. MPI’s World Education Congress will take place Aug. 2-5, 2014, and bring 3,200 meeting professionals to Minneapolis.

SGMP members include federal, state and local government employees as well as contract meeting planners who specialize in government-related events. SGMP’s 2015 National Education Conference and Expo will take place April 27-30, 2015, showing off the City by Nature to 1,000 attendees.


All three conventions will occur at the Minneapolis Convention Center (MCC) and SGMP’s National Education Conference & Expo is also at the connected Hilton Minneapolis hotel. The MCC is conveniently located in the heart of downtown Minneapolis within a mile of 5,828 hotel rooms and blocks of many of Minneapolis’ favorite restaurants and convenient shopping on Nicollet Mall.

Meeting planner conventions such as these are known for creating positive economic impacts on the cities in which they take place. This is good news for Minneapolis since the estimated economic impact due to these three conventions alone comes to a combined total of $3,941,329. MPI will contribute the most with an estimated $1,839,379 while RCMA is estimated to contribute $1,470,300 and SGMP another $631,650.

“Our past experience and data tells us that once someone visits Minneapolis, they are three times more likely to return and recommend it to others,” said Melvin Tennant, president and CEO, Meet Minneapolis. “Bringing 5,500 meeting planners here to experience our destination first-hand is invaluable; each planner will experience personally our hospitality community, venue, transportation, attractions and all the attributes that help them hold successful meetings. We are thrilled to welcome these three prestigious groups to Minneapolis in the next three years.”

Visit www.minneapolisconventioncenter.com and click on Event Calendar to see other upcoming events coming to the Minneapolis Convention Center and http://www.minneapolis.org/meeting-and-event-professional for more information about meeting in Minneapolis.