Meetpie, a British-based well-read online newsletter has reported on a number of member associations getting together to support meetings industry professionalism by putting their weight behind promoting the CMP certification programme in UK with a two-day boot camp.
With a mere 21 CMPs in the British Isles, some exported from South Africa yet remaining less than on the African continent – the UK industry has a way to go in convincing a much larger MICE population than in southern Africa of a predominantly USA certification programme in order to ‘professionalise’ their industry.
One of the prime benefits of the CMP certification is the possibility of a certain ‘foot-in-the-door’ for securing an inbound meetings assignment from an American entity who may be seeking a South African or British DMC and/or meeting planner.
However as regards professionalism through certification – Meetpie adjudicators have published the MICE Academy’s comments which the South African industry may find of interest:
‘The CMP programme is essentially based on testing an individual’s knowledge and experience aligned to a set of criteria which are not necessarily applicable in every country. Hence until such time as there is a serious monitoring and indeed re-dress for transgression of the perceived ‘standards’ based on the CMP programme or any other testing mechanism for that matter – programmes of this nature remain a benchmark for testing the individual’s knowledge and experience – not necessarily improving standards’
