Meet Minneapolis, Convention and Visitors Association, announced its sponsorship of a day of giving back to the Minneapolis community on Aug. 4 by the 1,900 attendees of Meeting Professionals International (MPI) 2014 World Education Congress (WEC) at the Minneapolis Convention Center (MCC).
Six activities will be available for participation throughout the day that may look like they are just for fun. Each activity, however, benefits eight Minneapolis-area charities.
From a bike obstacle course where participants will also help build bikes for kids to Food Plinko, where canned food items are part of a game that will go to one of three charities, participants can spend 10 minutes or several hours making a difference for Minneapolis area organizations.
Corporate Social Responsibility, or CSR, is the continuing commitment by business to contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the workforce and their families as well as of the community and society at large.
In recent years, meetings and conventions have increasingly adopted CSR practices by providing opportunities to attendees to give something back to the communities where they meet. MPI and Meet Minneapolis enlisted the help of destination management company metroConnections to provide hands-on activities benefitting the following groups:
- Washburn Center for Children
- Minneapolis Public Schools
- Matter
- Second Harvest Heartland
- Emergency Foodshelf Network
- Bridging
- Simpson Housing Services
- Project Linus
Additional sponsors The Depot Renaissance Hotel, Marriott Minneapolis Northwest, Thrivent Financial and Marriott Minneapolis City Center are assisting with the activities throughout the day. Attendees will join them in the ballroom at the MCC in building bikes, assembling school supplies, donating food items, building and painting furniture, packing hygiene kits and making blankets for those in need.
“Minneapolis residents are the NO. 1 volunteers in the country,” said Melvin Tennant, president and CEO, Meet Minneapolis. “That reputation provided a platform and MPI wanted to provide an opportunity for the meeting professionals to learn about incorporating CSR activities into their own meetings, so we were excited to work with our partners to bring these unique, fun and beneficial activities to WEC.”
MPI is the world’s largest and most vibrant global meeting and event industry association. WEC runs Aug. 2-5. The signature event through which MPI delivers industry leading education, unparalleled networking and critical business opportunities to the meeting and event community will provide an estimated economic benefit to the area of $4.7 million.
