MU hiring event planner, pursuing more conferences

by Jim Muench

November 25,2009

In an effort to augment its academic and commercial networking opportunities, the University of Missouri plans to hire a professional event planner who will work to increase the number of conferences held on campus, MU Provost Brian Foster said.

Foster

The goal is to increase the number of visitors attending meetings and conferences on campus by 30,000 over the next few years, Foster said.

"A professional event coordinator will make it easier to organize meetings," he said. "It will take a while to get there; professional organizations plan years in advance."

The city welcomed the idea. "In this economy, 30,000 visitors would be a godsend," said Lorah Steiner, director of the Columbia Convention and Visitors Bureau. "As it would be spread over 12 months, I can't see any downside. We could handle the influx and will work with the university to help them bring this to fruition."

Obtaining an accurate count of the number of meeting attendees at MU is difficult at present. The meeting planning function is decentralized, and no central record-keeping system records such data. However, last fiscal year 7,755 people attended 23 continuing education conferences coordinated by the MU Conference Office on the MU campus, and an additional 3,902 participants enrolled in youth-oriented workshops or camps, said Jewel Coffman, assistant director of the MU Conference Office.

Recent conferences held on campus included meetings on agricultural topics such as plant biology, life sciences research, hazardous waste management, renewable energy, journalism and autism, in addition to the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, which provides classes for those aged 50 and older, said Coffman.

"There are probably a lot of small meetings that don't involve us," she said, such as guest speakers, lecturers and handfuls of researchers working together on specific issues.

Because it must support itself, MU's events planning operation is often seen as too expensive for faculty to use, Foster said. A subsidized event coordinator could change the equation to help MU faculty network with outsiders, which will enhance the intellectual environment on campus. MU would team with local hotels to provide housing and meeting venues.

The effort to build networking through meetings and conferences is part of the $6 million Mizzou Advantage program, a set of strategic initiatives based on the university's five areas of interdisciplinary strength identified in recent strategic planning efforts.

Announced last month, the five areas include: food for the future, new media, the convergence of human and animal health, sustainable energy and managing change from transformational technologies.

Foster said bringing more visiting faculty to campus will increase MU's prestige in the academic community and build its reputation as a center for research and innovation. "It's an investment," Foster said. "For the cost of one new employee working in the conference office, the university will gain much more in benefits."