MPI Puts Education Online In August, Meeting Professionals International began offering online self-study courses on its Web site, www.mpiweb.org.

"We've got an international membership of 17,000 people, and sometimes they just can't afford - in time as well as money - to attend our conferences," MPI president and CEO Ed Griffin said.

He said the courses can serve as extensions of MPI conferences, which are limited to 75 workshops over two days. "This gives us an opportunity to supplement those workshops with 50 more courses."

The self-study courses range from basic computer skills to financial management and negotiation techniques. MPI members "can take as many courses as they want over the course of a year for $175," Griffin said. Nonmembers pay $275.

Griffin said he expects MPI to offer up to 90 courses within nine months.

SITE and MPI Present Series for Incentive Show The Society of Incentive and Travel Executives worked with the Incentive Marketing Association and MPI to present a series of 30 free seminars at The Motivation Show, held Oct. 10-12 at McCormick Place in Chicago.

Seminar subjects included consumer promotion tactics, incentive marketing trends and strategies for employee recognition.

The Motivation Show, which serves incentive and meeting professionals, attracted more than 40,000 professionals from the marketing, management and human resources fields, a SITE spokesperson said.

Also, SITE hosted an Intra-Industry Reception on Oct. 9 at the Hyatt Regency, Chicago, where it presented its Crystal Awards recognizing excellence in program design and development. Award winners include Gregory A. Lewis, Motivation Excellence Inc., (Schaumburg, Ill.), for "Multiple Motivation Award Program," and Paul Braun, Travel Awards, Cape Town, South Africa, for "Best Regional Program - Africa/Middle East."