New course director for ECM Summer School: Pier Paolo Mariotti

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An ECM member in 2009, Pier Paolo Mariotti hosted the 23rd Summer School in the Eurac convention center in the city of Bolzano, Italy. He joined the Summer School’s faculty, helping to shape up course content and becoming one of its speakers, emphasising the importance of the green agenda and the necessity for green events and their pivotal significance for the future development of the tourism and meetings industry. This year he takes over the course leadership of ECM Summer School, bringing to this job his trademark energy, ideas and convictions.
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What are your impressions of this year’s Summer School in Tampere?
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I have just realised again the extent to which this training is so effective. It is an occasion to get an overall view of the meetings industry and, at the same time, you have a perfect possibility to go in- depth – to immerse yourself in details that might be specific to your situation or destination. This is possible thanks to the professional and highly regarde experts who form the Summer School faculty. For the students the Summer School represents complete immersion and concentration; the three days are really very intensive. The strengths of the Summer School and the unique niche it occupies in terms of professional development tailored to the meetings industry is reflected in the feedback we get from the participants – positive, dynamic, enthusiastic.
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Do you remember how you learned about the existence of Summer School and when it was?
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My first contact with Summer School was very prosaic. It was the necessity to train my staff – that was what brought me into contact with Summer School. Usually, when recruiting, I have always chosen people who graduated in tourism so that they have already the theoretical background. As far as the meetings industry is concerned, this is a tricky point. With a little bit of research (just as I did at that time), you will soon come to the conclusion that there is no university providing a diploma specialised in this particular sector of tourism. Then I came across the old European Federation of Conference Towns (EFCT as it was known at that time) and the Summer School. I sent a first member of my staff to attend the training in Florence and found out that it provides perfect hands-on knowledge. Since then, I send a staff member every year.
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You have the experience of organizing Summer School in “your” city – in 2009 the ECM Summer School was hosted by the city of Bolzano. Is it a useful experience when becoming its course director?
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Definitely. It enables you to look at the event from all the different perspectives including the logistics and the different needs of the students and faculty. This insight allows you to help people to perform better and make the organisation more efficient. For example the sponsorship – it is a very important point so that the whole event can exist and still, as a course director, this can get outside your vision because you try to focus so much on the quality of the educational content. Organising the ECM Summer School last year in Bolzano is a very precious experience, and is very helpful in the discharge of my new role.
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From your point of view, what makes the ECM Summer School unique?
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I have already mentioned the uniqueness of its content – that is so hard to find elsewhere even on university level. Still there is one more thing that makes Summer School such a unique event: the networking. The participants get the occasion to meet not only with the faculty but also with their colleagues from all over Europe. They can discuss things, learn from each other and of course create their own network – that is so important in any business.
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Do you have already a vision of what you would like to change in the upcoming years?
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First of all, I should mention here the strong faculty of ECM Summer School… and you don’t change your horse if you have the winning one. In 2011 we are organising the 25th Summer School. This is a quarter of a century and in its own right it says a lot about its quality. Of course, there are other aspects; the times are changing, the industry is developing, there are new technologies and media. The needs of students change accordingly and our task is to keep up and be ready to fulfil their expectations. There is one thing I would like to focus on in the future – to involve the participants in a more active manner, give them the opportunity to express their experience and to help them present their ideas in front of a large public of colleagues and professionals. Get them on the stage! This might be a little hard on them, however, public speaking is becoming one of the crucial skills when working in the meeting industry.
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Pier Paolo Mariotti, CMP, CMM, Meeting Manager, EURAC convention center in Bolzano.
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Born in the heart of the Alps, Pier Paolo graduated in Economics and Business Administration at the Università degli Studi di Verona. He worked as photojournalist and travelled extensively in South East Asia for several European and Asian publishers. In 1994 he came back to Italy with his family, worked for the South Tyrol Convention Bureau and also set up the Torino Convention Bureau in 1999. Pier Paolo Mariotti is Founder and Director of “.IT Meetings and Incentives in Italy” and since 2003, has been a Meeting Manager at the European Academy of Bolzano and the Managing Director of the EURAC and TIS Convention Centers.
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