APID

The History of IQPC

In the 1970s, the publishers of Industry Week magazine co-founded a company called Penton Learning Systems.

Its mission and purpose was to "supply the missing link between a number of disconnected colleges and universities, each marginally effective in designing and developing short courses for managerial and professional workers, and an integrated system of great power."

The concept was simple. Let's say Michigan State University offered the best short course on Developing the Annual Marketing Plan and California Institute of Technology offered the best short course on Energy Management for Commercial Buildings. MSU could "import" CIT's Energy Management course and export its marketing planning seminar to CIT. If 100 schools entered the consortium, and each provided just one outstanding seminar and faculty member, then every institution would have access to 100 outstanding seminars and faculty members.

The concept proved valid. 105 colleges and universities joined the consortium. Schools, such as Southern Methodist University, University of California-Berkeley, University of Cincinnati, California Institute of Technology, Northwestern University, Michigan State University, University of Minnesota, and the like became active "importers and exporters" of timely seminars that could be offered to their local markets.

For 15 years, Penton Learning Systems managed this consortium with great success. It assisted in the design and development of over 30,000 short courses/seminars in the fields of quality management, project management, finance and accounting, marketing management, strategic planning and implementation, and the like.

Building on Experience: Knowledge is the Business

Defining powerful niche-course topics or problem-specific topics was a skill that was integrated into the structure of Penton Learning Systems. Knowledge is the business as much as the customer is the business.

Successful planning is always based on maximizing opportunities. And the need for designing,
developing and marketing conferences in niche-based topics became quite apparent.

On the foundations of the university and college consortium business, IQPC was born in 1989.

From Small Beginnings...

IQPC now has offices in major cities across six continents including: Berlin, Dubai, London, New York, Sao Paulo, Singapore, Stockholm, Sydney and Toronto. IQPC leverages a global research base of best practices to produce an unrivaled portfolio of problem-solving conferences.

Each year IQPC offers approximately 2,000 worldwide conferences, seminars, and related learning programs with special emphasis on: