The Docklands Personnel Initiative started life in March 1997 and was formally launched on 17th September 1997 as a succession to the Docklands Personnel Group, initially funded by London Docklands Development Corporation and London East Training and Enterprise Council.

Since then DPI has been run on a not for profit basis and is now self financing.
In order to provide maximum impact on the Docklands community the policy of the DPI is to provide first class venues and keynote speakers for the ongoing seminar programme.