Archive for August, 2008
« Previous Entries“Water Where It Didn’t Used To Be”
Friday, August 29th, 2008The Arctic is changing so quickly that it’s become one of the many early warning systems for global climate change. Each year brings new reports of ice sheets breaking off into the sea, along with a mad scramble to plan shipping routes and resource development projects that would have been difficult or impossible a generation [...]
Opinion, Reporting, or All of the Above?
Thursday, August 28th, 2008There’s an interesting discussion brewing over at Sound Connections, the online home of The Conference Publishers’ intrepid podcast consultant Mark Blevis.
Wherever you come down in the debate between evidence-based reporting and the power of large, unmoderated groups to moderate their own content, it’s an important dialogue. And it’s fascinating that it’s happening.
Mark got things rolling [...]
When Walls Replace Bridges
Tuesday, August 26th, 2008Vermont will always be one of my favourite places in the world.
The three summers I spent at summer camp near Salisbury, VT as a child were not 100% happy, but I fell in love with the state and its terrain. I’ve been back a couple of times as an adult, and the gentle hills and [...]
The Numbers Tell a Story
Friday, August 22nd, 2008TORONTO—When more than 70 million participants attend 671,000 meetings in one year, your first reaction might be that everybody needs to get out a little more.
But when it turns out that those meetings generated $32.2 billion in spending and 235,500 full-year jobs across Canada in 2006, representing an economic sector that was just a bit [...]
“Ask yourself: Why are you having a conference?”
Wednesday, August 20th, 2008Last week’s Meeting Professionals International (MPI) World Education Congress in Las Vegas was filled with great experiences, intriguing conversations, and engaging sessions. None was better than the panel presentation entitled “What if the next generation had planned this conference?” led by Kansas State University professor Dr. Michael Wesch.
I’m biased, of course. A member of the [...]
In Praise of Praise
Friday, August 15th, 2008A couple of things, neither of them part of the official conference program, made me feel really good when I was at MPI’s World Education Congress earlier this week in Las Vegas.
One happened on the last evening of the conference, when a young woman who remembered me from the Michigan Educational Conference a couple of [...]
Improbable Connections in Vegas
Thursday, August 14th, 2008People often ask me about my surname—usually whether I’m related to the wealthy former owner of the Miami Dolphins. And I joke about how my long-lost Uncle Wayne won’t return my phone calls.
Huizenga is not as uncommon a name as you might expect, so when a woman I met at Meeting Professionals International’s World Education [...]
We’re Live!
Tuesday, August 12th, 2008FROM THE MPI CONFERENCE IN LAS VEGAS—Our first set of news capsules from MPI’s World Education Congress is now online, and I can’t seem to stop grinning.
It’s been a very long time since I was a journalist. When I left Canada’s Parliamentary Press Gallery in 1984, I was well aware that I was “going over [...]
Why People Attend Conferences
Tuesday, August 12th, 2008In the meetings industry, there is considerable—and justifiable—concern that skyrocketing fuel prices may be the straw that breaks the camel’s back. That people will say “enough” and refuse to pay higher and higher airfares, and that many will stop going to conferences and meetings altogether.
For most meetings, it’s already a struggle to break even. Many [...]
A light goes on
Monday, August 11th, 2008A few years ago, I tucked “The Clapper” into my wife’s Christmas stocking, and then helpfully installed it on a living room lamp.
Sadly, we could not clap the lamp on and off. It did, however, go on and off in response to the sound of a sneeze, the barking of our dog, and the laughter [...]