Economic Impact
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Tuesday, September 1st, 2009At our regular staff meeting last week, we introduced a standing agenda item that will be a part of our working lives for the foreseeable future.
Our COO, Woody Huizenga, unveiled an advanced draft of our pandemic preparedness plan, and summarized the best available information on what we can expect during this year’s flu season: On [...]
The Next Level of ROI
Tuesday, July 28th, 2009Meeting professionals have made great strides over the last few years in measuring the return on investment (ROI) that clients and participants receive from some types of meetings.
But solid as that work has been, the limited scope of the analysis is coming back to haunt the industry, at a time when any meeting might come [...]
The Meetings that Elected a President
Sunday, July 12th, 2009SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH – Meeting Professionals International (MPI) kicked off its 2009 World Education Congress today with an opening general session that cemented the organization’s focus on the threats the meetings industry has faced over travel, incentives, and the value of meetings.
But along the way, participants heard some ideas on the structure and purpose [...]
Does Demand from Meetings Drive Airlines’ Greenwashing?
Tuesday, June 16th, 2009Whether or not it’s deliberate, a major travel industry association seems to be applying a touch of greenwash to its members’ steadily growing carbon footprint.
And it seems likely that continuing demand from meetings and events might be one of the underlying causes.
Sometimes it isn’t clear whether an organization has set out to mislead, or whether [...]
Pandemic I
Friday, May 1st, 2009So this is what a Level 5 pandemic alert feels like.
I walked home along Ottawa’s scenic Rideau Canal Wednesday afternoon, just hours after the World Health Organization (WHO) raised the global pandemic threat level to five on a six-point scale. In WHO parlance, Level 5 means a global pandemic is imminent.
For practical purposes, the [...]
Solutions in the Eye of the Storm
Wednesday, April 1st, 2009An interesting thing is happening on the way to the economic recovery.
We certainly aren’t there yet—in the economy as a whole, or in meetings and events. The sheer, accumulating weight of cancellations is setting off alarm bells across the industry, and the U.S. Center for Exhibition Industry Research has just reported the first decline in [...]
A Couple of Million Jobs at Stake
Wednesday, March 11th, 2009BREAKING NEWS:
On March 10, The Huffington Post published my blog item on the meetings industry crisis and the Kerry bill now before the U.S. Congress.
The central argument, drawing on data from MPI Foundation Canada’s study of the economic impact of meetings and events, was that the attack on meetings in the U.S. could touch a [...]
An Audacity of Scope: A Million Tons of Trash
Thursday, March 5th, 2009Participants at the Green Meeting Industry Council (GMIC) conference in Pittsburgh last week adopted a big, audacious challenge.
The gathering of 150 or so meeting professionals called for a million tons of trash (or a million metric tonnes, outside the United States) to be diverted or recycled from the meetings and events that take place in [...]
Debris in All Directions
Tuesday, February 17th, 2009O-ho the Wells Fargo Wagon is a-comin’ now.
Is it a prepaid surprise, or C.O.D.?
The Music Man
Lyric by Meredith Willson
1957
The Wells Fargo Wagon is beginning to look like a train wreck in all directions.
Meeting professionals have been hearing all about the pushback Wells Fargo ran into, in the media and in the U.S. Congress, until it [...]
How Incentives Can Change the World (And How the World Can Change Incentives)
Friday, February 13th, 2009ATLANTA – A tantalizing question is emerging from the raging debate over incentive meetings, employee retreats, and the appropriate use of U.S. government bailout dollars:
Can the principles and practice of corporate social responsibility (CSR) help reassert the legitimacy of meetings, the industry that plans them, and the client organizations that are now weighing whether to [...]