After Copenhagen: How Meetings Can Kick the Carbon Habit
By the end of this week, the 192 countries represented at the Copenhagen Summit may or may not reach a global deal to control climate change and reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide. But whether or not humanity rises to the challenge, the science doesn’t lie. With or without an agreement, this is the moment for industrialized [...]
Okay, You Caught Me
(Editor’s note: The following declaration was retrieved from a little-used email cache in The Conference Publishers’ account management department. Those responsible have been sacked hacked.) The recent release of emails hacked from leading climate scientists has convinced me: the jig is up. I can finally admit the truth. I am a member of a vast, [...]
Orlando Underwater: Here’s What’s at Stake at Copenhagen Summit
Map of projected sea level rise from Carbon Solutions America, reposted on Climate Progress. How will climate change affect the meetings industry if we don’t slow down and reverse the increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere? Start with a map that shows coastal Florida and Orlando underwater by 2100, and gives you an idea [...]
The Conference Publishers Turns 25
I still remember exactly how things unfolded on October 5, 1984, the day The Conference Publishers was born. I had been in my job for 3½ months, after reluctantly leaving Canada’s Parliamentary Press Gallery and a career in freelance journalism. I had joined a small policy consulting firm as its publications director, hoping to spend [...]
A Dynamic Dozen: The Making of a “Killer App”
Everywhere you turn these days, meeting professionals are searching for the “killer app” that will make social media and virtual technologies more an opportunity and less a threat for face-to-face events. The language of hybrid meetings, virtually unknown a year ago, is quickly gaining currency. MPI experimented with a Virtual Access Pass at its 2009 [...]
A Quiet Sense of Duty
Late last month, I received a surprising email that will shape the lion’s share of the volunteer time I devote to our industry over the next two years. I wouldn’t normally be quite this excited about an opportunity to pack dozens of extra hours into a schedule that is already overloaded. But this isn’t just [...]
The Meetings that Elected a President
SALT 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 [...]
Farewell Rick Redfern: A Revolution in Search of a Cash Flow
What would you do if Twitter stopped tweeting and YouTube suddenly went off the air? Particularly if you lived in a community where television outlets were consolidating, radio stations had cut local programming, and the venerable daily newspaper was on the verge of shutting down? No doubt, with Internet access and decent search skills, you [...]
A Line Drawn in Time
CHICAGO – My, how the face of meetings and events has changed in the last five years. Last spring, the Accepted Practices Exchange (APEX) set up a permanent council to review and periodically update the procedures and definitions that help our industry stay consistent, relevant, and professional. APEX is a project of the 34-member Convention [...]
Pandemic II: Preparing for a Dangerous World
With this post, we’re pleased to welcome Nelson Fabian as a guest blogger. Nelson is the Executive Director of the National Environmental Health Association in Denver, Colorado. As counterintuitive as this may sound, I believe the swine origin H1N1 outbreak may soon prove to be one of the best things that could have happened to [...]
