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 New Normal: 16 Meeting Takeaways and a Couple of Predictions
This guest post is excerpted from Midcourse Corrections, the meetings blog produced by Jeff Hurt, director of education and events with the Dallas-based National Association of Dental Plans. It appeared shortly after Jeff returned from his association’s 2009 annual meeting in September. Reprinted with Jeff’s permission. In 15+ years of planning conferences and events, this [...]
Recycle Your Conference for Fun and Profit
A few years ago, archaeologists found a small Bronze Age spear point in England. I can’t remember exactly where they found it, but I do remember that they determined the bronze in the spear point had originated in Italy. In fact, an original larger spear point had broken, and then been melted down to make [...]
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 [...]
Control Your Content—or Someone Else Will
A friend of mine who is an experienced meeting planner told me of a recurring nightmare she’s been having lately. In her nightmare, she is standing in a 5,000+ auditorium, with a very expensive band playing under an elaborate light and laser show, but only about 100 other people are there, including her and the [...]
Is a “Good Enough” Meeting Good Enough?
What would happen if meetings were scaled back to the barest of essentials, on the principle that the best event is the one that is just good enough? It isn’t an idle question. There’s an emerging trend that is reshaping everything from long distance telephone to video cameras, from the design of military aircraft to [...]
A Hybrid in Your Future
By now, they’re a familiar sight: hybrid vehicles that combine two separate power sources to squeeze maximum energy out of every drop of gasoline they use. Once considered an environmentalist’s fantasy, hybrids have made it into the mainstream, and for good reason—they’re a great, practical way to make your gas dollar stretch further, at a [...]
The Next Level of ROI
Meeting 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 [...]
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 [...]
Does Demand from Meetings Drive Airlines’ Greenwashing?
Whether 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, [...]
