September 2011 Issue: Live!

Hot on the heels of the cover tease for our September issue, you can now read the whole enchilada -- via Convene's digital edition. For our cover story (and CMP Series feature), Barbara Palmer looks at "the art and science of attendee acquisition" -- with an emphasis on how "the formula for identifying and capturing attendees is changing." Other highlights:

"Destinations Unknown": Hunter Slaton embarks on a globe-trotting tour, talking to planners about what you need to know to meet in Asia, South America, the Middle East, and other hot emerging international destinations.

Industry Report: Our latest-epanel survey tackles AV and Internet services -- and finds that while meeting professionals understand the importance of both, many of them struggle to keep their costs in line.

"A Brainstorming Session, Deconstructed": Reporting from the main session at PCMA's Leaders of Thought Summit, Michelle Russell identifies six elements that kept the small-group brainstorming program from becoming a tired, unstructured mess.

One on One With: Richard Saul Wurman, founder of the world-famous TED conference and next year's similarly ambitious WWW.WWW Conference, explains why he thinks most meetings "are all so terrible."

Plenary: Our lead story looks at Lower Manhattan's revitalized meetings infrastructure 10 years after 9/11 -- symbolized by the opening of the National September 11 Memorial and the ongoing rebuilding of the World Trade Center site. You'll also find a Pre Con profile of Macworld 2012, a Post Con profile of the 2011 National House Directors Conference, Convene On Site reports from IMEX and the French Riviera, eye-catching photos from International Telecoms Week and the World Beard and Moustache Championships, and more.

Innovative Meetings: Michelle Russell plugs in to the high-tech, high-touch world of the ACM CHI 2011 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems -- whose attendees are "the people who make computers less computer-y."

International Meetings -- Perspective: James F. Hollan III, CAE, is back, this time with a bottom-line breakdown of what North American planners expect when it comes to pricing for meetings they take overseas.

Convene On Location: Michelle Russell (again!) shares her impressions from a three-day fam trip to Calgary -- ostensibly to witness the Calgary Stampede, but also to soak up the Canadian city that is "The Heart of the New West."

Other Duties as Assigned: TESOL's Lisa L. Dyson, CMP, on the time her board president's cocktail party got busted by hotel security -- and relocated without missing a beat.

Look for the text-only version of our September issue on Convene's homepage within the next week or so.