Do You Know Your Meeting's WalkScore?

There probably is research showing how much attendees love to meet in walkable cities, but all you really have to do is think back to a meeting you attended where the convention center and hotel was within easy range of shops, restaurants, and maybe even a little green space. Now think of a meeting where you felt more or less marooned without a shuttle bus. Most people -- all other things being equal -- would choose the first option.

If walking is important to your attendees, there is a tool called WalkScore that allows you to gauge the walkability of properties you are considering for a meeting. It's not perfect -- it doesn't factor in crime rates, for instance, or distinguish between the length of city blocks -- but it's a good starting point. (I plugged in the addresses of the last two hotels I stayed at, and WalkScore's assessment was spot on.)

The Emmys Love 'Temple Grandin'

A big winner at last night's Emmy Awards was HBO's "Temple Grandin," which picked up seven honors in the "Miniseries or Movie" category -- for best TV movie, lead actress (Claire Danes), supporting actress (Julia Ormond), supporting actor (David Strathairn), director (Mick Jackson), single-camera picture editing (Leo Trombetta), and music (Alex Wurman). Which led Entertainment Weekly's PopWatch blog to ask: Uh, who exactly is Temple Grandin? Convene readers already know the answer, thanks to a Leading by Example profile of Dr. Grandin we ran last year that traced her life and career as a high-functioning autistic professor of animal science who revolutionized the field of humane livestock management. But it's nice that the rest of the world is finally catching on to her amazing story, too.

Finishing Strong in New Orleans

When I talked to St. Bernard Project founders Liz McCartney and Zack Rosenburg in early 2009, I got the sense they hoped that they would be out of a job by now.

After Katrina hit the Gulf Coast five years ago, the pair left their comfortable lives as Washington, D.C., professionals, and moved to New Orleans to mobilize volunteers to rebuild hurricane-damaged homes.

By Spring 2009, St. Bernard Project volunteers had rebuilt 200 homes and were working on 37 more; today they have completed more than 300 houses and 50 more are under repair. But, as McCartney has pointed out, nearly 900 families who own homes are still living in FEMA trailers. And more than 6,000 families own homes that they can't afford to rebuild.

'One Good Leg Between Them'

Kirk Bauer, the executive director of Disabled Sports USA, who was the subject of a Leading by Example profile in our June issue, is at it again -- proving to the world that people with disabilities can lead as ruggedly physical a life as anyone else. On Saturday, he and two other members of Disabled Sports USA's Warfighter Sports program reached the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro, in Tanzania. Kirk lost his left leg as an Army sergeant in Vietnam in 1969, and his fellow climbers were also wounded warriors: retired Army Sgt. Neil Duncan, a double leg amputee who was injured in Afghanistan, and retired Army Staff Sgt. Dan Nevins, a double below-knee amputee injured in Iraq. As Kirk said in a statement: "If three veterans from three wars and two generations with one good leg between them can climb the tallest mountain in Africa, then all with disabilities can choose to be active and healthy through sports."

Read Kirk's blog about the summit and see more great photos like the one above -- which shows Dan Nevins, Kirk, and Neil Duncan on top of the world -- at Warfighter Sports. And for some interesting thoughts on the similarities between meeting planning and mountain climbing, see the talented and glamorous Michelle Russell's One on One interview with Million Dollar Round Table's Ray Kopcinski, CMP.

The Oil Spill Gets an X Factor

How cool is this: the latest X PRIZE competition, just announced yesterday, is for oil cleanup. Funded by Wendy Schmidt, president of the Schmidt Family Foundation, the Wendy Schmidt Oil Cleanup X CHALLENGE offers a $1.4-million prize to whoever is the first to develop "innovative, rapidly deployable, and highly efficient methods of capturing crude oil from the ocean surface."

Specifically, this is cool in two ways: 1) It's a laudable goal, for obvious reasons. 2) We profiled Peter Diamandis, founder and chair of the X PRIZE Foundation, in our Leading by Example feature last year. Back then, he told us: "The very first step in creating a breakthrough or having an innovation is believing it's possible. ... By announcing a very large, funded, clear-objective prize, people believe, 'Wow, okay, it's gonna happen. How would I do it?'" Doesn't seem like he's changed much since we talked to him, does it?

Haiti: A Moment for Hope

Today marks six months and one day after a violent earthquake devastated Haiti -- and exactly six months after the non-profit organization Healing Hands for Haiti (HHH) -- which provides rehabilitation clinical services and education in Haiti -- began rebuilding its own heavily damaged operations.

Convene traveled to Port-au-Prince in March, with PCMA member Jean Tracy, a HHH former board member and volunteer, to chronicle the organization's work. HHH volunteer doctors, physical therapists, and others worked long, physically and emotionally draining days as they divided their time between providing clinical care to earthquake victims and Haitian orphans, and to getting Healing Hands back on its feet.

At the six-month mark, there is no shortage of stories in the media measuring how far recovery efforts have -- and haven't -- come. There are far too many people suffering in Haiti today, and much work to be done. But there is also reason to feel hopeful, including about Healing Hands' progress. From its directors:

The process of redeveloping Healing Hands for Haiti began the day after the earthquake of January 12 of this year. Five months later, we are almost back to full service. A new prosthetic fabrication and physical therapy facility at rented quarters in Port au Prince, developed in partnership with Handicap International, has fitted and cared for hundreds of pre- and post- earthquake amputees and disabled patients. Demolition of destroyed buildings at our main campus is almost finished. Our emergency and rehab medicine tent clinic at the main site has been closed in anticipation of the opening of a new, rented facility to house a modern clinic, physical and occupational therapy rooms, classrooms and offices. We have increased our deployment of rehabilitation medical teams on a weekly rotation basis to hospitals, clinics and orphanages throughout Haiti. Among our special charges are the 150 spinal cord-injured, who suffered among the most devastating injuries in the earthquake.

The photograph above is courtesy of Handicap International, copyright: © William Daniels for Handicap International

Kirk Bauer on Leadership

Because of the way the world works, some of the most interesting things that our current Leading by Example profile, Disabled Sports USA Executive Director Kirk Bauer, had to say when I interviewed him were around the topic of leadership -- and we didn't have room for many of them in the article. So we're pleased to present -- as a Convene blog exclusive! -- some choice quotes from a man whose leadership style was born in the jungles of Vietnam:

As a noncommissioned officer with the U.S. Army's Ninth Infantry Division arriving in the Mekong Delta in 1969: "Because I was a new insert into an existing unit, I did not go in with the attitude that 'Hey, I'm in charge. You're gonna do what I say. Screw you if you don’t.' Mine was more to work with the unit that I had to get them to jointly assume the responsibility that we had to go on operations and do what we needed to do, and to lead by example. I was very, very adamant about that. For instance, when I first got in there, one of the most dangerous jobs was walking point, because you were either exposed to ambushes, sniper fire, or booby traps, and you were basically the person who cleared the way as you were going through the ridge line and across the paddies and along the hedge rows and in the jungle. I felt that if I was going to ask other individuals in my unit to walk point that I needed to share that responsibility. I finally was told by my commanding officer that that wasn't my job -- that I was supposed to be commanding this unit. So I had to pull back on that, but I felt that it was important that I showed to my men that I wasn't afraid to walk point and that I was willing to assume responsibility so I could ask them to assume responsibility at critical times. That is the way I approached things."

The evolution of his leadership style at Disabled Sports USA: "When you're dealing with an organization that's got little chapters and power centers all over the country, you sometimes tend to be -- I developed a little bit of an autocratic style, because you really have to keep people together. Everybody wants to go off in different directions, so it was a little bit of 'This is the way we're gonna do it. If you want to work with us, this is what you gotta do.' But at some point, I realized as executive director that that only carries you so far, that you really have to start listening to what the local community people, what your constituents, are wanting or needing, and then start responding to that. I learned in the late-'80s, probably the mid-'90s, that I needed to begin to change my method of leadership from one that very much pushed it on them so we could create some order, to starting to make it more of a give-and-take -- listening, doing surveys. We started having meetings where we would go to an event of chapter leaders and say, 'What do you think of this?' We started surveying participants and looking at what their responses were."

Look for additional content from our interview with Kirk -- including audio snippets -- in future blog posts.

Confidence is Contagious

PCMA member Jean Tracy, senior national sales director for the George Fern Company, is living proof that confidence and compassion are contagious.

Tracy is a longtime volunteer for Healing Hands for Haiti, a non-profit organization which provides rehabilitative services to Haitians, It was Tracy's idea that I accompany the group to Haiti, and she convinced me, with a couple of phone calls and e-mails, that such a trip was possible. In Haiti, whether it was reorganizing overflowing pharmacy shelves or figuring out a way to salvage construction supplies amid post-earthquake wreckage, Tracy boldly moved forward toward solutions, without a lot of fanfare. After spending an hour in Tracy's company at a Haitian orphanage, a volunteer from the U.S., a teacher from New Hampshire, looked over at me and declared: "I'm just going to follow Jean around."

I concluded the story I wrote about Healing Hands for Haiti with a note on Tracy's continuing relief efforts in Austin, where she lives. She was purchasing a shipping container and was collecting tents and clothing for the Haitians left homeless by the quake. You'd think I would have learned something in Haiti about how Tracy's unshakable confidence inspires others to get on board. But I got a lump in my throat, thinking of Tracy in Austin, spending her spare time collecting tents and clothing. It seemed -- like so much of what I saw in Haiti -- to be like bailing out a boat with an eyedropper.

So I was delighted -- and had to laugh a little at myself -- when she forwarded me a message from the George Fern Company COO Aaron Bludworth to his employees. Bludworth is making Tracy's tent drive a company-wide effort. He's even sponsoring a friendly contest to spur participation: whichever of the company's two dozen branch offices bring in the most tents to ship to Haiti will be treated to a barbecue. "It doesn't take much," Bludworth wrote to employees, " to make a difference."

Especially when mixed with confidence and compassion.

In Praise of Logistics

Meeting planning is not all about logistics.
But logistics have never looked so good to me as it did in Haiti, where I traveled in late March with Healing Hands for Haiti, an organization that provides physical therapy, prosthetics, and other rehabilitative services to Haitians with disabilities.

Promoting healing in post-earthquake Haiti was the heart and the soul of the mission, and most of the Healing Hands volunteers were doctors, nurses, and physical therapists. Their skill and compassion amazed me, as they worked long hours in difficult conditions – in tent hospitals and clinics in the tropical heat, with too many patients, and too few clinicians.

But I was struck, too, at the layers of effort that were added to relief work by the demand for coordination. Of airport arrivals, meals, transportation, security, and endless more arrangements. The need to move things from here to there, to make lists and plans, and then more plans. All things that meeting professionals do so exceedingly well that they make it look effortless.

It didn’t look easy in Haiti. And it meant the difference between having a doctor or nurse where they were needed or not. And helped remind me to thank those who do the hard work of logistics for making life better for the rest of us.

Housing Haiti

I usually love to fall asleep to the plunk of rain on the roof.

But it was a horrible sound to hear in Port-au-Prince, where I traveled in late March and saw thousands of men, women, and children living in tents and makeshift shanties following the January earthquake. People there aren't just in danger of being swept away by the heavy rains that fall at this time of year -- many of the tents are on unstable hillsides and in flood plains -- but the rain greatly increases the risk of disease.

So I'm happy to report here about a response from the meetings and hospitality industry aimed directly at providing shelter to Haitians. Orlando hotelier and philanthropist Harris Rosen, owner of Rosen Hotels & Resorts, has developed a prototype for a "Little Haiti House" -- a prefabricated, solar-powered, wind-powered 24' by 12' dwelling that can be built for less than $5,000 and erected in about two hours.

The Harris Rosen Foundation is working with several organizations in Haiti to buy land and is working with Haiti community leaders to get feedback about the prototype, before they begin to build the houses, a spokesperson for the foundation said.

The houses are just one component of Rosen's Haitian relief efforts. Harris Rosen personally donated $250,000 to jump-start a relief fund, and sent teams to Haiti soon after the disaster. More recently, the foundation delivered "Family Kits" of food and other essentials. And on May 22, the foundation is hosting a food drive on May 22 at Rosen Centre, and is pledging to personally deliver all the food collected to Haiti.

I was in Haiti to profile Healing Hands for Haiti, an organization which has provided rehabilitative therapy to amputees and to the disabled for more than a decade. George Fern Company Senior National Sales Manager Jean Tracy, a long-time volunteer for Healing Hands, is at the heart of the story, which appears the May issue of Convene, being mailed this week.

If you like to make a donation to Rosen's Relief-Rebuild-Sustain Program for Haiti, you can donate via PayPal at www.RosenHotels.com/Haiti.

Tasting Singapore, with Daniel Boulud

The high-spirited Chef Daniel Boulud was even more ebullient than usual this morning, as he welcomed press to breakfast at DB Bistro Moderne in New York City to celebrate the upcoming launch of DB Bistro Moderne at the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore this summer. Last night, Boulud's Upper East Side restaurant, Daniel, was named "Outstanding Restaurant" at the 2010 James Beard Foundation Awards Gala.

Boulud is one of six celebrity chefs who are opening restaurants at the new resort, which will be Singapore's largest exhibition and meeting venue. Over breakfast Boulud, who was born in France, reveled in the strides that American cuisine and New York City restaurants in particular have made in the last two decades: "When Singapore needed a French chef, they came to New York," Boulud pointed out. "Twenty years ago, they would have gone to France."

For James Beard Foundation President Susan Ungaro's perspective on how American cuisine has been transformed in recent years, see the Leading By Example profile in the November 2009 issue of Convene.

Not Ignoring Haiti

As Salon pointed out in a story last week graphing news stories about Haiti before and after the January earthquake, the media --and we readers -- have a short attention span when it comes to Haiti. It's all too easy for most of us, most of the time, to ignore the suffering of those who live in the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.

Not so for volunteers working with Healing Hands for Haiti, which supports rehabilitative therapy for amputees and victims of strokes and other diseases. When I traveled to Haiti last month with Healing Hands for Convene, most volunteers were making their second, or third, or fourth, or 20th visit. The organization, founder Dr. Jeff Randle, and volunteer Jean Tracy, senior national sales manager for the George Fern Company, are the subjects of a Leading By Example profile in the May issue, which is being mailed to subscribers this week.

The flood of doctors, nurses, and others who went to Haiti after the earthquake in January is analogous to the torrent of media coverage, now slowed to a trickle. Medical services are tapering off, although the need for medical care is acute.

Healing Hands continues to send teams to Haiti, as it has for the last ten years. The size and scope of the organization's work has been radically altered by the earthquake, but the doctors, nurses, and therapists I traveled with to Haiti would have been there anyway.

I'll be writing more here in the days to come, posting photographs from my week-long trip, as well as information about ways in which the meetings industry is supporting Healing Hands for Haiti, and other relief operations.

I hope others will chime in, sharing meaningful ways to keep our attention on Haiti.

"Leading by Example" Subject (and Marine Corps WWII Veteran) R.V. Burgin on the Today Show

As we've mentioned before in this space, Convene's April issue contains a riveting (if I do say so myself) "Leading by Example" profile of R.V. Burgin, a World War II Marine veteran who last month published a memoir called Islands of the Damned: A Marine at War in the Pacific.

On top of all this (the 87-year-old Texan gets around!), Burgin is at the moment co-starring — well, sort of — in the new HBO mini-series The Pacific. When I say "sort of," I mean that Burgin, as played by Northern Irish actor Martin McCann, is a prominent character in the show.

As such, click "play" below to see a fun, four-minute interview with both Burgin and McCann on a recent edition of the Today show. When the tall Burgin was asked what he thought when he learned that the somewhat more diminutive McCann would be playing him, the wry, spry vet replied, "I thought they needed to stretch him out a little bit."

Watch on below, and then click here for the digital edition of Convene's April issue, where you can (after logging in or, for non-members, simply entering your email address) read my profile of Burgin on p. 60.

Eye to Eye

I've blogged before about the importance of face time for our editorial team as a group, but yesterday morning I was reminded of its power at the one-on-one level. I drove to Maryland to interview someone for a Leading by Example profile for a future issue of Convene. Because these profiles tend to go very in-depth, whenever possible we talk to the subjects in person -- for all the reasons that struck me yesterday. The person I sat down with had an emotional and inspiring story today, and making an effort to visit him at his office and look him in the eye while he told it felt somehow ... appropriate and respectful. Maybe the word I'm looking for is "communal" -- in sharing the same space, we better shared the experience he was relating. And that will make for a truer, more interesting article.

The same forces are at work on a larger scale as well, at meetings and conventions. Or at least, I think they are. Is this what we talk about when we talk about the power of face-to-face events?