Off to the PCMA Prom

The Washington Hilton's International Ballroom, leading up to showtime.

Just about every association I've worked for has had an awards gala or other annual celebratory event that you might just as well call the prom, and that in fact is called the prom by staffers like me who aren't nearly so clever as they like to think. PCMA's 2011 prom -- officially known as the PCMA Education Foundation Dinner Celebrating Professional Achievement -- is happening in just a few hours at the Washington Hilton here in Washington, D.C. It's always a swell time, with people dressing up and coming together for top-flight food and drink and networking their way from one side of the Hilton's famous International Ballroom to the other, all in the name of honoring three dedicated industry veterans -- this year, Gregg Talley, CAE, Talley Management Group; Brian Stevens, ConferenceDirect; and Glen Ramsborg, Ph.D., CMP, Kendall College.

In Convene we approach the industry from something of a big-picture or deep-thought perspective, because our readers are senior-level professionals and that's the sort of thing they're looking for. But sometimes, it's nice to be reminded of the glamour and excitement and simple fun of what we do; and how nice that the PCMA prom is about all of those things even while remaining a serious industry event.   And check out that photo above, taken in the International Ballroom just a few minutes ago by fellow PCMA blogger Christine Melendes, CAE. When the curtain goes up at 6:30 tonight, that space will have been transformed into a carnival of light and sound, color and rhythm -- a living celebration of the transformations that meeting professionals create in similar spaces for similar events every day. See you there, I hope!

Spotlight: Stuart Ruff

Stuart Ruff's hilarious recollection in the October issue of Convene about the gut-wrenching experience he had as a meeting planner at a medical conference in India is not to be missed. (Just don't read it on your lunch hour.)

But it does offer a bit of one-dimensional view of Ruff, CGMP, who is senior meetings planner for the International Trademark Association. For more, I recommend the also-entertaining "Member Spotlight" profile of Ruff on the PCMA website.

The profile, written by PCMA digital marketing specialist Maggie Endres, coincidentally includes more context about Ruff's experience organizing the medical conference in India: Planning for the meeting, which was co-sponsored by the U.S. State Department, was underway at the time of the 2008 Mumbai hotel attacks, and everything had to redone following the attacks -- from invitations to visa applications. The extra expense left no money for a site visit, so Ruff planned the meeting without ever visiting the facility or the country. It was the toughest meeting of his career, he told Maggie: "I cried when it was over, and now I cannot wait to plan a meeting in India again."

While you are there, dive into some of the other Member Spotlights. There are dozens of them, and Maggie adds about three a month to an ever-expanding archive. They are a great way to get to know other meeting planners and suppliers, and to learn from their experiences.