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.

Happy Birthday, CMP Series!

The digital edition of our August issue is live, and that can mean only one thing. Okay, two things: First, it's time for our annual Directory of Meetings Sites, Cities, and Services -- the most comprehensive, detailed, and sharpest-looking guide for destinations and venues that you'll find anywhere.

Second, it's the first birthday of our CMP Series, which debuted in the August 2010 issue of Convene. For 12 months now, meeting professionals have been able to earn CEU credits by reading one of our articles (along with some supplemental info) and answering a few questions about the material. The list of topics we've covered is pretty impressive: force majeure, crowdsourcing, ethics, co-locating, innovation, Strategic Meetings Management, fam trips, international meetings, the APEX/ASTM Environmentally Sustainable Meeting Standards, branding, F&B, social media, and, this month, the Americans With Disabilities Act. In terms of preparing you for getting or keeping your CMP credential, it's like a perfect case-study guide for the PMM5. And who doesn't need that?

July 2011 Issue: Live!

One of our best covers ever (IMHO, as the kids text today) adorns our July issue, now available in both digital and text-only versions -- a fantastic illustration whose attention to detail is matched by the cover story it serves. Looking for a trade show with something to say about adaptation and reinvention in a turbulent economy, Hunter Slaton walked the floor at BookExpo America in New York City; the result is "Every Year They Write the Book," a deeply reported look at a show whose industry has been in flux for the last 15 years.

CMP Series: And speaking of deep reporting, for this month's CMP Series article, "The Blog That Became a Conference," Barbara Palmer attended SOBCon 2011 Chicago, a social-media conference that is as warm, hospitable, and high-touch a live meeting as you'll find anywhere.

June 2011 Issue: Live!

One of the best things about my job is that it provides me with a lot of opportunities to write about things that interest me -- such as books, comics, and, as you'll see from the cover story (and CMP Series article) in this month's issue, food. The specific genesis of "Menu: Impossible" was my love of the Food Network shows "Dinner: Impossible" and "Restaurant: Impossible," which led us to ask PCMA's own Kelly Peacy to create an F&B challenge that we then presented to seven meeting chefs across North America. And they came back with some great, non-impossible menus.

Other highlights from this issue -- not necessarily an outgrowth of my hobbies and interests, but great content nonetheless:

"Focus Group": A feature article by Barbara Palmer about the use of "mindfulness" practices such as meditation to improve attendee concentration.

April 2011 Issue: Live!

One of the things we work hard at with Convene is trying to make the abstract more concrete. A great example of that (I'm comfortable saying, since I didn't write the article) is the cover story in our April issue -- the digital edition of which is now available -- in which Hunter Slaton digs into the oft-discussed, oft-misunderstood health-care law to find a very tangible relevance for the meetings industry. Seriously. Do you know about the impending law's "Sunshine" provision? And the cover story has two more components, both related to continuing medical education: "Proof of Learning," about the growing emphasis on demonstrating that CME participants are learning what they're supposed to be learning; and "Do You CME What I CME?," which traces the evolving missions of the Alliance for CME and the Global Alliance for Medical Education.

Also in this issue:

CMP Series: "Going for Green," Barbara Palmer's preview of the long-awaited APEX/ASTM Environmentally Sustainable Meeting Standards, which are scheduled to be released later this year.

March 2011 Issue: Live!

With April looming at the end of the week, it's probably time to get around to our March issue -- the digital edition of which you'll find here. It's a fat, data-packed issue with a fat, data-packed cover story on the landmark Economic Significance of Meetings to the U.S. Economy study (unveiled just last month), whose big magic number is emblazoned on our cover. You'll also find pages of sharply designed tables and charts that track exactly how much the meetings industry contributes to the economy in terms of direct spend, taxes, room nights, full- and part-time employment, and more. Also in this issue:

Meetings Market Survey: Our 20th Annual Meetings Market Survey is a perfect complement to the Economic Significance study, with hard info about the state of the industry based on a comprehensive survey of meeting professionals. In a nutshell: They feel pretty good about things.

February 2011 Issue: Live!

The digital edition of our February 2011 issue is now live -- and its cover story, by talented and glamorous Editor in Chief Michelle Russell, pulls no punches. Addressing the classifications of cities as first-tier, second-tier, and so on, we ask: "Time for the Tiers to Fall?" The assemblage of planners, suppliers, and destination executives that Michelle interviewed have a variety of thought-provoking opinions.

Other highlights from this issue:

CMP Series: In "FAMtastic Voyage," Hunter Slaton explores site visits and fam trips -- including how you can get the most out of them.

Convening Leaders Follow-Up: On the heels of PCMA 2011 Convening Leaders, we talk to two speakers who delivered well-received Masters Series presentations there -- technology expert Scott Klososky and Columbia Business School professor Sheena Iyengar.

January 2011 Issue: Live!

The digital edition of our January issue is now up -- with a distinct and wholly different cover image, at least for us. Our cover story -- "Can Meetings Save the World?," by Barbara Palmer -- looks at "big-tent, big-idea" meetings that "bring together the world's leading thinkers to address its biggest problems," so it seemed appropriate to capture that in words. Lots and lots of words. Other highlights in this issue:

"No Small Change, Part 2": We warned you last month that we dug up too much good material for our cover story -- about meetings that have used incremental change to big effect -- to get it all in one article. So here's the rest: profiles of nine more meetings, by Michelle Russell and Barbara Palmer.

December 2010 Issue: Live!

Just in time for Christmas comes the digital edition of our December 2010 issue, whose cover story (and CMP Series article) is a veritable stocking stuffed with bite-sized treats. Intended as a counterpoint to last December's cover story on change of the high-level, deep-think variety, this month's cover story -- "No Small Change, Part 1" -- is proudly smaller-scale, with profiles of 10 meetings that have practiced change in a nuts-and-bolts way, as a series of tweaks. We found so many organizations that wanted to talk about this -- innovation that is practical, manageable, and easily implemented -- that we didn't have room for all of them in this issue, so look for "No Small Change, Part 2" next month.

Other highlights from this month's overstuffed issue:

"The Destination Will Be Televised": A feature article about the crazy number of new TV shows set in real-world cities, and how those cities' DMOs feel about the fact that many of them are bloody cop shows.

Leading by Example: A profile of Dickson Beattie "Doc" Hendley, a former bartender whose Wine to Water nonprofit organization uses wine-tasting events to fund clean-water projects in the developing world.

"High Water Mark": Six months after the Gaylord Opryland flooded, on the eve of the property's grand reopening, Gaylord Chairman CEO Colin Reed offers an inside look at the decision-making process that prompted him and his leadership team to evacuate the hotel -- and that probably saved lives.

On on One With: Frits van Paasschen, CEO of Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, who took a break from a Starwood-sponsored CSR project in Harlem to talk to us about hospitality, business travel, and doing well by doing good.

Convening Leaders Preview: In-depth Q&As with five speakers at next month's PCMA 2011 Convening Leaders -- Zappos.com CEO Tony Hsieh, Drive author Dan Pink, Meetings Mindset founder Jon Bradshaw, Virtual Edge Institute Executive Director Michael Doyle (whose Virtual Edge Summit is co-locating with Convening Leaders), and futurist David Houle. Once you read what they have to say, you'll want to attend PCMA's annual meeting. Fortunately, registration is a snap.

Look for the text-only version of December on Convene's homepage within the next few days.

November 2010 Issue: Live!

Coming up on the end of the year, you're probably thinking about one thing: next year. Which makes our November issue -- whose digital edition is now live -- particularly timely, with an annual Meetings Industry Forecast section that spans 30 pages and offers a lively assortment of analyses, predictions, facts, and figures about lodging, travel, and exhibitions in 2011. Other highlights in this issue:

CMP Series: "When Meetings Meet," Barbara Palmer's engaging, comprehensive look at organizations that have co-located their events. And don't forget: Once you're done reading, you can take a short test and get CEU credit toward your CMP.

Convening Leaders Preview: A Q&A with Renee West, the first woman to head up a resort on the Las Vegas Strip (today she's president and COO of Excalibur and Luxor), and a General Session speaker at PCMA 2011 Convening Leaders.

Plenary: Our new front-of-the-book section hits its stride with sharp, topical, and/or fun coverage of bed bugs, Abraham Lincoln impersonators, art-and-technology artists, international chemists, chain drugstores, and more.

International Meetings -- Asia Rising: An architect with tvsdesign, which designed three convention centers that have opened in China since 2008, discusses what the country wants in a meeting facility -- and why it's building so many of them.

Other Duties as Assigned: We always end on the lighter side -- which this month means Caitlin Dougherty's story of helping set up a dinner by carrying five salad plates on each arm. Because she used to be a waitress.

You also can find the text-only version of November on our homepage.

October 2010 Issue: Live!

Not a digital edition of Convene goes by where I don't seem to say something like, "And it's a doozy!" For those of you playing the drinking game at home this month, I won't be disappointing you: Our October 2010 issue is indeed a doozy. The cover story is something new for us -- an exclusive portfolio of sketches and other renderings of the next generation of convention centers, designed by some of the world's leading architects, along with short essays by those architects musing on the evolution of meeting facilities. Senior Editor Barbara Palmer pulled together this package for us, and it's gorgeous and thought-provoking and makes you appreciate both the art and the science of our industry. Other highlights in this issue:

CMP Series: In this month's CMP Series article, "The Appearance of Impropriety," Senior Editor Hunter Slaton uses a new Convene survey as the starting point for a comprehensive exploration of ethics in the meetings industry.

Leading by Example: A profile of Harry Markopolos, a former finance-industry executive who spent a decade trying -- and failing -- to blow the whistle on Bernie Madoff.

Convening Leaders Preview: A Q&A interview with Ben Sherwood, author of The Survivors Club: The Secrets and Science That Could Save Your Life, who will be presenting a Masters Series program at PCMA 2011 Convening Leaders.

"No End in Site": A joint Q&A with Brenda Anderson, global CEO of Site, and Fay Beauchine, CITE, president of the Site International Foundation Board of Trustees, about the future of incentive meetings.

Plenary: Our brand-new front-of-the-book section, loaded with news, photos, fun facts, and our popular Convene On Site articles.

Other Duties as Assigned: Stuart Ruff, CGMP, looks deep within for a story about the time he got really, really sick at a meeting he was running -- and why his attendees loved him for it.

Look for the text-only version of October on our homepage next week.

September 2010 Issue: Live!

The digital edition of our September issue is live, and, boy, is it a doozy. The cover story (and also this issue's CMP Series article), by Senior Editor Barbara Palmer, is about crowdsourcing -- and part of it was crowdsourced, with readers of the ThisWeek@PCMA e-newsletter voting on one of two possible cover illustrations. The winning illustration ended up on our cover (at left), while the second-place illustration opens the cover-story layout inside the magazine. Other highlights in this issue:

Update: Checking in with destinations along the Gulf Coast right after the oil leak had been plugged, we find that at least one CVB didn't have enough hotel and meeting rooms in the immediate aftermath of the spill -- and that all of them have been busy letting the world know they're still open for business.

"Off the Grid": Barbara Palmer scores big again with a feature article about meeting in remote, primitive, and/or dangerous locations.

One on One With: Maarten Vanneste, president and CEO of Abbit Meeting Support and founder of the Meeting Architecture movement, which wants to do for meeting content what the CMP has done for meeting logistics.

"Causes for Celebration": Talented and glamorous Editor in Chief Michelle Russell and equally talented if somewhat less glamorous Senior Editor Hunter Slaton team up to profile two giant international meetings held this past July -- the International AIDS Conference (in Vienna) and the International Convention of Alcoholics Anonymous (in San Antonio).

Industry Report: The results of Champion Exposition Services' new Exhibitor Trends Survey, which finds that more than half the exhibitors who participated in fewer trade shows because of the recession regret that.

International Meetings -- Asia Rising: Our seven-part department about venues and destinations throughout the world's most populous continent kicks off with a look at Seoul -- #11 on ICCA's city rankings for 2009 and host of the G-20 Summit this November.

Other Duties as Assigned: Our new column charting the lighter (and frequently stranger) side of meeting planning continues with BreAnne Clark's memorable account of running out of pigs' feet at a medical conference.

Look for the text-only version of the September issue on Convene's homepage within the next few days.

August 2010 Issue: Live!

The digital and text-only versions of our August issue are now online. This is our annual directory of meetings sites, cities, and services -- highlighting a premier assortment of destinations, venues, and service providers across the country and around the world. And this year, there's something more: the debut of our monthly CMP (Certification Made Possible) Series, which allows readers to earn a CEU hour toward their Certified Meeting Professional credential by reading one or more articles in Convene, then taking a short test online. Kicking off the CMP Series is "'Didn't See That Coming,'" a comprehensive feature on force majeure by Senior Editor Hunter Slaton.

You always suspected that reading Convene made you smarter and more successful. But our CMP Series helps prove it.

July 2010 Issue: Live!

The digital edition of our July 2010 issue is now live -- and front and center is a terrific cover story by Senior Editor Barbara Palmer that takes ROI to another level: "Return on Intangibles." Other highlights:

Update -- Crisis Response: Checking in with the 2010 Offshore Technology Conference, which by sheer chance convened in Houston a week and a half after the oil-rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico.

"State of the Unions": A feature article that uses McCormick Place's recent labor overhaul as a jumping-off point to explore union issues throughout the exhibitions industry.

E-panel -- "Trade Shows: Today and Tomorrow": Convene readers weigh in on our latest e-panel survey, with questions about their shows today and five years down the road

"4 Questions Trade Show Organizers Need to Ask Themselves": An exclusive excerpt from a white paper prepared for the 2010 Exhibition and Convention Executives Forum (ECEF).

One on One With: Ron DiLeo, the new executive director of the Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE).

Leading by Example: A profile of Vivian Schiller, who became president and CEO of NPR a year and a half ago -- just in time to inherit both a huge deficit and soaring listener numbers.

One on One With: Vernice Armour, the first female African-American combat pilot in U.S. military history, who will be making a keynote presentation sponsored by Convene at the DMAI Annual Convention next week.

Working Smarter: What Foursquare and other location-based applications could mean for meetings.

Innovative Meetings: Behind the scenes at the American Association of Neurological Surgeons 2010 Annual Meeting -- where every attendee got their own iPod Touch, pre-loaded with the conference's entire programming.

Backchannel: What is the best way to allocate space in an exhibit hall? Four meeting professionals weigh in.

Other Duties as Assigned: The American Camp Association, New York's Scott Rothschild on that time a SWAT team burst into his exhibit hall. And the Fonz was there.

Look for the text-only version of the July issue on our homepage within the next few days.

June 2010 Issue: Live!

The digital edition of our June issue is hot off the binary equivalent of a web-fed offset printing press, and it's a good one. The cover story, " Generation Y Speaks," by Senior Editor Hunter Slaton, cuts through the conversation swirling around the Millennial generation by talking directly to a variety of its members working in the meetings industry. Whatever your feelings about Gen Y-ers, some of them almost certainly are your colleagues, and all of them most definitely are our future; and Hunter's article just might help you understand and appreciate them a little more. Other highlights:

Update -- Crisis Response: The Icelandic volcano eruption and the Nashville flood happened while we were putting the June issue together, and had such an immediate and direct impact on meetings and conferences in the United States and around the world that we created a new department to address them. Learn how meeting professionals on the ground responded to these disasters.

Convene Salary Survey 2009: Is the recession over? Not for respondents to our latest Salary Survey -- fewer than half of whom took home more money last year than they did the year before.

Leading by Example: Meet Kirk Bauer, who lost a leg in Vietnam, and who for the last 28 years has served as executive director of Disabled Sports USA -- bringing to people with disabilities the healing power of skiing, cycling, climbing, swimming, and dozens of other sports. Keep checking back to the blog for more photos and audio clips from our interview with Kirk.

"Social Media + Meetings": A recent online survey finds that when it comes to meeting professionals using social-media tools at their events, 12 percent are working it, 49 percent are working on it, and 14 percent are nowhere.

"The CMP Hits the Quarter-Century Mark": Contributing Editor Sara Torrence, CMP, honors the Certified Meeting Professional designation on the occasion of its 25th birthday, and runs down the latest developments for the industry's most widely recognized credential.

International Meetings: Ben Goedegebuure, sales director for the Scottish Exhibition + Conference Center, responds to James F. Hollan III's International Meetings column in our April issue -- in which Hollan explained how "North American planners and European or Asian venues come to the negotiating table with very different expectations."

Frame of Mind: A Q&A with international mountaineer and PCMA 2010 Education Conference keynoter Jamie Clarke -- from his base camp on Mt. Everest. No, really.

Other Duties as Assigned: In the second installment of our new back-page department, Vicky Betzig, CMP, talks about the one meeting where it was very helpful to be able to speak French, Spanish, German, Italian, and Portuguese.

Look for the text-only version of the June issue on the Convene homepage sometime within the next week.

May 2010 Issue: Live!

The digital edition of Convene's May 2010 issue in now available, with an interesting and fun cover story (if the author does say so himself) that looks at how four cities with outdated, negative reputations have shown the world -- and the meetings industry -- their bright new realities.

Also in this issue, we're proud to debut four new departments: PCMA Planner's Notebook, in which PCMA Vice President of Meetings and Events Kelly Peacy, CMP, CAE, offers a monthly look at the planning process for the PCMA 2011 Annual Meeting; Frame of Mind, a short Q&A with someone connected to meetings (this month: Animal Planet host Jeff Corwin, who in June is speaking at the PCMA Education Conference); Backchannel, an opinion column that replaces Point/Counterpoint, and this month tackles the question "Are big-name speakers worth the money?"; and Other Duties as Assigned, our lighthearted new back-page column, which kicks off with a funny story from Kirsten Olean, CMP.

Other highlights from our May issue:

"Community Services": A Q&A with David Radcliffe -- a veteran destination marketing executive and industry consultant, and co-moderator of the CEO Summit at the PCMA 2010 Annual Meeting -- about challenges and opportunities facing DMOs.

One on One With: Ray Kopcinski, CMP, director of meeting services for Million Dollar Round Table, and an ardent mountain climber -- who explains what his profession and his passion have in common.

Leading by Example: A profile of a week-long medical mission to Port-au-Prince with a nonprofit organization called Healing Hands for Haiti, whose volunteers include seasoned meeting professional Jean Tracy. Senior Editor Barbara Palmer went along on the trip, and the article she wrote -- and the photos she took -- are unforgettable. She's already filed previews of it here, here, and here; you'll definitely want to read them, too.

"Pursuing a New School of Thought": A feature article about second-tier cities that are forging partnerships with the first-class colleges and universities located there to identify new meeting and event opportunities.

Look for the text-only version of the May issue to be posted on Convene's homepage within the next few days.

"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.

April 2010 Issue: Live!

The digital edition of Convene's April 2010 issue is now live. You'll find a great cover story by Senior Editor Hunter Slaton that imagines the medical exhibit hall of the future -- which actually exists in the present, albeit in decentralized form, in the ideas and innovations that forward-thinking meeting professionals are implementing piecemeal. Other highlights:

"The Cost of the Codes": Part of our cover package on medical meetings, presenting the results of a PCMA survey about the effects of last year's revisions to the PhRMA and AdvaMed codes on health-care-industry funding of educational meetings.

Leading by Example: A moving profile (by the aforementioned Hunter Slaton) of R.V. Burgin, a Marine veteran who saw some of the most brutal fighting in the Pacific theater during World War II, and who's featured in HBO's new miniseries "The Pacific." Last week Hunter posted an audio clip of his interview with Mr. Burgin, which you'll definitely want to hear.

One on One: A Q&A with Pat Zigarmi, Ed.D., founding associate of the Ken Blanchard Companies, co-author of Who Killed Change?, and a speaker at the PCMA Education Foundation 2010 Partnership Summit -- which begins today!

International Meetings: Veteran U.S.-based meeting professional James F. Hollan III, CAE, offers a candid look at the "very different expectations" with which "North American planners and European or Asian venues come to the negotiating table."

Innovative Meetings: Behind the scenes at UnTech10, an event that was spontaneously created by members of the association technology community after snowstorms forced ASAE & The Center for Association Leadership to cancel its Tech10 conference.

Point/Counterpoint: Seth Godin -- the Purple Cow guy -- squares off against himself over the question of whether big events have outlived their usefulness.

Look for the text-only version of our April issue on the Convene homepage in the next few days.

March 2010 Issue: Live!

The digital edition of the March 2010 issue of Convene is now live. Click on over there for a great assortment of features and departments -- anchored by an expansive cover story that shares the results of our 19th Annual Meetings Market Survey. (A hint about its contents: The whole package is called "Ready to Turn the Corner.") Other highlights:

• A Leading by Example interview with Fred Luskin, Ph.D., director of the Stanford Forgiveness Projects and a pioneer in exploring the healing power of forgiveness

• Meetings We Like profiles of two cool hybrid events that blended in-person and online attendees -- from the Virtual Edge Institute and the PCMA Greater Midwest Chapter

• An Innovative Meetings column about the Panel Picker application that Austin's legendary South by Southwest Music and Media Conference uses to solicit public input about its programming

• Our second Giving Back column, this one about hotels and other venues that have installed beehives on their rooftops so they have a local source of fresh honey

• A Book Excerpt from The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right, by Atul Gawande -- a new title with obvious appeal for a profession that lives and dies by its to-do lists

• A Point/Counterpoint debate around the ultimate question for the Digital Age: "Are handwritten thank-you notes still a must?"

The text-only version of March 2010 will be posted to the Convene homepage in a few more days. But why wait? And why miss out on all the pretty pictures?