"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.