First, get good information

As global leaders continue to work to understand the exact nature and scope of the outbreak of swine flu, it's been noted that a flood of information -- helpful and otherwise -- has been circulating feverishly.

PCMA's President and CEO Deborah Sexton has joined with other meetings industry leaders in urging people to seek out expert advice when making health-related decisions about travel. Advisories issued by the World Health Organization and the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and other government agencies about swine flu-related health issues can be found at http://pandemicflu.gov.

The Texas Roadhouse Effect

Not only did executives at the Texas Roadhouse restaurant chain refuse to cancel an incentive trip to San Francisco for managing partners and others, they made sure the world knew about it. For starters, they installed a 20-foot-high inflatable red armadillo on the Ritz-Carlton on Nob hill. And then CEO G.J. Hart went on television to talk about it.

Holding the meeting was critical to the company's business -- and to their values, Hart said, emphasizing that the meeting brought together not just managers, but bartenders and meatcutters. "If we take care of our people, they'll take care of our customers," Hart said.

What threatened to get lost, amid footage of parties and talk of big-name entertainers, was the fact that a major percentage of the company's investment in the meeting was philanthropic. The company, a supporter of Habitat for Humanity in dozens of cities, invested $1 million in materials and labor to build homes in San Francisco.

There wasn't a lick of defensiveness in Hart's face or voice, as he described the meeting as a crucial investment in "the people who are running our restaurants day in and day out."

"I'm not sure it's enough," he added.

The Tweet truth

Nearly half of the world's top conference organizers say that the demand for executive conferences is growing, even in the midst of recession. That's because executives increasingly value face-to-face networking, according to a survey by Weber Shandwick. The survey turned up some other interesting trends: 

Corporate conference organizers now allot more time for Q-and-A (72 percent); plan more interactive sessions (70 percent); and book fewer keynote speakers (30 percent).

And, if there was any doubt, blogging, Twittering, live videocasting, and podcasts have gone mainstream. More than half of survey respondents feature them in their events.

Read the full report here at Marketing Vox.

The Treasury Department's proposals to require the CEOs of companies receiving TARP funds to sign off on conferences and events to ensure that they are note "excessive or luxury items," carries with them a real risk of overzealous application. Although "reasonable" expenditures for sales conferences, staff development, and performance incentives are not the intended targets of the regulations, it's not hard to imagine situations where a CEO's fear of negative public reaction could squelch any expenditures on meeting and travel that carry even a hint that they might be any fun.

And that would be a very bad thing -- and not just for the meetings industry and the 2.4 million Americans with industry-related jobs. Successful managers and business owners know that providing opportunities for social interaction and recreation is not a frill, but an investment in creativity and renewed energy and commitment.

In "The Serious Need for Play," in the February/March issue of Scientific American Mind, evolutionary biologists argue for more, not less, play. Unstructured playtime is crucial for the support of creativity, emotional wellbeing, and top cognitive functioning, of, not just children, but adults.

We all need to work smart in this economic climate, but it's critical that we play smart, too.

Peter Leyden, Uncut

The January 2009 issue of Convene will be hitting mailboxes any day now. As part of our coverage of "Megatrends: Why Big Ideas (and Bold Solutions) Still Matter," we re-interviewed futurist Peter Leyden -- whom we first talked to about the economy in June 2008. Peter had a lot of interesting and hopeful things to say about the state of the financial system and what it means for meeting professionals, not all of which we could fit into the print magazine.

So, here's a choice outtake from our latest interview with Peter Leyden that you can read only here, on the Convene blog:

"People have made a decision to elect a [president] who's talking very transformationally, who's been very clear about how central clean-tech and greening will be to his vision, and seeing it very clearly as a rebuilding of America. You've also got this Democratic Congress that's totally gung ho about it. And the zeitgeist in the public has changed in some really fundamental ways since a year or two ago.

"The other thing is, we went through that gas freakout. We've gone from $150-a-barrel oil to [less than] $50 now, which just goes to show how fickle our worries can be. But the fundamental piece about oil that everyone gets is, you have to be an idiot to think we can go build SUVs for another decade. The necessity for shifting off oil, the debate about climate change -- we've now passed over a threshold for that as a national discussion and I think are really at a different space. You've got this amazing moment in American history where you could actually do really big things and shift really big -- fast. And that's such a rare opening. Unfortunately, fundamental change and fundamental shifts in how we run the economy almost always come out of this. In that way, we're 'lucky' we're in crisis."

Managing the "AIG Effect"

There's been lots of talk about the "AIG effect" at the 28th annual Florida Encounter, which brought together more than 80 meeting planners and 100 representatives from Florida hotels, resorts, and destinations at the Sawgrass Golf Resort and Spa at Pontre Vedre. As planners and suppliers commiserated with one another over corporate meeting cancellations and postponements and slashed meeting budgets, one hotel sales exec declared that "flat is the new growth."

However, the fallout from the public reaction over AIG executives meeting at a posh California resort in October has a silver lining for some: being less glamorous is suddenly more alluring. Lu Sadler, northeast sales manager for the Naples Beach Hotel and Golf Club, says she is fielding calls from corporate planners who are drawn by the lack of ostentation - and the lack of the label "resort" - at the family-owned 1950s-era property she represents. The beachfront hotel has 34,000 square feet of meeting space, with a tennis center, spa and golf course, in an atmosphere Sadler describes as "comfortable," rather than luxurious. When corporate planners call, they emphasize that they want to steer clear of any perceptions of overindulgence, she said. "They specifically mention AIG."