Convene Spins: Private Universe

As the roller-rink DJs (used to) say: We're gonna slow things down now -- with "Private Universe," by Crowded House. This is a contemplative, almost haunting song (with an appropriately trippy video, as you'll see above), and a personal one, too, so the challenge is making it evocative in a group setting. I'd suggest taking full advantage of its sedate, thoughtful qualities by using it during small-group brainstorming sessions or elegant dinners, or, possibly, to help set the mood for a particularly introspective keynote. But for that last option, you'd want to be careful about not killing the energy level in the room.

A Tree Grows in East Harlem

This morning, after waking up at my apartment in Brooklyn, I drank a bit of coffee, showered and dressed, and got on the subway, headed first into Manhattan and then uptown to East Harlem, to cover the kick-off corporate social responsibility event for Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide's new "Get More for Your Meeting, Give More to Your Community" promotion.

The event was co-sponsored by PepsiCo, which is a partner in Starwood's new promotion, offering planners 4 percent off their master account, a free PepsiCo F&B break, and a signing bonus of up to 100,000 Starpoints for qualifying meetings that are booked by July 31 and held no later than December 31 of this year. (Click here for full details regarding the promotion.)

But that's, as they say, not all!

As Starwood CEO Frits van Paasschen told the more than 100 Starwood associates who were gathered at a well-manicured, Target-sponsored community garden on East 117th Street, the rallying point for this morning's event, "I have a strong personal belief that business has not only a great responsibility, but an opportunity, to do good by doing well."

As such, Starwood is hoping to encourage that spirit in meeting planners and their organizations by running a charity sweepstakes alongside the "Get More, Give More" promotion. Planners who book a qualifying meeting will be entered into a drawing for one of four $50,000 grants provided by Starwood and PepsiCo to the planner's preferred local charitable organization.

"We are proud to bring the spirit of our new meetings offering to life today by taking time to give back to the community in a meaningful way — and hopefully, we’ll encourage others to do the same," said van Paasschen, who made it to the community service event (and gamely hoofed it around East Harlem) in spite of still being somewhat hobbled by a recent knee surgery.

Starwood and PepsiCo practice what they preach, too: After a few brief remarks, van Paasschen and Margery Schelling, chief marketing officer for PepsiCo Foodservice, presented the New York Restoration Project, an organization started in 1995 by Bette Midler, and on whose behalf the 100 Starwood associates were about to get their hands dirty, with a (big) check for $50,000.

*Starwood CEO Frits van Paasschen, far left, presents a check for $50,000 to New York Restoration Project board member Sarah Nash, second from left.

Workers for the New York Restoration Project, a non-profit "dedicated to reclaiming and restoring New York City parks, community gardens, and open space," were on hand to guide the Starwood associates in their clean-up efforts. "Color Captains" led teams of associates to five different sites in East Harlem to weed gardens, plant trees, pick up trash, and more.

One pair of Starwood team members, Trina Mapa, in revenue management, and Cecilia Rueber, a sales analyst — who, though laughing and joking with each other like old friends, had previously known each other only "through email" — had, right before I spoke to them, just planted a new dogwood tree in front of Mount Pleasant Senior Housing on East 116th Street.

Remarked Mapa, who lives on Manhattan's East Side, "It's fantastic to get out [of the office], help the community, and clean up New York." Mapa and Rueber chatted with me for a bit longer before getting back to work, patting down fresh soil around their new dogwood tree.

*Starwood associates Trina Mapa, left, and Cecilia Rueber, right, with their dogwood tree (that's a New York Restoration Project worker behind the tree).

Viva Las IMEX!

IMEX 2010 wound down in Frankfurt this afternoon, with record attendance by hosted buyers from the United States, as well as a record number from emerging markets, including Brazil, Russia, India, and China. Individual and group appointments were up by 14 percent, with a total of approximately 57,000 business appointments made between 3,800 buyers and exhibitors. And who knows how many cups of coffee and glasses of wine consumed -- the photo above was taken from a "rooftop" cafe in Monaco's booth, where visitors sipped Champagne.

Interest was high during the three-day event in IMEX America, which will debut in Las Vegas in October 2011. Ray Bloom, IMEX Group chairman, said Thursday that he expects that most destinations which exhibited this week also will exhibit in Las Vegas, along with 2,000 hosted buyers. Eighty percent will come from the U.S., Bloom said.

Parkour, Parkour!

*This photo courtesy JB London.

Attendees flying in early, on June 6th, for the 8th Dusseldorf Breast Cancer Conference should be on the lookout for people running crazily through Area C of Dusseldorf International Airport.

Why? Because (unless, of course, they are just very late for a flight) they will be doing parkour, which American Parkour, "the leading freerunning community in the world," defines as the "physical discipline of training to overcome any obstacle within one's path by adapting one's movements to the environment."

Sounds a lot like learning one's way around the meetings industry — or, more broadly, the obstacle-littered business landscape of the past two years — doesn't it? If you like that analogy, you might want to consider having a parkour team, like The Tribe, perform at your next meeting.

Click here for more info on the Dusseldorf Airport event, along with a promotional trailer (the video takes a little while to get to the good stuff, and product placement in Germany seems to be far more blatant than it is in the good old U.S. of A., but it's still a pretty cool video).

Can you imagine seeing this happening at, say, O'Hare? Me neither. To say nothing of a convention center.

If you do host The Tribe or another parkour team at a future event, let's hope that your attendees don't get too inspired, and end up looking like these guys (apologies for the brief advertisement that NBC makes you watch before you get to the clip proper ... but trust me, it's worth it):

A Tree Grows at IMEX

This afternoon, I sat in a chair made of recycled cardboard at the Corporate Social Responsibility Centre at IMEX, to hear how Frankfurt became a finalist for an award recognizing excellence in creating a sustainable stand. Some of their actions would be familiar to anyone who's been keeping track of green meeting trends: Frankfurt rented furniture, printed their banners on cloth, and used recyclable carpeting, along with other measures.

But I also heard some fresh ideas that not only were sustainable, but played on the popularity of a local specialty: apples and Apfelwein -- apple wine. Central to their efforts, literally, was a live apple tree, which sat in the middle of the booth and is scheduled to be replanted after the end of the show. Gifts were fresh red apples, embossed with the city skyline and the slogan that carried the city's, ahem, core marketing message: Fresh & Tasty.

A Walk on the Wild Side at IMEX

The running joke at IMEX 2010 is that many of the exhibition stands are so large, well-finished, and inviting, attendees are tempted to move right in. You wouldn't lack for nightlife: the Paris CVB has built a sidewalk cafe, complete with pink neon signs, and the German CVB has created a beer garden -- with wooden tables, beer, and pretzels -- as well as a 100-person rooftop restaurant.

As IMEX and its reputation has become firmly established, exhibitors have become more willing to invest in making their presence felt, said Carina Bauer, CEO of the IMEX Group. (Japan, for one, doubled the size of its stand this year.)

But with so much competition for attendees' attention, it is nice to know that there's also a place for newcomers who never before have exhibited at a major trade show.

Every year, IMEX chooses three destinations as "IMEX Wild Cards," and gives them free exhibition space, complimentary accommodations, discounted airfare, a ticket to the IMEX Gala, and marketing support. The 2010 winners were Uganda; Morzine, France, an alpine village; and Hof Conference and Cultural Centre, in Akureyri, Iceland.

I stopped to chat with Saevar Freyr Sigurosson, who was promoting the Hof Center, which is in northern Iceland and will open in August. The good news was that the volcano has stopped spewing ash two days ago, Sigurosson said. "If it just stays calm, fantastic."

Along with the striking, round conference center, which can accommodate meeting groups of up to 500 people, Akureyri offers out-of-the ordinary adventures, including tours of the Northern Lights and of the lunar-like landscape in interior Iceland where NASA trained Apollo astronauts. Sigurronson, who also works as a guide, told me his surname means "son of the one who goes into battle with god and the winds."

Not a bad guy for a meeting planner to have in his or her corner.

IMEX 2010: The Curtain Goes Up

I'm attending IMEX 2010 in Frankfurt this week for the first time. Along with spectacular weather, I had the good luck of meeting Tom Hinton, the President and CEO of CRI Global in San Diego, this morning at the Messe Frankfurt exhibition grounds.

Hinton is one of a group of 14 hosted buyers invited to IMEX by PCMA. I couldn't have asked for a better introduction to the vast show floor than to walk around with Hinton -- we dodged the construction crews who were working to be ready for the show's 7:45 a.m. opening Tuesday as Hinton talked about why he makes a point to come to the show.

"IMEX is one-stop shopping for guys like me," said Hinton, who is interested in both traditional and more exotic venues. And with 3,800 hosted buyers and 150 countries exhibiting at IMEX (the most ever), I could see Hinton's point.

If you didn't make to Frankfurt, I'll be blogging from IMEX all week. And if you are here, I hope we can connect.

'The Mentalist' Goes to a Meeting

The jumping-off point for this season's next-to-last episode of "The Mentalist," which aired recently on CBS, was -- wait for it -- a meeting! The (fictional) 2010 Global Human Rights Conference kicked off the plot, which involved the murder of a high-profile crusader against human trafficking moments before he's scheduled to deliver a keynote at the conference. During the course of the show, the (also fictional) California Bureau of Investigation interviews conference organizers, sponsors, and attendees -- exactly as I imagine (nonfictional) police would do if someone were actually murdered at a (nonfictional) meeting.

The episode raises a number of questions for our industry, including: What should you do when a TV news crew ambushes your keynoter as soon as he enters the building? If a serious crime happens during the course of your meeting, should you tell attendees about it? And, perhaps most important, how can I get a head of hair like 'Mentalist' star Simon West has?

Convene Spins: The Whole of the Moon

Convene Reads has been so much fun, I've decided to create another recurring feature for our blog: Convene Spins. Every Friday, we'll share a favorite song and also suggest how you might use it as part of a meeting program. Up first: "The Whole of the Moon," by the Waterboys. This is a great up-tempo number that would be perfect for the soundtrack during your opening general session, as attendees are filing in and you're trying to establish a positive, exciting mood. Especially if you have an upbeat or inspiring keynoter, "The Whole of the Moon" would be a strong lead-in.

Dateline: Everest

Here's a riddle: What do Montreal's Fairmont The Queen Elizabeth hotel and Convene's June issue have in common?

Answer: Both will showcase adventurer Jamie Clarke, who recorded the following message to PCMA Education Conference attendees (which is being held at the aforementioned hotel) while at his Mount Everest base camp. Education Conference attendees will of course hear more first-hand about his climb, as Jamie will be speaking on the topic, "What is YOUR Everest?"



Not only did Jamie record this message for PCMA members and EduCon attendees, he also took time out of preparing for his climb to answer questions for Convene's new "Frame of Mind" series from Ray Kopcinski, CMP, director of meeting services for Million Dollar Round Table, who is himself an avid mountaineer (and who, in turn, was interviewed by Convene Editor in Chief Michelle Russell in our May issue).

But the "Frame of Mind," that's in our June issue, which should arrive in your mailbox in a few short weeks. Until then, good luck, Jamie!