Arguably your best resource for knowledge as a meeting planner will always be your peers and the 2011 PCMA International Summit, co-located with IMEX America in Las Vegas, demonstrated this power.
During the interactive sessions in the Cultural Learning Lounge and the Planner Idea Exchange, attendees engaged in constructive conversations on their own experiences, challenges and interests planning meetings in foreign countries.
I was a fly on the wall during the program. Here are a few takeaway tidbits from discussions during the event:

Planners need to clarify extra costs that may be added …

$16 muffins are great for headlines and sound bites (and perhaps politics).  But for us in the meetings industry, the recent controversy over government meeting spending was somewhat of a flashback to the AIG incident.
This time, it was an audit of a U.S. Justice Department meeting that provided the lightening rod for media and government leaders.  Yet as with AIG, there was a political hot button (government spending), a quick reaction, and a willingness to believe misinformation
And most importantly, a lack of understanding about (or a willingness to overlook) the …

>Great conversations begin with great questions, and yesterday’s PCMA Masters Series program at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C., kicked off with 10 of them. Presenters Jeff Leitner and Bryan Campen cut right to the heart of … Continue reading →

This is my favorite time of year. And it’s not because it’s football season, which as anyone who knows me will attest, I do LOVE. The main reason I love this time of year is that it is annual meeting time (or, Convening Leaders time) at PCMA.  This is when the entire staff starts to really gear up for the largest event of our calendar year. Sure, it’s a little stressful, there are long days and long nights, but there isn’t another time of year when I have more fun …

> Sally Hogshead In Fascinate: Your 7 Triggers to Persuasion and Captivation, brand consultant Sally Hogshead examines the meaning and mechanics of fascination, and offers seven ways for individuals and organizations to increase and improve upon their ability to get … Continue reading →

> Photography by Daniel Schwen One of New York City’s most iconic buildings has now become one of its greenest: the 80-year-old Empire State Building has been awarded LEED-Gold for Existing Buildings certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. But … Continue reading →

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Photography by Daniel Schwen

One of New York City’s most iconic buildings has now become one of its greenest: the 80-year-old Empire State Building has been awarded LEED-Gold for Existing Buildings certification from the U.S. Green Building Council.
But it’s also serving as a example for other large and drafty old buildings: the strategies used in the project, which will reduce the building’s energy use by 38 percent and save $4.4 million in energy costs annually, have been published as an open-source model so that the results can be replicated in other …

> Surely most of you read a couple of weeks ago (either with horror or amusement — or more likely a mixture of both) about the now-infamous $16 muffin at a recent Justice Department meeting at the Capitol Hilton in … Continue reading →