George Little Management, White Plains, N.Y., has been producing trade shows since 1924, but only recently decided to venture into the corporate meeting arena. Its initial target is the high-tech market.

Tech meetings are attractive to GLM for two main reasons, says executive vice president Alan Steel. In part it's geographic. Kate Billings, who was promoted to GLM's director of corporate meetings, is based in Burlingame, Calif., with easy access to the Silicon Valley boom towns. Second, the high-tech industries offer an unusual growth potential, says Steel, which GLM would like to be part of. "We already plan a lot of meetings for our trade show clients, and by adding corporate clients we can maximize the use of our existing services. ... Our goal is to be part of a corporate intranet, offering registration, hotel booking, itinerary planning, and transportation planning, as we would for our trade shows."

GLM planned its first corporate event, an 800-person, one-day sales meeting in January, for Reston, Va.-based Nextel Communications.