Melissa Etheridge, Cyndi Lauper, Joy Behar … not exactly standard fare for the annual meetings of ASAE & The Center for Association Leadership, the association for associations. But with a totally transformed downtown Los Angeles as its backdrop, ASAE brought out three strong women—two rockers and a comedian—to entertain at its annual meeting for about 5,500 people, which began on Saturday and ends today.
Etheridge rocked out at LA Live, the $2.5 billion sports and entertainment complex developed by AEG, which includes the Staples Center, at the meeting’s outdoor opening party on Saturday night. The lively set by Etheridge, who admitted that she hadn’t expected such a warm welcome, had even non-fans singing along with her. "American Idol" host and radio personality Ryan Seacrest, who had attended the Creative Arts Emmy Award ceremonies at the Nokia Theater at LA Live earlier that afternoon, welcomed the crowd with a “technical” Emmy in hand.
About 40 lucky meeting planners and association executive customers attended a private party hosted by LA INC., The Los Angeles Convention and Visitors Bureau, earlier in the evening, where they got to meet and have pictures taken with Seacrest, Etheridge, David Beckham, Wolfgang Puck, and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.
The following morning, Mark Liberman, president and CEO of LA INC., warmly welcomed the crowd at the opening general session. “It’s been 50 years since ASAE met here,” he said. That year the meeting was held at the Statler Hilton, now the Wilshire Grand, some five blocks from the LEED-certified L.A. Convention Center, this year’s meeting site. Some attendees enjoyed the convenience of the convention center’s new headquarters hotel, the JW Marriott Hotel Los Angeles. The property opened in February with 878 guest rooms and shares space with the 123-room The Ritz-Carlton, Los Angeles, and The Ritz-Carlton Residences. The hotel tower is also LEED-certified.
Association executive attendance was way up at the meeting, with 2,700 execs, compared to 2,100 in Toronto in 2009, said ASAE President and CEO John H. Graham IV, CAE, at a Monday morning press conference. Approximately 20 percent of attendees are expected to book future meetings in Los Angeles, said Graham, bringing a potential $508 million in future revenue to the city. Graham had plenty of other news to report, including a rebranding of the association as ASAE; it will use "The Center for Association Leadership" as a tagline. What was the Center will now become the ASAE Foundation, which has a renewed interest in fundraising for research, education, and other activities. ASAE also introduced a new Web site and MyASAE, an iPhone/iPad application that allows users to customize their content experience.
Social responsibility was also front and center at the conference. Volunteers, including many from the LA INC. staff, prepared meals at the Midnight Mission on Saturday, which was the recipient of funds collected from a fun run on Sunday morning, hosted by Off ‘N Running Tours. And the convention and visitors bureaus of Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, and Portland, Ore., sponsored a build-a-bike effort right on the expo floor that also benefited the Mission.
