The Professional Convention Management Association (PCMA) and the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) will team up to deliver METCON (Meetings and Exhibitions Technology Conference). This new venture will debut next April 9 to 11 at the Rosemont (IL) Convention Center with three days of workshops, speakers, and exhibits.

But don't call the trade show a trade show, says PCMA's Chief Operating Officer Bill Myers. Call it instead the Technology Demonstration Center. "Everyone who exhibits will be required to educate attendees through a demonstration," says Myers. "Suppliers aren't filling out exhibitor registration forms; they're submitting an 'Application to Demonstrate.'"

In addition to a learning-oriented, hands-on exhibit floor, METCON's designers are planning 28 workshops focused on technological solutions to meeting planners' problems. For more information on METCOM, contact PCMA at 100 Vestavia Parkway, Birmingham, AL 35216; (205) 823-7262.

The sales team for Abbott Laboratories Diagnostics Division digs in on a community service project held in Atlanta this past summer. Adding a community service component to a sales meeting was the idea of Mike Collins, division vice president of sales. Logistics were handled by Colette Fairchild, CMP, working as a project manager with Chicago-based Creative Group, Inc. Fairchild is now president of her own medical specialty group, Meetings RX.