Meeting in Philly and need a speaker who is a health care professional? The city's Health Care Congress Nursing Committee, a division of the CVB, has for several years run a speaker's bureau with a roster of local nursing leaders who can talk about topics ranging from geriatric nursing to pediatric spinal cord injury. Now, they are expanding their speaker list to include other health care professionals.

Booking a local expert can save planners the costs of flights and lodging for presenters, says speaker bureau founder Joan Randolph, vice president for patient services, Jeanes Hospital. “We have wonderful resources right here.”

Another plus: If your keynote speaker cancels at the last minute, “instead of pushing the panic button, planners can call the bureau and we do a telephone triage and find out who might be available,” Randolph says. “We have enough resources that we are generally successful.”

The speaker bureau's services are free. For more information, call (800) CALL-PHL or visit www.pcvb.org.