CMI Changes Hands Intertec Publishing, the business-to-business publishing unit of PRIMEDIA, Inc. (NYSE:PRM), has acquired Corporate Meetings & Incentives (CMI) and five other meetings group magazines, as well as the Web site, Meetingsnet.com, from Adams Business Media. The acquisitions, based in Maynard, Mass., also include Association Meetings, Medical Meetings, Insurance Conference Planner, Technology Meetings, and Religious Conference Manager.
The Meetings Group is now part of Intertec's Marketing Division, led by Vice President Jeff Reinhardt, and Group Publisher Kerry J. Smith. Leading products in the division, based in Stamford, Conn., include Folio, PROMO, American Demographics, and Direct. The Meetingsnet Web site will be part of the IndustryClick community of Web sites. IndustryClick, PRIMEDIA's Internet operating unit, manages all Web properties for Intertec.
"These Adams properties are a great fit for our marketing division," commented Cameron B. Bishop, president and CEO of Intertec Publishing. "The synergy with our strong properties such as PROMO, Direct, and Special Events provides us with an even more comprehensive product offering for this critical marketplace."
* FYIDot-Com News - The latest dot-com pairing will have Westport, Conn.-based b-there.com (www.b-there.com) offering its meeting planner users a direct link to the travel booking capabilities of GetThere (www.getthere.com), based in Menlo Park, Calif. Meeting planner users who create a Web site through b-there will be able to access the GetThere's event registration Web sites. GetThere now offers most of those reservations through its connections with the major global distribution systems (GDSs) such as Apollo, Worldspan, and Sabre.
Users will pay a one-time setup fee of about $9,000 to incorporate the GetThere portal on their b-there.com event registration Web site. B-there.com will then charge a negotiated transaction fee for each air booking and pay a portion of it to GetThere.
- A new online RFP engine for finding locations and conference facilities in the Asia-Pacific region. EventClicks (www.eventclicks.com), based in Hong Kong, promises to respond within 30 minutes to requests, according to CEO Tom Murphy, a senior event management veteran of IBM. A dedicated account executive coordinates information by e-mail, phone, or fax until a venue is under contract.
EventClicks also features destination information about 50 Asian-Pacific countries and cities, a currency calculator, and an ATM locator. Like most online RFP engines, EventClicks charges the properties, not the users.
- Eventsource (www.eventsource.com), a Web-based RFP and site selection company, has rolled out a set of customizable, Web-based meeting tracking and expense reporting tools for corporate meeting executives called Compass (www.eventsource.com/ResourceCtr/Compass.jsp.).
Compass's features can be accessed via a company intranet or via the Web. Meeting execs can collect stats on attendance, expense reductions, spending patterns, travel policy adherence, and room night cost comparisons.
After January 1, 2001, there will be a one-time installation fee ranging from $5,000 to $10,000, depending on what features are needed.
Are you making a presentation via videoconferencing? According to Frank Carillo, president of Executive Communications group in Englewood, N.J. (www.ecglink.com), you can't rely on the same skills - or even the same clothes - that make you a success in person. Carillo, whose company teaches CEOs at Fortune 100 companies communication and presentation techniques, offers these tips:
- Don't wear black or white. White tends to glow, and dark colors turn muddy. Wear solid, toned-down colors like light blue, medium gray, tan, and cream that minimize contrasts.
- Look straight into the camera lens, speak slowly and deliberately, and don't let your eyes flicker. When your eyes move around, your brain processes what it sees and "ums and ahs" creep in to your speech.
- Avoid reading from a teleprompter. Audiences don't feel special if they think they are being read to.
- Watch your gestures. Spread out your arms to express a big idea. Don't make jerky body movements.
- Keep it short. One-way announcements from senior executives should run no longer than 20 minutes.