You can't make this stuff up: Michael Tyron, an independent meeting planner from Edmonton, Alberta, was running a meeting for the Edmonton Police Service at which a woman complained to police that a man was following her. It turned out that the man was trying to recover his wallet, which the woman had stolen from him as part of a pickpocketing scam she worked with her daughter.

Tyron's anecdote was among the winning entries in the Hampton Roads (Va.) CVB's inaugural Meeting Planner Sound Off contest, which awarded prizes for planners' most bizarre meeting stories. Winners received framed New Yorker-style cartoons of their stories and weekend getaway packages to Hampton Roads. The winning cartoons will be on display in the new Hampton Roads Convention Center, which opened in April. The contest was so well-received that the CVB has decided to do it again.

Through Oct. 31, planners can submit anecdotes by logging on to www.hamptoncvb.com/soundoff.