Insurance conference planners seeking to cut their risks frequently look to California. Consider: The benign, generally dry climate practically ensures that golf matches and other outdoor events will go off without a hitch. The resorts and...

Marketing 101 PROMOTE YOUR MEETING DEPARTMENT When an executive in a division of your company halfway across the country has a meeting to plan, does she call you? Or is her assistant on the phone accepting rack rates? Mergers mean insurance...

As a one-person department, Kim Ketcham, meeting planner at Standard Insurance Co., in Portland, Ore., juggles numerous responsibilities on a daily basis. How she keeps many balls in the air at once and still maintains her sanity can be attributed...

On January 1, 1999, 11 members of the European Community* started keeping track of transactions in the euro as well as in their local currencies. By 2002, all transactions in the 11 countries are expected to be conducted in euros. What will this...

KRISAM FOUNDER LAUNCHES DMC CONSORTIUM ...

"People wanted warm and sunny," says Jana Stern, director, conventions and conference planning, at ReliaStar Life in Minneapolis. When they unfolded the kickoff poster (item 1) announcing the company's 1998 Top Ring contest, "warm and sunny" is...

The 860-room Westin New York at Times Square will open in spring 2002, next to E Walk, a 200,000-square-foot entertainment, retail, and restaurant complex opening this spring. Both projects are being developed by Tishman Realty & Construction...

Cancun is probably best known as Mexico's vacationers' paradise, offering a Caribbean experience with Mexican gusto. While the package groups will likely cycle in and out of some hotels forever, some properties are actively courting the meeting...

When digital cameras first came out, they were very expensive, hard to use, and the results were, in layman's terms, terrible. They began to come down in price, and the quality of their images has continued to improve--to the point that they are...

You've got a pile of meetings on your plate and suddenly you're faced with finding space for a management conference only three months out. Then you get a call from a site selection company representative. It's perfect timing. You give the rep the...