Mar 12, 2006

According to this CNN story, videoconferencing is now being used to hasten the visa application interview process, which can be a huge hassle for business travelers (and meeting attendees from other countries trying to get to your meeting). From...

Mar 11, 2006

Congratulations to all the 432 people who passed the Certified Meeting Professional designation in January and who can now officially put those wonderful CMP letters after their names. The press release says a full list of new CMPs is at the...

Unite Here aims for Phoenician

Mar 11, 2006

When I read this story about the Unite Here labor union's plans to boycott The Phoenician in Scotsdale, along with speculation that the union plans to put national attention on Hilton, Marriott and Starwood, parent of the Phoenician, the Westin...

Friday fun: If you liked the Spirograph, you'll love this

Mar 11, 2006

If you liked to play with a Spirograph when you were a kid, you'll love to play with String Spin from zefrank.com (there are too many toys there to play with! Thanks, I think, to Grass Shack Events & Media for a great source of endless time-was...

Chicago CTB seeing staff exodus

Mar 11, 2006

Forty-three Chicago Convention and Tourism Bureau staff members have left over the past two years, according to this article. That's more than half its entire staff, and it's happening as group business is taking off in that town, the bureau has...

Rich desserts

Mar 11, 2006

First, there was the $1,000 frittata. Now you can treat your most discriminating meeting VIPs to the $1,000 "Grand Opulence" sundae, sold by New York's Serendipity restaurant. What could possibly make a dessert so expensive...

Giant floating meeting space?

Mar 11, 2006

According to an item in Popular Science, a giant floating hotel, such as that rendered here by John MacNeill, may be soon looming over the skies. From the article: This two-football-fields-long concept airship is the brainchild of Igor Pas...

Friday fun: What celeb do you look like?

Mar 10, 2006

I've been told I look a little like Helen Hunt, but according to myheritage.com, a site that uses facial recognition technology, I most resemble Elizabeth Hurley (60 percent resemblance). Cool! I about half resemble Richard Pryor, too, so I'd take...

What your event Web site shouldn't do

Mar 10, 2006

There is a terrific, tongue-in-cheek post on Silicon Cloud called 12 Things to Irritate Your Visitors that every meeting/conference/convention planner should heed for their events' Web pages. Among the 12 things are pop-ups and -unders, and the...

Celebrate get over it day

Mar 10, 2006

Frustrated in your negotiations over your next meetings contract? Annoyed that the hotel salesperson you'd been working with for months suddenly up and left and now you're starting back at square one with a newbie? Hey, life is full of...