On a cold Halloween night while I walked the neighborhood with my children, dressed as Fred Flintstone, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued its final physician fee schedule for 2015. In that 1,000-plus–page rule was a...

In previous pieces I have written about how important I think strategic meetings management is, and what I think should be included in an SMM program. And yet, it seems to me that the spread of SMM has stalled. For the purposes of this discussion...

The solo traveler knows it’s sometimes a bit lonely on the road. Meeting planners understand this better than most; when your attendees go home and the last box is shipped, there’s often empty time to fill. I’d resolved in the...

All photos by Timothy Arnold, May 2014 Istanbul, Turkey, one of the places at the very top of my travel wish list, is the only city in the world that is a part of two continents, Europe and Asia. Most of Turkey is in Asia, but much of Istanbul i...

Packing for a trip can be a time-consuming and stressful task. Many people see it as one of the worst parts of a trip. As travelers worry about complying with airline guidelines and taking everything that they might need, they often put off...

The common rationales for developing a strategic meetings management program are: • to contain and reduce costs • to mitigate regulatory and duty-of-care risk • to consistently deliver engaging events These are all exceptionally good reasons ...

Like many industry colleagues, I recently returned from IMEX America and have been reflecting on the importance of relationships to our business. During the flight home, I finished reading The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni in...

By Judy Sweetnam, M.Ed., CCMEP, and Steven M Passin, FACEHP, CCMEP This year the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education has scrutinized a number of areas from the Standards for Commercial Support, as reflected in findings from se...