WHETHER WE ARE evaluating a car mechanic or a CME presenter, it is often very difficult to determine objectively whether an individual is qualified. Generally, performance qualifications are measured and evaluated against criteria such as formal...

Diana Frost, manager, medical education for women's healthcare franchise, Ortho-McNeil, Raritan, N.J., is the lucky winner of MM's Merit & Distinction Awards raffle. She won a vacation package including a four-day, three-night stay for two at...

THE BIGGEST NON-HUMAN casualty of severe acute respiratory syndrome's spread this spring was the American Association for Cancer Research annual meeting, which was scheduled for April 5 to 9 in Toronto. As many as 16,000 attendees were expected...

IN THE LAST ISSUE, I PONTIFICATED about the importance of tracking behavior changes CME providers and other medical meeting professionals make as a result of attending industry meetings. Then I received this letter from a reader — who prefers to...

Every planner wants to have a meeting that allows attendees to put what they learn into action. Small meetings are ideal vehicles for making that happen — if they're done well. I had the chance to attend just such a meeting last fall: the first...

The new, 2.3 million-square-foot Washington, D.C. Convention Center opened on schedule in March. The largest building in Washington and one of the 10 largest convention centers in the U.S., it has nearly 725,000 square feet of exhibit space and...

Point/Counterpoint ...

IN LAGUNA BEACH, CALIF., Montage Resort & Spa opened in February. The 262-room resort is sited on 30 beachfront acres, and offers a 20,000-square-foot spa, three swimming pools, and more than 20,000 square feet of indoor/outdoor meeting space...

IT'S 8 P.M. ON SUNDAY NIGHT, and my phone rings. It's from a CMEer who we will call Jim. Jim is running an activity on Monday but has no way to collect information on learners' outcomes. “What can I do on such late notice?” Jim asks. And then in...

IF YOU HAVE ANY DOUBT about how important CME guidelines are to the government, check out the Office of Inspector General's new guidance for pharmaceutical manufacturers, at www.oig.hhs.gov, issued as we went to press. Emphasizing that pharma...