*WEB FIRM GROWS

After collaborating on a number of meeting industry projects, Cardinal Communications, a Berkeley, Calif.-based developer of Web sites and Web-based marketing and database applications, has acquired HMR Associates, a meetings industry technology consulting company based in Austin, Texas.

HMR President Jeff Rasco, CMP, a former Meeting Professionals International Meeting Planner of the Year, will join Cardinal as vice president, to head up a new consulting division.