I love this editorial by my colleague, Regina McGee, Association Meetings' editor:
- A Better Tom: The Convention Industry Council will launch a new campaign to boost awareness in Corporate America of the existence--and importance--of the convention industry. Instead of ads in The Wall Street Journal featuring management guru Tom Peters praising the importance of face-to-face meetings (as in the previous campaign), CIC will hire actor Tom Cruise. Cruise will appearon the Oprah Winfrey Show, where he will jump up on her couch and excitedly declare his love for meetings of every sort. "They are just so fantastic and incredible--the most fantastic, amazing, experiences."
Name Changes: Having hired a pricey consultant last year to develop a new name that signals the new role for convention bureaus, Destination Marketing Association International will revert to its former name, International Association of Convention and Visitor Bureaus. It turns out no one, including any CVBs, use or intend to use the words "destination marketing organization" when referring to CVBs. Oh well.
Meanwhile, the International Association for Exhibition Management will succeed in getting members to approve a new name for the association--exactly 12 months after a seemingly hastily considered attempt to change the name at last year's annual meeting failed spectacularly. However, instead of the International Association of Exhibitions and Events, as previously proposed, the new name will be the International Association of Exhibitions and All Other "E" Words.
Merge But No Purge: The Professional Convention Management Association and Meeting Professionals International, after years of competing for members, will decide the time has come to put aside any hostilities and to approve a proposal to merge the two associations. After months of haggling over the new name, during which both associations refuse to give up any of their former initials, the new name is announced: The Professional Meetings and Convention Management Association International, or PMCMAI. Members of both organizations veto the proposed name, however, in favor of the shorter PMP, or Professional Meeting Professionals, stressing that meeting professionals--long in search of professional recognition from the outside world--can't emphasize their professionalism enough.
This ran in today's edition of Association Meetings Extra, which also has a couple of other items worth checking out. I'm glad she did it—I was trying to do something similar, but this is better than what I could have come up with.