Save the date: The Green Meeting Industry Council is putting on a "Greening the Hospitality Industry Conference" on October 5-7, 2005, in Metro Washington D.C. This is important stuff: You can save money and--dare I say it?--the world (or at least a piece of it), one meeting at a time by learning the latest green meeting practices for meeting and event planners, hotel properties, convention and conference venues, and suppliers to the meeting and event industry. It sounds like a good mix of presentations and workshops, along with a tradeshow that will showcase some of the latest environmentally responsible meeting products and services.
I don't know if you've been reading the New Yorker magazine series on global warming (sorry, can't find a link to the articles), but the evidence is pretty clear that we need to change business as usual to green business, and meetings are a part of the story. Some good background reading from Association Meetings:
There also are a bunch of resources on the GMIC Web site.
I spent way too much time with environmental scientists in my former life as an environmental magazine editor not to take the situation of our planet very, very seriously. I hope you do, too. This is something we all need to learn more about and, more importantly, do something about.
OK, I'll get off my soapbox now.