One of the things we take for granted in our high-tech world is batteries. As we become more and more “wireless,” our dependence upon batteries increases, because so much of our personal and office equipment runs on battery power: PDAs, cell...

Two years ago in this issue our cover story was “Call to Action: ASAE CEO Mike Olson Challenges Associations to Face the Threat of the Net.” The article was in part a rebuttal to an Industry Standard article that called associations “the next...

Edward J. Tromczyski, president and chief operating officer of PlanSoft, believes that you owe it to your career and your organization to invest a few minutes each day at his company's Web-based meeting planning site, www.mpoint.com. If you're...

The NAA is in the midst of a strategic planning process that has its Manchester, N.H.-based staff exploring sweeping changes, including the launch of new meetings targeting specific member niches. The 64-year-old association already has a...

Wanda F. Pruitt ...

The hotel occupancy tax, which has been the primary source of funding for most convention and visitors bureaus for a half century, is a flawed and obsolete concept that should be replaced. The problem with the bed tax is that it focuses all of a...

Eight meeting-niche specialists came to a half-day educational forum in June put on by AM and its sister Primedia Business Meetings Group magazines, along with other trade press, for the New England Chapter of the Hotel Sales and Marketing...

Scrambling for new profit opportunities to make up for lost business in the wake of the airline commission cuts, many smaller and regional travel agencies are launching meeting and convention divisions. While mega-agencies have long maintained a...

On September 11, 2002, many planners will find themselves — where else? — at a meeting. The question is: How to recognize the significance of the date without getting in the way of the meeting's agenda...

Listen to your attendees. Go to the event, talk to people about what they did and didn't like. Evaluations are the foundation on which everything is built. Take a tip from forward-thinking speakers who survey their audience ahead of time to...