November 15, meeting professionals of all political stripes will come together in Denver to discuss the opportunities and challenges of next summer’s Democratic National Convention, which is expected to draw 35,000 delegates, politicians, members...
Dan Young, CMP, LLIF, director of event planning and field recognition at Minneapolis, Minn.-based Thrivent Financial for Lutherans, is no novice when it comes to advancing the profession. When the meeting-planning department at Thrivent was built...
What better way to highlight Boston as a conference destination than with a traditional New England clambake and an overnight at one of the city's hottest meetings hotels...
When an AIG senior executive arrived in Shanghai for a high-level meeting in 2004, he noticed AIG signs in his hotel. For a different meeting. “He said, ‘I should have known about this. Give me a list of all our meetings,’” says Kelli Livers, CMP...
NORTHEAST About 27 planners gathered at the Woodstock Inn & Resort, Woodstock, Vt., July 29 to 31, to hear a variety of speakers and participate in interactive sessions on hot-button topics. Among the highlights: On the meeting's first day...
After a painstaking two-year reorganization, Marriott this summer began redeploying its national sales force against thousands of U.S. customers. The hotel giant has attempted to connect and coordinate sales efforts to these accounts through...
Many hotel and convention center contract provisions can be difficult to understand, even for an experienced meeting planner, but the most confusing language is generally found under the heading “indemnification” or “hold harmless.” ...
If you're looking to treat your attendees to a memorable international experience, you might learn a thing or two from my recent trip to Germany. Since my mother was German and my father's ancestry was Scottish, that makes me half German and half...
Among the news from this year's Motivation Show in Chicago, September 25 to 27: U.S. companies spent $46 billion on travel and merchandise incentives in 2006, according to the U.S. Incentive Merchandise and Travel Marketplace Study sponsored by...
Patricia Kerr, CMP, joined Financial & Insurance Conference Planners in 1995, the same year she launched her meeting planning career at Manulife Financial. She is currently director, distribution sales support at Manulife, responsible for...