Good news for next year's meeting budget: Travel costs are expected to rise only 4.7 percent over this year, according to a recent report from Runzheimer International. The Rochester, WI-based management consulting firm came up with the figure...

You won't be in Barbados for long before a few telling statistics are brought to your attention. From cab drivers to hotel representatives, Barbadian boosters are quick to tell you of this breezy, sun-baked island's impressive 97 percent literacy...

With Hilton Hotels Corp.'s acquisition of Bally Entertainment Corp. nearly a done deal, and the reuniting of Hilton with Hilton International apparently just a matter of time, new Hilton President and CEO Stephen Bollenbach offered some insight...

October 28 to 30, Life Insurance Marketing Research Association (LIMRA) International Annual Meeting, Washington, DC. Call (860) 298-3959...

The fifth annual Insurance Conference Planner Premium Circle Award survey is complete, and our 30 winners should take a bow-they earned it. On ballots that ran in the March/April and May/June issues of the magazine, we asked insurance conference...

The NFL is an excellent case study in competition: 40 percent annual layoffs, new management strategies every 18 months, stiff competition, disgruntled employees, and constant pressure to increase ticket sales. We used meetings constantly-on the...

The Insurance Conference Planners Association (ICPA) Forum, held in June at the Renaissance Chicago, provided a stage for the first complete unveiling of the nearly released Ajenis software product and the PlanSoft Network, designed to...

Mary Charles & Associates (MC&A), a Honolulu-based destination management company, has entered a joint venture with Convention Management Resources, a housing, registration, and travel services company based in San Francisco...

If the trend toward insurance company consolidation seems to be coming at insurers like a "merger monster," it doesn't mean you should call in the National Guard. It just means that when a merger crashes in on your company and your department, it...

Stuck at the bottom of the customer-satisfaction barrel last year, Continental Airlines has done what no airline in the annual J.D. Power/Frequent Flyer Customer Satisfaction survey has ever done: The carrier jumped from last to first in a single...