Meetings News

Whether you were in favor of the Affordable Care Act or against it, President Obama's reelection assured that recent healthcare reform is here to stay. At PCMA's Medical Meetings Think Tank, held November 13 – 14 at the MGM Grand in Detroit, Obamacare took center-stage as medical meeting planners worked to understand the potential implications for their attendees.

What will you find at Marriott hotels on an average day? 1.4 million towels, 200,000 slices of bacon and a team of researchers working to uncover what matters to guests around the world.

While many meeting planners in the Northeast postponed their meetings due to Superstorm Sandy, the show went on for the American Society of Clinical Pathology's Annual Meeting at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston.

Do you really need to make the daily trip to your office? Since 2005, the number of telecommuting employees in the US has increased by 66 percent.

As voters closely monitored election results to determine who would guide the country over the next four years, organizers at Chicago's McCormick Place monitored those same results to determine plans for a much more immediate concern: a victory celebration.

While the Northeast recovered from damages from Hurricane Sandy, workers at New York's Javits Center returned to discover some flooding in Level 1 of the building. After testing building systems, the center was ready to welcome participants of the 2012 New York Marathon for registration and browsing booths at the ING New York City Marathon Health and Fitness Expo.

As residents along the East Coast prepared for the impact of Hurricane Sandy, Ed Several, senior vice president at Reed Exhibitions and show manager, ISC East, prepared to make the worst-case scenario call for a show organizer: cancellation.

With so many emerging social media platforms, it can be challenging to recognize which channels are actually worth your team's time and energy. Here is one service that can prove to be a tremendous asset for meeting planners: Instagram.

Today, many PCMA members focus on the rapidly expanding possibilities of next-generation virtual and hybrid technologies, but those possibilities wouldn't exist without the organization's early leaders.

You may have just secured a powerful new partner: YouTube. The online video giant released a new tool called Campaigns to help non-profit organizations track progress toward goals.

As destinations work to attract group business, it looks like the majority of meeting planners prefer electronic introductions. In a new survey from New York-based destination marketing consultant Development Counsellors International, 67 percent of planners indicated that they want CVB representatives to connect with them via email.

Much of the meetings industry is facing the challenge of sagging attendance and exhibitor numbers, but Neilsen Expositions' Interbike enjoyed a year of impressive growth. The show, held annually in Las Vegas, increased its total attendance numbers from 23,370 in 2011 to 25,536 last September.

It looks like just about everyone would consider a career change. A new survey from California-based social recruiting company, Jobvite, shows that 75 percent are actively looking for or open to a new job.

Planners focus on every speaker, every education session and every minute of an upcoming meeting experience, but attendees may be placing quite a bit of emphasis on what they can do outside of the program.

The Convening Leaders 2013 schedule is packed with more than 125 sessions that dig in to today's biggest trends and issues. With such a wide range of material, Claire Smith, chair of the Annual Meeting Program Committee and vice president of sales and marketing at the Vancouver Convention Centre, says that the conference team focused on the convenience of customization for attendees.

Despite some struggles to increase attendance across the industry, the latest report from the Center for Exhibition Industry Research reveals that your attendees and your exhibitors still want to come together face-to-face.

When she was a in senior high school, Liz Erikson knew she wanted to work in the hospitality business. At the time, she may not have recognized that her ambition would pave the way to her current position as Executive Director, Meetings & Incentives, North America, Fairmont-Raffles-Swissotel.

As meeting marketers work to pique the interest of prospective attendees, many organizations are using an approach that includes every channel possible. From direct mail to email marketing to social media, audience prospects receive messages everywhere they turn.

Remember that latest online presidential ad you just saw on your computer screen? More than likely, it was based on a quite a bit of your personal information such as other websites in your browsing history or your political party affiliation.

Your expense reports. Your attendee evaluations. Your registration count. As a planner, your daily duties are packed with numbers and statistics.

Everywhere you turn, there's another app for this, that and pretty much everything - - except meetings. In the PCMA Technology Think Tank, attendees were confronted with a statistic that reveals the industry's behind-the-times approach to technology integration.

If you're a planner, you've probably seen this introductory line quite a few times. In fact, you may have already seen it today.

At last week's PCMA Exhibit Managers Think Tank, Gregg Talley, FASAE, CAE, President & CEO, Talley Management Group, and a diverse group of show organizers aimed to answer a question that's challenging the entire industry: how do we continue to attract exhibitors when overall attendance is down?

Many of your organization's employees may work from 8 AM - 5 PM, but your prospective attendees are ready to receive your meeting marketing messages outside of regular work hours. A recent study from KISSmetrics shows that the best day for Facebook sharing is Saturday and the weekend is one of the highest-trafficked times for Twitter.

RNC organizers spent Monday scrambling to prepare for Isaac to potentially make landfall in their host city of Tampa Bay. The situation highlights one of the most important questions for meeting planners: are you prepared for an emergency?

The PCMA Millennial Series has provided tips on using social media to achieve success while you're on-site, but it's time to examine an equally crucial time: before your meeting. As Millennials, Gen-Xers and Baby Boomers continue to sign up for new social media accounts, there are more channels than ever before to connect your prospective attendees.

Many planners focus their energy on understanding how to attract millennials to their meetings, but there may be an easier way to learn: invite them into your office and pay them.

As the industry continues to evolve, a new four-letter acronym is having a serious impact on which tools planners should carry in the meeting toolbox: FOMO. The Fear of Missing Out.

It's arguably the most critical question for a successful planner's future: how do you attract young attendees to your next meeting or convention?