Meeting News - July 21, 2008 - (Page 11)

MeetingNews 25 Most Powerful deserves some credit for keeping the economy chugging along. Hotel investment remains strong this year, and when Bernanke stated,“The risk that the economy has entered a substantial downturn appears to have diminished over the past month or so,” as well as promised to strongly resist inflation at a June conference at MIT, the dollar rallied back. David Marriott, Senior Vice President of Global Sales, Marriott International, Bethesda, MD While most if not all hotels now participate in the green movement, Marriott International, with just over 3,000 hotels throughout the world, trounced its competition in this arena by making a brandwide move. Just this past April, the company rolled out a five-pronged approach to saving the planet that included in part, a pledge to creating ways for both guests and employees to contribute. As part of that last element, Marriott said it would roll out a group-specific leg of the program and it quickly delivered on that promise. By the way, who can forget the unpopular move that got David Marriott on this list for the first time last year: the revamping of independent meeting planners’ commissions? In 2007, we said other hoteliers were likely watching what would happen to Marriott as a result of this move, yet none have followed suit. Richard Branson, President and Founder, Virgin Group, London Perhaps the highest-profile celebrity and business executive to embrace alternative fuel sources for the aviation industry, Sir Richard Branson in February completed the first 747 biodiesel test flight, offering the meetings industry a sip of hopeful optimism that air travel won’t die along with fossil fuels. Branson has pledged $3 billion to fight global warming over the next decade, funneling all profits from his travel firms—such as the Virgin Atlantic airline and Virgin Trains rail network— through a new investment unit called Virgin Fuels. Though the test flight was conducted on a fuel mix of coconut and babassu oil, Branson and environmental leaders have said www.meetingnews.com that algae would almost certainly be the basis for future commercial aviation biofuels. Deborah Sexton, President and CEO, Professional Convention Management Association, Chicago Since taking control of PCMA three years ago, Sexton has turned the organization into a multifaceted, major industry player. Among her most recent accomplishments was the establishment, in the association’s strategic plan, of a focus on research; a new vice president overseeing that task has been hired. PCMA has also revamped its website to include much more industry research, as well as user profiles and a “people page,” making its online presence very much about the organization’s backbone: its members. In addition, Sexton has seen to it that PCMA help cut through industry clutter by fostering collaborations—about 13 and counting—with other meetings associations. She has more than earned her spot on this list with these and other initiatives—entirely different programs than those that got her here last year. Steven Hacker, President, International Association of Exhibitions and Events, Dallas While railing against the airlines for slashed service and increased prices has become a national pastime, most people haven’t figured out what to do about it other than complain. But at a meeting last month, Steven Hacker oversaw a move by the IAEE board to create a task force charged with developing best practices for managing trade shows and events with struggling air carriers. The group will be evaluating every possible ramification of key issues relating to the airlines and security issues at airports on the exhibitions and events industry. Meanwhile, as he did last year, Hacker continues to focus on Asia-Pacific. IAEE has collected information about changes to the work of trade show liaisons helping Chinese nationals come to events in the U.S., and it is making that information available to its members. Serge Simard,Vice President of Food & Beverage, Fairmont Hotels & Resorts, Toronto Serge Simard, vice president of F&B at Fairmont Hotels & Resorts, has led the chain to offer one of the industry’s best programs for local, sustainable, and organic food options. Fairmont has also responded to the wave of interest in green and environmentally friendly events with a comprehensive program called Eco-Meet. The program provides a meetings structure that “encourages maximum waste diversion and environmental awareness for conference delegates.” It also provides personalizable options, such as local and organic gourmet menus, disposable-free food and beverage services, and ways to make an event carbon-neutral. The program, available at all properties in the brand, is designed to meet the needs of corporations that are beginning to mandate environmentally responsible procurement throughout their operations. “Our guests are very savvy, experienced diners, and they also are becoming more conscious of how their choices affect the planet,” Simard said in a statement at the outset of the Fairmont menu overhaul. Roger Dow, President and CEO, Travel Industry Association, Washington, DC What with the airline industry’s implosion and U.S. border crossing woes constantly threatening group travel, the industry needs a stronger voice in Washington. Enter the tireless Roger Dow, formerly of Marriott and now with the Travel Industry Association. Since 2006, the Dow-led TIA, along with partner Business Travel Roundtable, has been championing the industry’s cause with policymakers, highlighting the importance of business travel on the economy; lobbying for reform of the maligned border, transportation, and homeland security agencies; and pushing for legislation that would create a national travel affairs agency in the form of the Travel Promotion Act. Pending before Congress, the legislation— which would also create a program for improving the image of U.S. travel and making visitor entry more efficient—now has the support of 202 U.S. representatives and 42 senators. July 21, 2008 MeetingNews 11 http://www.mimegasite.com/mimegasite/index.jsp http://www.meetingnews.com

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Meeting News - July 21, 2008

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