Meeting News - December 3, 2007 - (Page 26)

Cover Story Joining Forces continued from cover champions together will greatly enhance their resources while also giving them a more significant presence, said Chuck Merin, president of TBR. “Challenges to the industry are growing, and we wanted a stronger government relations structure.” Added Roger Dow, TIA president and CEO, “Building on the momentum created by DAP— which focused on overseas inbound travel—and creating a stronger government affairs capability allows us to better reach politicians, government affairs officials at corporations, and the public.” Dow, and his brethren, are seeking support from these groups on many issues. Among these is reform of the Transportation Security Administration. “While the organization is doing the best it can, we go through a lot that makes no sense,” said Dow. “We need to show how much productivity is lost by people standing in lines for hours; and question the logic of searching a child because he has the same name as someone on a watch list. I doubt anyone can give you a list of 20 terrorists who’ve been caught because they took their shoes off.” MPI continued from cover member described it as “like nothing I have ever seen.” The association began the transformation at its World Education Conference, held in July in Montreal. There, keynote speaker Don Tapscott spoke about the blogs, wikis, and real-time polling systems that are changing communication, and which can greatly enhance the quality of events. Besides using a blog on an event’s website weeks before the event to gauge attendee interest on topics he’d present, Tapscott modified his session on the fly based on instant audience polling and maintained a wiki after the event to keep attendees interacting and learning. That was just the beginning, said MPI President/CEO Bruce MacMillan: “The ‘Meet Different’ idea came from seeing that our members are trying to succeed under a truly different set of parameters than in the past, which now include social media and corporate social responsibility. So, we used focus groups and other means to ask members, ‘Are your meetings evolving and changing at the same pace your business is changing? And what aspects of creating effective meetings and events are keeping you up at night?’ It’s not good for any organization to have the same meeting and event model year after year when so many elements in business are changing.” As a result, the “co-creation”process, as MacMillan calls the increased input of MPI members, went much deeper into the session offerings, thanks to technology. “There was a lot of peer-to-peer review, using the Internet to choose and sharpen the sessions,” said Donna Harbers, president of MPI’s Hill Country Chapter, and director of education and 26 MeetingNews December 3, 2007 The tourism officials are also focused on the passage of the Travel Promotion Act of 2007. The legislation would mandate the creation of both an office of travel promotion for the U.S. (something that many other countries have) and a corporation for travel promotion. It would also create a funding mechanism for these efforts. “Coming together will allow us to run public advocacy programs, like every other industry,” Merin said. Added Dow,“Our industry has been the Rodney Dangerfield of industries for many years. No one in Congress would think of proposing large scale legislation that would adversely affect pharmaceuticals, or the gun industry, yet [when travel is threatened] the industry is painfully silent.” But before advocating, TIA and TBR will work on a simpler matter: their merged organization’s name. The two groups are open to all possibilities but likely won’t retain either’s existing moniker, Merin said. “No one’s ruled out TIA but then people could say, ‘what’s changed?’,” Merin noted. “With a new name, we can do a product launch and create an identity.” H Contact Rayna Katz@rayna.katz@nielsen.com AD INDEX Advertiser Page Air France . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21 www.airfrance.com/us American Express . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 www.americanexpress.com/meetingsolutions Biltmore Hotel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24 www.BiltmoreHotel.com Cancun CVB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17 www.cancun.info Conrad Hotels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19 www.ConradHotels.com/NAmeetings Chicago Convention & Tourism Bureau . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9 www.choosechicago.com Fiesta Los Cabos . . . . . . . .6A (insert) www.fiestamericana.com/groups Gran Melia Cancun . . . . . . . . . . .4-5 www.GranMeliaCancun.com Jackson CVB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 www.visitjackson.com LA Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11 www.seemyLA.com/meetings Long Beach CVB . . . . . . . . . . . . .28 www.visitlongbeach.com Oaxaca . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23 www.oaxaca.travel.com Regal Sun Resort . . . . . . . . . . . . .13 www.regalsunresort.com Reno-Tahoe . . . . . . . . . . .14A (insert) www.rtmeetings.com meetings for Austin-based Texas Apartment Association. Afterward, a sample of members was invited to view and respond to session leaders’ pre-event blogs. But MacMillan added, “Other members can get involved through the ‘Meet Different’ website.” At PEC, many sessions will utilize interactive technology to guide them in real time so that they are most relevant to attendees.“I think it will do a lot for the energy of the event,” said Harbers. “It will keep people mentally alert all the way through sessions.” In addition, “we will have a ‘video reflection room’ where attendees can create a YouTube-style video for our website to pass along what they experienced,” added MacMillan. After the PEC, MPI will create wikis for each session so that those who attended can share what they learned with others. “I will be curious to see how MPI preps participants such that they now participate differently—be more interactive,” said veteran MPI moderator Joan Eisenstodt, president of Eisenstodt Associates, in Washington, DC.“I am also curious to see how we facilitators are given latitude about our room sets, our report and feedback mechanisms, and other elements.” Harbers said she does not see her own meetings using many of the MPI ideas in the immediate future, but perhaps in four or five years. On the other hand, she said, “I do expect this kind of thing from MPI—it should be pushing the envelope, introducing us to cutting-edge ideas for meetings.” And if the concept flops? “I think that’s OK,” said Eisenstodt.“We can learn from it. It’s almost impossible to learn from successes, which is why it seems meetings continue to be the same—no one dares to experiment!” H The Index to Advertisers is published for the convenience of our readers. Every effort is made to list advertisers’ names, web addresses and page numbers correctly. The publisher is not liable for errors or omissions. www.meetingnews.com http://www.airfrance.com/us http://www.americanexpress.com/meetingsolutions http://www.BiltmoreHotel.com http://www.cancun.info http://www.ConradHotels.com/NAmeetings http://www.choosechicago.com http://www.fiestamericana.com/groups http://www.GranMeliaCancun.com http://www.visitjackson.com http://www.seemyLA.com/meetings http://www.visitlongbeach.com http://www.oaxaca-travel.com http://www.regalsunresort.com http://www.rtmeetings.com http://www.meetingnews.com

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