Professional Convention Management Association (PCMA): Current Issue

Post Con

American Veterinary Medical Association Annual Convention

What if we approached learning the way many of us are realizing is the best way to eat — fresh, local, organic, slow, and sustainable? What opportunities might this present for designing conferences and furthering your members’ professional development?

Working Smarter

The verb “to tweet” — not sure if the Oxford English Dictionary has anointed it as such, but it’s in Wikipedia — means to send a message on Twitter. Which just might be the next communications revolution that changes our lives, not to mention our industry.

Innovative Meetings

The Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority celebrates its 100th anniversary with the world’s largest convention banquet — and a whole lot of utensils

Meetings Industry Forecast

For those who plan meetings, the pendulum swing back toward a buyer's market should give their organizations much-needed breathing room on rates, dates, and space.

Leading By Example

Fred Kent, founder of the Project for Public Spaces, is on a mission to put soul back into our communities, one park bench at a time.

How Adults Learn, Now

You’ve gone through all the planning stages — analysis, design, and development — and now it’s time to execute.

Green Meetings

“Conscious caterer” Greg Christian offers tasty tips for serving food that’s sustainable, seasonal, and close to home.

Soundview

Speed Reviews of New and Noteworthy Books for Business Executives

New Builds, Renovations & Expansions

The hospitality and convention industry doesn’t stand still. Hotels, resorts, convention centers —even entire destinations — are continually upgrading, expanding, reinventing, retooling, and starting from scratch to create the kind of spaces groups will flock to. This year, 3.3 million square feet of new meeting and exhibit space came online; another three million square feet of pristine space is in the pipeline for 2009. That translates into countless fresh opportunities for groups. For a snapshot of the latest developments and a peek at what’s new and different in hot spots around the globe, turn the page.

Point/Counterpoint

At press time, the stock market had just suffered its worst week in history, the government was preparing a massive bailout package that included the investment of tax dollars in private banks - and people were trying to figure out who was to blame for the whole mess.

November 2008

Now In its 22^nd year, Convene^® is the leading industry trade publication for education content and timely, relevant information from the Professional Convention Management Association (PCMA). It is an award-winning magazine, with a circulation of more than 35,000. Convene^® readers book more than 300,000 meetings annually with a mean economic value of $3.2 million to the host destination.

To view the digital edition of Convene^®, please click here.

If you are not a member of PCMA but a meeting planner professional and would like to subscribe, please click here.

Behind The Scenes

To The Point

Letters to the Editor