Posted by: JoanEisenstodt in PCMA, Awards on
Apr 02, 2008
On 2 April, I received an amazing award: lifetime achievement as an educator from the PCMA (Professional Convention Management Association - www.pcma.org) Foundation. Also receiving awards last nite were Charles Ahlers who received lifetime achievement as a supplier partner and Debra Rosencrance who received lifetime achievement as a meeting planner. It was a lovely evening - beautifully decorated tables and ballroom at the Washington Hilton; superb dinner - not the usual chicken some expect at banquets! - and good company.
I was fortunate to have with me good friends and my niece and her husband to bask in this recognition for my passion.
And yet ...
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Sue Pelletier at meetingsnet.com wrote some great stuff about the need to consider who and when electronic devices are used at meetings - not the 'annoyance factors' - rather the privacy factors.
I commented on her blog and borrowed a portion of her title (for which she also borrowed from the Spellos brothers) for this one.
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Saw this article today at http://mimegasite.com/ - about Sheraton's plan to do massive renovation at a great number of their hotels .
A number of clients have booked Sheraton properties and no one has advised them nor had I heard til I read this.
What have you heard? What do you know? How are you handling this? If we all talk, there may be more we can do.
Harrumph for finding things out via the news .. but I guess that's better than not finding out at all.
An article in the 24 March 2008 Washington Post grabbed my attention and as I read it, I wondered: who else will be kept out? What might someone have done at any time in his or her life to keep them from entering the country?
If he had been a speaker at your meeting.. or if you had scheduled an author's visit at your meeting while he was in the US .. or if .. well, the "ifs" go on. I wondered if the event space would allow one to cancel, without paying, the event if the guest of honor did not show up because of refusal to be admitted into the country?
And why now? What triggered this that allowed him to enter the US at other times, after heightened security?
As I await the verdict on clearance by TSA for my FlyClear pass, I will keep the ACLU on speed dial.
I was going to title this with the wonderful Gershwin song, "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off" until I realized that some may not get the reference. (You know "You say either and I say either .. you say tomato and I say tomahto" .... or maybe not. Go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZ3fjQa5Hls to hear it and see Fred and Ginger do a great number while singing it.)
Language can be helpful or an interference if we speak different languages, even if we speak relatively the same language but have learned different words for different objects. "Podium" and "Lectern" are two examples.
In our industry, as meetings are planned, those two words are used interchangeably and have been for years. Some of us are purists who insist on calling them by the correct terms. I cringe every time I'm at an airport and they call someone to the "podium" - and under my breath I say, "lectern"!
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in General Discussion Topics by JoanEisenstodt, 08-01-09 17:57
