On The Cover
Navigating The Learning Curve
These days, association meetings need to be running on all three cylinders: targeted educational programs, strong networking opportunities and a compelling expo. The first two especially, according to Debra Bachman-Zabloudil, CAE, FACHE, president of The Learning Studio: “We do a lot of market research on education specifically, and what we find is that the two main drivers to coming to any annual meeting are education and meaningful connections.”

Don't Be Left In The Dark
Nothing enhances a meeting planner’s ability to plan for a crisis like actually responding to one. Most meeting planners will never experience a serious crisis such as a terrorist attack, kidnapping or hotel fire; or even a lesser crisis such as an extended power outage. But all it takes is one improbable but poorly-handled crisis to ruin a meeting, tarnish the reputation of an association and its planner, and reduce the attendance and revenue of future meetings.

Drive-In Meetings
Things are looking up. Finally. After the Great Recession and all the cuts that came with it, business travel and meeting spending is stabilizing, and policies are beginning to loosen — particularly in areas that can be closely linked to revenue growth. According to the third annual American Express/CFO Research Global Business & Spending Monitor, a majority of finance executives worldwide (57 percent) plan to maintain or increase business travel spend compared to last year.

Executive Meetings
If you’ve been in the business of planning meetings for a while, you already know that planning a small executive meeting or retreat is a different kind of animal. If you don’t plan it correctly, or if you overlook something important, it will affect not just the people who have attended; the effects will actually ripple through the entire organization. Yes, it’s true: The success of a meeting that may have been attended by only 10 or 20 may affect the lives of thousands of others.

Connect And Engage The Generations
Matures, baby boomers, Gen X, and now Gen Y, oh my! With so many generations and so little time, meeting planners’ heads are left spinning with the endless possibilities of how to find, retain and manage these different demographics. “Young people and their penchant for using ‘technologies’ are pushing the envelopes and nudging the fundamental way meetings have been organized over the past few decades,” said Robert Wendover, managing director of the Aurora, CO-based Center for Generational Studies.