April, 2009
UPDATE

The Conference Publishers at 25

On October 5, 1984, Mitchell Beer formed InfoLink Consultants Inc. as a writing and editing firm. After a series of improbable twists, turns, and name changes, that one-person firm has grown into The Conference Publishers—world specialists in conference reporting.

Writing and editing are still our essential tools, but the standard products and formats we offer today would have been unimaginable in 1984. Early on, everything we did was geared to print production. Today, our output—whether it's a word-processed meeting summary, an electronic newsletter, or an online portal that brings together the latest conference content—is almost always delivered electronically. And it's no longer a given that the events we report will take place in a single location. Presenters and participants could just as easily be scattered across the world, meeting via the Internet.

What hasn't changed is our focus on capturing the content that supports each meeting's objectives, then repurposing that content for reading, listening, or viewing. It's an exciting, infinitely renewable specialty, and we'll be doing a few things to celebrate our success in the course of the year.

The festivities begin June 10 with our first (but not last) golf tournament in support of the Canadian AIDS Society. We also plan to organize activities around the Canadian Society of Association Executives' National Conference and Showcase in Toronto.

The centrepiece of the celebration will be an October fundraising event here in Ottawa, where it all started. Things are still taking shape, but watch this space. It's going to be a very special moment, and we hope many of you will be able to attend.

Mitchell Beer, CMM
President and CEO

Richard (Woody) Huizenga, CMM
Vice-President and COO


In This Issue

Coming Up June 10
Because Work Should (Also) Be Fun
by Andrew Horsfield

Perhaps it was the warm afternoon sun, or the cold beer, but just before I joined The Conference Publishers, I promised a friend who is the executive director of the Canadian AIDS Society (CAS) that I would organize a fundraising golf tournament for her organization. Luckily, The Conference Publishers fully supported my promise.

Golf tournaments have long been recognized as excellent networking opportunities, and The Conference Publishers' Charity Golf Tournament in support of the Canadian AIDS Society is shaping up to be one of the best. We expect participants from pharmaceutical companies, health care professionals from many different fields, business people from some of Canada's top companies, hospitality industry representatives, politicians from all three levels of government, meeting planners, charitable foundations, AIDS service organizations, and others to join us for a fun day of golf and food at the fabulous Château Cartier Golf Resort and Spa in Gatineau.

Registered as a charity since 1988, the Canadian AIDS Society is a national coalition of more than 125 community-based AIDS organizations across Canada. CAS is dedicated to strengthening the response to HIV/AIDS across all sectors of society, and to enriching the lives of people and communities living with HIV/AIDS.

We've designed this first charity golf tournament in support of the Canadian AIDS Society to ensure everyone gets the greatest opportunity to meet, greet, and play. It's a best-ball tournament, so anyone can play. As golfers come off the course, they'll be treated to a dynamic après-golf reception and prize presentations.

So why not consider joining us on Wednesday, June 10, 2009? We still have room for golfers and sponsors. For more details, visit The Conference Publishers' Charity Golf Tournament website.

Green Meetings Portal Takes Flight

It's here!

In a world-wide first for conference content, the Green Meetings Portal launched April 16 with extensive coverage of the 2009 Greening the Hospitality Industry Conference, February 24-26 in Pittsburgh.

The Portal, built on a partnership between The Conference Publishers and the Green Meeting Industry Council (GMIC), brings together the latest knowledge on the practice, policy, and technology of green meetings, based on content presented at meetings and events.

The Vancouver Convention Centre has signed on as the site's first Platinum supporter, and a couple of other sponsorship positions are on hold pending decision. (A couple are still available.) The Portal will be updated later this month with selected content from the March, 2009 Green Travel Summit, and will pick up sessions from at least a dozen other events in its first six months of operation.

"With the whole rationale for meetings under serious attack, the Green Meetings Portal reinforces the incredible value participants receive when they gather for face-to-face learning and discussion, and positions sustainability as an integral part of the power of meetings," said GMIC President Amy Spatrisano, CMP. "At the same time, the site will demonstrate a method of using virtual resources and communities to extend the life and multiply the impact of live events."

"There may be dozens or hundreds of conferences around the world that touch on the process of greening meetings, or reducing the environmental footprint of the buildings and services that make meetings possible," said The Conference Publishers President Mitchell Beer. "The Green Meetings Portal will give the meetings industry a single window on the green strategies that will help it survive and thrive."

The Huffington Post Article Helps Address Industry Crisis

In early March, with the attack on U.S. meetings and events reaching a peak, The Conference Publishers scored a small coup for the industry with a detailed opinion piece published in The Huffington Post, a leading news and blog site in the United States.

"Why would a supporter of an urgent economic stimulus package try to kill off an industry that delivers jobs and tax revenues to communities across the U.S., including some of those that have been hardest hit by the mortgage meltdown?" our president and CEO Mitchell Beer asked in his March 10 post. "Senator Kerry needs a scalpel, not a hatchet."

At the time, Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) had proposed a bill to prevent any U.S. bank that received federal bailout dollars from holding any conference or entertainment event. Drawing on data from MPI Canada's 2008 economic impact study, for which he served as project manager, Beer argued that Kerry's bill could jeopardize a couple of million jobs across the United States. And he pointed out that incentive programs, which have drawn a firestorm of criticism in the States, represented only 1.8% of the 671,000 meetings that took place in Canada in 2006. (Comparable figures are not yet available for the U.S. industry.)

Later that week, Kerry tabled an amended bill that prohibited bailout recipients from funding parties and entertainment, but dropped the reference to meetings. There was (and still is) a tremendous amount of activity going on across the industry, and there is no evidence that the Huffington Post piece had a decisive impact on the bill, but we know the Senator's staff were aware of the article.

"Through the 20 months that we worked on the economic impact study, we knew the results would be incredibly important," Beer says. "I never dreamed we would try to use Canadian data to help prevent a disaster taking shape in the U.S. Senate."

The Canadian study was the first to apply a new economic impact methodology developed by the U.N. World Tourism Organization. Similar studies are in development or under consideration in several other countries, including the United States.

Comings and Goings

Iana Ciatti

Since our last newsletter, two new faces have appeared in the office: Iana Ciatti joined us in February as Account Manager after 18 years in sales, marketing, and management. Her main role will be to work with our federal government clients, and we're delighted that she's already hitting her stride. Iana says she loves her new job: "I'm working with people who are committed to the reasons for meeting and passionate about the capture of knowledge—and they let me bring my puppy to work!"

Isabel Jarvo is an Algonquin College Journalism student who interned with us during March and April. While Isabel's academic background is in print journalism, the focus of her work here was less on the written word than on designing and laying out Web content to maximize its impact.

 

Blog Boggler

Morale Officers Maydeleh and Shiloh chose Leacy O'Callaghan-O'Brien of the Canadian Association of Medical Radiation Technologists as winner of our first Blog Boggler trivia contest.

Leacy (and seven others) correctly identified the Canadian Society of Association Executives National Conference as the Vancouver event attended by Senior Account Manager Andrew Horsfield in October. Leacy received a copy of our favourite game, Travel Scrabble®, and our congratulations.


Shiloh and Maydeleh

The winner of the next Travel Scrabble game will be selected from readers who correctly answer the following question: What event brought The Conference Publishers' President and CEO Mitchell Beer to Pittsburgh in February?

As usual, the answer will be found in The Edge, our company blog. Maydeleh and Shiloh will select the winner from among the readers who send the correct answer to Vice President and COO Woody Huizenga by April 30, 2009.