CIC Releases Housing ReportThe Convention Industry Council, continuing to show progress in its Accepted Practices Exchange movement to develop standard terms and practices for the industry, last month released a preliminary report of the APEX housing and registration panel, charged with recommending standard practices for reporting and retrieving registration data and other housing-related issues. The report includes recommended standard registration and housing forms, as well as recommended practices for issues related to Internet bookings and room blocks, among many others. The full report is available on CIC's Web site, www.conventionindustry.org. The recommendations are available for review and comment, and several discussion groups will be held throughout the United States and Canada this year, with the panel's final report scheduled to be released in about one year.
ProcurePoint Product Pushes AuctionsProcurePoint Travel Solutions, a Sausalito, Calif.-based online firm that specializes in the reverse auction of travel services, last month released a new product that facilitates auctioneering solutions for corporate meetings management. The Enterprise Meetings product purports to automate the entire meeting planning process.
"There's too much money at stake for corporations to be nonchalant about potential savings when it comes to planning offsite meetings," said president and CEO Ed Sarraille. "Using Enterprise Meetings, companies can be assured that their meeting planners have the tools they need to efficiently complete the tasks required of them in accordance with corporate policies." ProcurePoint has pushed auctions for years, but the concept has yet to sweep the meetings industry.
Call For Best Mtg. Practice NominationsBusiness Travel News again this summer will name three corporate meeting managers as the best practitioners in particular fields, including, but not limited to, air programs, hotel programs, internal consolidation, meeting policy construction and compliance, relationship with corporate transient programs and use of technology, for initiatives completed within the past 12 months. Please send nominations of corporate meeting buyers by May 26, along with a brief explanation of why they are deserving, to Meetings Today editor Chris Davis at
[email protected].