Meetings Beat - 1996-07-29

<H1>Meetings Beat</H1><H3>Plansoft Deal Becomes Official

</H3>After several months of negotiation, the <B>PlanSoft Ajenis Limited Partnership and Virtual PCMA</B> have officially created a joint venture to provide an advanced, comprehensive and timely means of communication between meeting planners and suppliers (Meetings Today, Jan. 29). There has been no word from Plansoft or PCMA as to when the technology will be available.

Using the name <B>Meetings Exchange</B>, or MX, the venture aims to offer meeting planners standardized destination information, from resorts to restaurants to convention centers to audiovisual services, on a nationwide basis.

Planners will be able to search for and compare facilities based on a number of uniform criteria, giving them a one-stop virtual site selection. The merger's business plan calls for the information-and the software necessary to view it-to be accessible in a number of formats: CD-ROMs, the World Wide Web, a proprietary online network and satellite transmission.

<H3>Consultant Looks Into Future

</H3>Management consultant Tom Faranda predicted a rosy future for the meetings industry at the <B>Meeting World</B> trade show in New York held earlier this month. In the next few years, he said, hypersonic transport will cover the Los Angeles-Tokyo run in two hours, and computerized meeting planning systems will choose a convenient meeting time for attendees, notify them of the proposed schedule and send orders automatically to hotels and travel agencies.

In the international market, the 528 million trips booked in 1994 will rise to over a billion by the year 2010, Faranda estimated. "The meetings industry is getting bigger, and planners who are able to grow with it will end up in a better position than they are today," he said. "If your end of the industry is shrinking, it's relatively easy to slide over to a segment that's growing."

Among the hottest new destinations will be Cuba, he said: "Millions of dollars are being set aside for hotel development there. In about three years' time, you'll see a hospitality industry develop there faster than anywhere in history."

<H3>Meetings On A Budget

</H3><B>The Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International </B>will offer a variety of seminars and exhibits on meeting planning at its
<B>Affordable Meetings</B> conference and trade show. Scheduled for Sept. 4 and 5 at the <B>Washington, D.C. Convention Center</B>, the program will
feature courses for planners of all experience levels, including sessions led by industry consultants Joan Eisenstodt and James Daggett. For information and registration, call <B>George Little Management Inc.</B> at (800) 272-7469.

<H3>Free Meeting Space

</H3>With meeting space in major cities bordering on impossible to find, planners in the pharmaceutical and medical industries are increasingly interested in a deal being offered by <B>Semco Productions</B> of Atlanta. In exchange for your group's attendance at its <B>Medtrade</B> show Nov. 13 through 16, Semco is offering free corporate meeting space on the day preceding the show.

Semco executive vice president Mark Simmering said the offer has helped boost attendance to 45,000 at the nation's largest medical and pharmaceutical trade show, while costing him nothing; breakout rooms in the convention center would otherwise go unused on the day exhibitors are setting up their booths. "If you are bringing 20 people to the show anyway, why not tack on a few extra days, bring your whole staff and have your sales meeting free?" he said.

Simmering said Medtrade will host 30 corporate, association and medical association meetings on Nov. 12, and in the evenings during the trade show, including one corporate meeting of 4,000. In addition to the free space, meeting attendees can take advantage of Medtrade's negotiated hotel and air rates, including a new preferred international air program with <B>Delta, Sabena</B> and<B> Swissair</B>.

<H3>Hotel Network Offers One-Stop Shop

</H3><B>Associated Luxury Hotels</B>, an association of 36 independent resort and boutique properties in the United States and the Caribbean, recently opened a sales office in New York and now offers expanded services for meeting planners. A single phone call can get planners rate and availability information for all the destinations the association represents. The association also can put planners in touch with appropriate contacts at its travel partners, <B>Delta</B> and <B>Alamo</B>. For more information, call 212-545-2474.