Meetings Beat - 1996-12-16

<FONT SIZE="+3"><B>Meetings Beat</B>

<B>McGettigan To Break Through?

</B>McGettigan Corporate Planning Services has announced a new market-based strategy called Breakthrough 2000, designed to increase sales 150 percent by the millennium. The grass-roots initiative focuses on rapid response to clients and a more orchestrated approach to projects through cross-functional strategic work teams and the formation of customer business units.

To aid employees in this effort, the company is implementing the use of e-mail-which was identified as the preferred method of internal communication-for communicating client information. A new training facility features multimedia computers equipped with training information. The company expects the program to better serve existing customers and bring more customers on board.

<B>CVB Offers Rooms Via E-Mail

</B>The Greater Pittsburgh Convention and Visitors Bureau is offering e-mail housing registration for attendees of large conventions. The first conference to use it was the Supercomputing Conference, held Nov. 18 through 22. Attendees received a private Web address, and could fill out forms and send them to the CVB without having to print them out and fax them back. The service includes the creation of private Web pages. For more information, call 412-281-7711 and ask for the housing department. The GPCVB also has a comprehensive destination Website, at http://www.pittsburgh.net.

<B>Confex Sets Program

</B>Confex, the leading U.K. forum for the meetings, events and incentive travel industry, will hold a two-day exhibit and educational program for sales, marketing and public relations executives at the Earls Court 2 exhibit hall in London, Feb. 25 through 27.

Topics will include meetings technology, conference marketing, global conference and incentive logistics, career planning, and a basic planning primer by leading experts in each field, including Peter Rand, president of the Rand Group and author of "Getting the Best from Meetings Venues."

Designed with dedicated networking areas, the conference is set up to show off four segments of the diverse meetings industry: overseas meetings; events and incentives; U.K. meetings, events and incentive travel; and corporate events. For more information, call Moira Griffiths at 011-44-171-630-9141.

<B>PCMA To Meet In San Antonio

</B>The Professional Convention Management Association will hold its 1997 Annual Meeting from Jan. 8 through 11 in San Antonio. Highlights of the program will include a keynote address by General Colin Powell, and the meeting's first live-broadcast videoconference-General Session B (10 to 11:30 a.m. CST) will be broadcast to 20 U.S. Marriott locations on Jan. 10. The meeting also will include a "Hospitality Helping Hands" volunteering project to benefit Habitat For Humanity. To find out more about specific course offerings and exhibitors, contact PCMA at 800-424-5247.

<B>Rating Conference Centers

</B>In an attempt to quantify what can be very subjective, The Coleman Center, a New York conference center, has conducted a study of 600 executives which yielded a 16-point numerical rating system on various attributes of a room and staff. Among the critical factors are tables that provide 2.5 feet between participants, the elimination of reflective surfaces and that rooms be as square as possible to allow equal proximity to the speaker. The research concluded that the details of a meeting room and a facility's staff have a direct bearing on the outcome of a meeting. The study and rating system were devised by Lee Finkel, president of The Coleman Center. For more information, call 212-541-4600.

<B>Seeing Europe On Wheels

</B>For intrepid incentive participants who would love to hit the road, Bosenberg Motorcycle Excursions offers group motorcycle tours through Europe. Motorcycle gateways are Frankfurt/Main and Munich, Germany, and Bern and Zurich, Switzerland. Tour, sport-tour, sport, dual-sport and cruiser models are available with unlimited mileage, CDW, VAT and EuroRider Travel information included. There are more than 30 models of BMW, Harley-Davidson Honda and Triumph. For more info, call Bosenberg at 011-49-671-67312.