<B> Meetings Beat</B>
<B>MPI Graduates First U.S. CMM Class</B>
All 44 planners enrolled in the inaugural, and controversial, domestic Certification in Meeting Management program offered by Meetings Professionals International have passed. The week-long program, which MPI officials and its supporters said offers corporate meeting buyers useful skills for doing business in a increasingly sophisticated and international marketplace, was held at Michigan State University in September.
Detractors of the CMM, which was first introduced in Europe in 1995, expressed concern that an additional education program weakens those that already exist. But MPI argued that while the Certified Meetings Professional designation sponsored by the Convention Liaison Council focuses on tactical skills, the CMM program is more strategic.
<a name="2"><B>More Meeting Info On The Web</B>
EventSource (www.eventsource.com) has introduced city information to its meeting planning search engine. "One Click Destinations" includes information on typical prices in each city, transportation, available hotel dates, floor plans of meeting space, and hotel expansion plans. EventSource will update listings monthly.
Listings for Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco currently are available. The Website also includes information on about 1,000 cities in North America, though far less extensive than the One Click Destinations locations.
<a name="3"><B>IACVB Quantifies Attendee Spending</B>
Meeting attendees spend an average of $696 each over the course of a three-night stay, not including airfare, according to a new survey by the International Association of Convention & Visitor Bureaus. About half of that total is spent on lodging, about 25 percent on food, and the rest on shopping, entertainment and ground transportation. Not surprisingly, the study found that the larger the city, the higher the average expenditures. Event sponsors spend an average of $68 on each delegate, 42 percent of which goes for food. Trade show exhibitors spend about $300 per delegate at a given event, with vendor services, including electrical capability, and food comprising the majority, at 29 percent each.
IACVB officials said the survey was commissioned to provide CVBs with "a measure of the continuous impact that the convention industry generates." The survey tabulated data from 99 CVBs in the United States and Canada, each of which surveyed up to 12 meetings held in their respective cities between June 1997 and May 1998.
<a name="4"><B>PCMA Seeks New COO</B>
The Professional Conference Management Association's chief operating officer, Bill Myers, has been fired after an investigation prompted by a sexual harassment lawsuit. Former PCMA comptroller Pam Boyles alleged in a lawsuit that her salary was lower than that of males in comparable positions and that she experienced a hostile work environment at the organization's Birmingham, Ala., headquarters. PCMA is contesting the lawsuit, contending that Boyles was fired for violating organizational policy. A replacement for Myers should be in place by early 1999.
<a name="5"><B>CLC Selects New Slate</B>
The Convention Liaison Council this month elected Steven Hacker, president of the International Association for Exposition Management, as its new chair, MPI's Ed Griffin as vice chair, and IACC's Tom Bolman as secretary/treasurer.