Meeting News - July 27, 2009 - (Page 3)

News PCMA, ACTE Form ‘Strategic Alliance’ The Association of Corporate Travel Executives and the Professional Convention Management Association last month announced the formation of a “strategic alliance.” Officials stressed the associations many of the members with ACTE are involved now, or overseeing, the meetings division. There is a convergence here and we think we can benefit by bringing both organizations’ memberships together,” Sexton said. Though she noted the potential for revenue sharing and economies of scale in running events and fielding research,“none of the other arrangements have been worked out at this point in time,” she said.“We’re working on them as we speak.” Sexton said PCMA and ACTE immediately shared membership benefits to each group’s members, including special event rates and access to research. “There are many more benefits that we will continue to uncover and hopefully provide as this alliance draws together,” she said. The agreement follows failed efforts by some board members of the National Business Travel Association and ACTE to merge the two organizations in recent months. Though ACTE remains steadfast in its commitment to stand alone, the By Jay Boehmer jboehmer@meetingnews.com NBTA board of directors on June 18 voted unanimously to continue to pursue the merger discussions. ACTE president Richard Crum, who reassumed that post at the association following the resignation of his predecessor Doug Weeks, held firm to the stand-alone plan. Of the PCMA agreement, Crum said, “The relationship between our organizations stretches back two years and even further. This is something we’ve worked on for quite a bit of time and continued on page 8 Marriott, Starwood To Add TelePresence Facilities PCMA’s Deborah Sexton would remain independent and maintain separate boards and staffs, but would cooperate on joint member benefits, education, research and collocation of events. PCMA president and CEO Deborah Sexton said the time is ripe for further collaboration amid the ongoing convergence between business travel and meetings management. “Many of our members are now involved with business travel, as By Michael B. Baker Marriott International and Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide on June 30 announced separate plans to introduce Cisco’s TelePresence remote conferencing technology to several properties this year. Marriott is partnering with AT&T to bring the Cisco TelePresence technology to Marriott, JW Marriott and Renaissance properties in 25 cities, including Frankfurt, Hong Kong, London, New York, San Francisco, Shanghai and Washington, D.C. The company said the first meeting suites would be operational by the end of October. Starwood, meanwhile, is working with Singaporebased Tata Communications to bring Cisco TelePresence rooms to 10 hotels by the end of the year. The first rooms are planned for Sheraton properties in New York, Sydney and Toronto, and Westin properties at Los Angeles International Airport and in Chicago. Beyond that, Starwood plans to add rooms to properties in Brussels, Hong Kong, Paris, Singapore, Tokyo and other major international business markets. “We believe that public TelePresence rooms are the key to increasing the accessibility of TelePresence beyond major company offices to their wider ecosystem of users: customers, suppliers, remote workers and business partners,” Tata Communications senior vice president of global managed services John Landau said in a statement. “Our partnership with Starwood is a major step towards making this vision a reality.” TelePresence technology allows small groups, generally 20 people or less, to use high-definition video and realtime audio to meet while in multiple locations worldwide. Besides companies that have the technology installed onsite, Cisco has several public rooms where the technology is available. Tata Communications has such rooms in London and Boston, as well as Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Delhi and Gurgaon in India, and it continued on page 6 CORRECTION MeetingNews incorrectly identified APICS, The Association for Operations Management, in a June 22 article. Contents No. 10 July 27, 2009 Vol. 33, s Newsmaker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 s Meetings Spotlight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 s Meeting Post . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8 s Viewpoint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 s Association Watch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 s Event Profile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 s Meeting People . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 s MeetingNews Research . . . . . . . . . . . 17 s Travel Dashboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 s Mid-America Regional . . . . . . . . . . .19 MEETING NEWS (ISSN 0145-630X, USPS No.356-010, July 27, 2009, Vol. 33, No. 10 is published monthly by Nielsen Business Media, 770 Broadway, New York, NY 10003-9595, tel. 646-654-5000. Subscriptions are offered free of charge to individuals actively engaged in planning meetings or conventions in the U.S. and Canada. 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Box 1189, Skokie, IL 60076-8189. www.meetingnews.com July 27, 2009 MeetingNews 3 http://www.meetingnews.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Meeting News - July 27, 2009

Meeting News - July 27, 2009
Contents
Newsmaker
Meetings Spotlight
Meeting Post
Viewpoint
Association Watch
Event Profile
Meeting People
MeetingNews Research
Travel Dashboard
Mid-America Regional
Golf Meetings
Hawaii

Meeting News - July 27, 2009