Annual Meeting Attendees Give Back to Host City

Each year, the PCMA Hospitality Helping Hands program gives meeting attendees the chance to step out of the convention center to participate in a hands-on, community service project. In 2008, Hospitality Helping Hands volunteers will donate their time and talents to Food Lifeline and The Aloha Inn. As Washington's largest hunger relief agency, Food Lifeline works to provide nutritious food to needy people in Western Washington. Volunteers will sort, label, and repackage bulk food products into smaller family-sized portions for distribution. At the Aloha Inn, volunteers will paint both common areas and individual rooms to brighten up resident living quarters. The Aloha Inn provides temporary housing for homeless people and allows residents to save money for permanent housing while providing access to job training and support services.

On Tuesday, the PCMA Education Foundation is celebrating its 15th Annual Party With a Purpose at Experience Music Project (EMP), a one-of-a-kind music museum featuring a world-class collection of artifacts. The Spazmatics, the ultimate '80s band provided by Austin Convention & Visitors Bureau, will help party-goers dance the night away during this evening of pure energy and entertainment. Proceeds from this event will benefit The Moyer Foundation's Camp Erin, a nationwide network of bereavement camps designed for children ages six to17 who have experienced the death of a loved one. PWAP also supports the PCMA Education Foundation and Network for the Needy.

Throughout the meeting, PCMA's Network for the Needy program will be collecting items for Dress for Success of Seattle. Attendees are encouraged to bring the following items: business tote bags, umbrellas, professional gloves, hats, scarves, new hygiene items (including make-up, haircare, and toiletries), new hosiery, and other women's professional items.

Visit www.pcma2008.org for more information or to register for the meeting.

What in the World Is Pecha Kucha?

 Remember "Show and Tell" from elementary school? At the 2008 PCMA Annual Meeting, participants in "Creating Possibilities: Show & Tell" will share their own personal meeting planning experiences with peers using a new presentation format called Pecha Kucha. The Japanese translation of Pecha Kucha is "the sound of conversation." Presenters in this session share their story using the strict 20 x 20 format: 20 PowerPoint slides, which change every 20 seconds. In the end, participants will garner some exceptional meeting planning insight from their colleagues using this fun and innovative format.

PCMA to Honor 2007 Achievement Award Winners

Each year, PCMA honors outstanding members for their contributions to PCMA and the meetings and hospitality industry. The winners will be recognized during the "Celebrate PCMA Awards Luncheon" at the 2008 PCMA Annual Meeting.

The recipient of the 2007 Distinguished Member of the Year Award is Gregg Talley, CAE, president and CEO of Talley Management Group Inc. Talley is a past Chairman of the Board of Directors of PCMA and currently serves on the PCMA Education Foundation as a Trustee.

The 2007 Distinguished Meeting Professional of the Year Award is posthumously bestowed on Michael Polin, CMP, former director of conventions, meetings & events for Narcotics Anonymous World Services Inc. Polin, a longtime member of PCMA, passed away on Sept. 26, 2007. He served on the PCMA Board of Directors in 2004-2005.

Janice Telstar, CMP, assistant director of convention services for the Philadelphia Convention & Visitors Bureau, is this year's winner of the Distinguished Convention Services Manager Award. The award recognizes outstanding achievement in the field of convention services. Telstar boasts more than 22 years of hospitality industry experience.

The winner of the 2007 Outstanding Service to a Chapter Award is John Folks, president of Minding Your Business Inc. Folks was chosen because of his contributions to the PCMA Greater Midwest Chapter.

The 2007 Educator of the Year is Dr. Joe Goldblatt, CSEP. Goldblatt has more than 20 years of experience in higher education and has lectured on meetings, conventions, and event management in more than 50 countries.

Finally, the winner of the 2007 Spirit Award is the Washington Convention Center, in Washington, D.C. The Spirit Award recognizes an organization that has significantly affected lives in a charitable or humanitarian way. For the past eight years, the Washington Convention Center has donated the use of its building, services, and staff to host the Safeway Feast of Sharing - an annual event, held the day before Thanksgiving.

To learn more about the achievement awards, go to www.pcma.org/awards.

Meetings Executives Sharpen Negotiation, Leadership Skills

On Oct. 9, meetings industry executives came together for the second stand-alone Executive Edge program developed in partnership with The University of Chicago Graduate School of Business. The attendees chose from two highly-interactive programs: "Negotiation Skills and Group Decision Making" and "Authentic Leadership: Taking Center Stage."

In the negotiations track, Professor Linda Ginzel challenged the classroom to put their negotiation skills to the test. The group broke into pairs and participated in a one-on-one negotiation activity. They discovered expert negotiation strategies and the steps to create a "win-win" situation for all parties involved. (Read Ginzel's inspiring story on p. 70.)

In the afternoon portion of the program, participants broke into groups to simulate a "Subarctic Survival Activity." Through the exercise, attendees learned some hard facts about group decision-making and gained some practical tactics for improving the group dynamics within their own organizations.