After she received her December issue, Convene reader Bobbie Connolly, CMP, member services coordinator for Alegent NPG Health-Link, caught the postscript in my column that month, which said that issue was printed on recycled paper to tie into our green meetings cover story. She e-mailed me, saying she was glad to see the issue printed on recycled paper and was that something we were going to continue to do for all our issues? I wrote her back that we were concerned about the quality of the images, especially our advertisers' ads, not appearing as "crisp" as on our regular paper stock. She responded: "I have no problem with the less-than-sharp image and would be more impressed with advertisers that jumped on the bandwagon for using the paper. And personally it comes across as hypocritical for the magazine to have an issue targeting environmental impacts of the meeting industry, pat themselves on the back for using recycled paper, then turn around and stop the effort with the very next issue. It shows that it isn't that important of a concern, where as throughout the magazine we were reading articles telling us to make changes. It's a letdown to this reader."

Ouch. But of course Bobbie is right. If, as an industry publication, we point out that we need to make changes to lessen the meetings industry's impact on the environment, it can't be just another cover story and then we move on to the next issue. We have to follow through. So, Convene will now be printed on recycled paper. And Bobbie, you have our word that here at Convene and PCMA we will continue to seek out ways to make our own operation more environmentally friendly, as we continue to show meeting professionals how to make their meetings greener. In fact, at PCMA's annual meeting last month, the Metro Toronto Convention Centre recycled 98.5 percent of the material that left PCMA.

P.S. Sometimes you need someone like Bobbie to give you a nudge to do things differently. But the way you think about things - like how you've always approached your work - can be especially hard to change. This issue's cover story shows how PCMA's Executive Edge program in Toronto last month nudged nearly 200 high-level meeting professionals out of their comfort zones into a more creative realm.