Learning Leadership Strategies in Los Angeles

Off the lobby in Los Angeles' Millennium Biltmore Hotel is a gallery of photos of Hollywood legends celebrating their Oscar victories in the Biltmore ballroom during the '30s and '40s. The 2008 PCMA Leadership Conference built on this host hotel's storied past with its "Lights, Camera, Leadership … A Call to Action!" theme. The educational and networking event, held June 8-10, was attended by more than 200 industry professionals.

The conference offered innovative programs and a unique environment with the goal of motivating meeting professionals to become inspirational "directors" of their teams and "producers'' of great results, according to PCMA President and CEO Deborah Sexton. The intimate gathering provides one of the best opportunities for PCMA members to deepen industry relationships.

At Monday's opening general session, attendees discovered what it takes to lead more than 300 local unions (representing more than 800,000 workers) from speaker Maria Elena Durazo, executive secretary-treasurer of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO. Durazo shared how she was encouraged by friends and colleagues to take on this daunting role and how she has worked to unite disparate groups.

At the closing general session, James Bradley, author of the No. 1 New York Times best-seller Flags of Our Fathers, revealed the story of the six men, including Bradley's father, who raised the flag on Iwo Jima in 1945 - captured in the most reproduced photograph in history. Bradley's determination to publish this story despite numerous rejections provided a lesson in how ordinary people can accomplish the extraordinary.

Attendees took part in a brainstorming activity during "No Box Thinking" and got a whole new perspective on work/ life balance with "Crazy, Busy, Nuts: Getting Off the Conveyor Belt of Life." In "L(earn)2 Lead Naturally," participants discovered how an environment can be created in which success happens naturally instead of being forced.

New this year, the Reverse Mentor Roundtables paired PCMA professional members with recipients of the Leadership Conference Student Scholarships for conversations that served to dispel misconceptions about Generation Y. Networking opportunities were also incorporated throughout the event, and receptions held at several L.A. hotspots gave the group a sense of the sparkle and energy for which the city is known.

Mark your calendars: Next year's Leadership Conference will be held June 7-9 in Austin, Texas.

NOW ONLINE

Preparing for the August 9th CMP® Examination? PCMA Can Help…

If you're planning to join the prestigious ranks of the nearly 13,000 meeting industry professionals who have earned the CMP designation, you might want to enroll in PCMA's completely redesigned CMP Online Prep: More than 90 percent of participants of the CMP Online Prep course have gone on to pass the CMP Examination.

PCMA's CMP Online Prep course offers:

• the first and most fully inclusive online course in the industry, available 24/7
• a Self-Assessment Inventory to measure your current knowledge against each module of the course
• 23 modules with PreTests and PostTests that include answers and references u seven continuing education units (CEUs) just for completing the course.

PCMA members can register for the course for $299; for non-PCMA members, the cost is $399. A group rate of $249 per participant is available for three or more individuals who register from the same organization.

To learn more about all of PCMA's CMP study resources, visit www.pcma.org/CMP.

Mark Your Calendar

On-the-Go! Webinar: Surcharges, Rebates, and Fees
July 23

The Masters Series: Our Age of Transformation
Toronto, ON
Sept. 10

On-the-Go! Webinar: Google RSS - What It Is and How to Use It
Sept. 24

See You At

CIC CMP Conclave
Vancouver, B.C.
July 27 - 29

DMAI Annual Meeting
Las Vegas
July 27 - 30

www.pcma.org/Education/Speakers_Corner.htm:
This dynamic Web page provides members VIP access to speakers who were exceptional at past PCMA events.

HAVE AN IDEA FOR PCMA?
We'd love to hear it. E-mail communications@pcma.org to tell us what you want to see or read about.

30-Minute "On- the-Go!" Webinar Series Launches  

Geared toward busy professionals, the PCMA "On-the-Go!" Webinar Series is designed to provide relevant information in a condensed and convenient format. Each session consists of a 30-minute lecture led by a topic expert, and a 15-minute question-and-answer period.

Eight "On-the-Go!" Webinars are currently scheduled for 2008, divided into three topics: Legal, Info, and Tech. Speakers for this year's Webinars include legal expert Tyra Hilliard, Esq., CMP; green meetings expert Nancy Wilson, CMP; and technology expert James Spellos, CMP.

All industry professionals can take advantage of the introductory rate of just $25 per Webinar. Visit www.pcma.org/webinars for more info.

Gulf States Chapter Receives Golden Scissors

Like many PCMA chapters, giving back to the community is a regular practice for the Gulf States Chapter. For its contributions to the Family Gateway, the chapter was presented with a "Golden Scissors" award at its Volunteer Appreciation Dinner on May 8. The scissors represent the gift-wrapping community service project the chapter held with children during the holidays at the Dallas Family Gateway shelter, which helps homeless families become self-sufficient.

Next up for the chapter is its Aug. 8 networking and educational event. As the 53rd PCMA Annual Meeting approaches - to be held in New Orleans, Jan. 11-14, 2009 - the Gulf States Chapter will be gearing up to welcome attendees on its home turf.

The Honor Is Theirs

At the 2008 PCMA Education Foundation Dinner in April, three industry veterans were recognized for their professional achievements. Afterward, they told Convene what the awards - and the industry - mean to them.

1- EDUCATOR HONOREE
Joan L. Eisenstodt
Chief Strategist
Eisenstodt Associates LLC

Being honored for one's body of work to date is so great - more so when one loves the work, as I do, and is glad to work in the industry. And more still when the Education Foundation chooses to acknowledge a nonacademic with an award, which was a gift beyond compare.

As a child in the 1950s, I used to play teacher; it was one of the few professions easily open to women then. I don't know back then that I ever considered teaching as my life's work. Instead, writing and conducting training, facilitating learning, moderating listservs - all part of being an educator in a nontraditional sense - were things that happened to me and things onto which I grabbed hold and made my work after years as a meeting planner. Because, what could be better than having an impact and helping others succeed?

It's particularly gratifying to be recognized as an educator, because I consider myself a lifelong learner. I see each age as the prime of my career, and each experience as reaching a peak, then striving for another peak that will move me into another prime experience and age. I am only happy when I am learning, and I learn from my teaching and training and facilitating and moderating.

I like to think this is something many of us share, because what I love most about our industry is that we connect people and connect ideas. As a little girl, I always believed that if only I could talk to Nikita Khrushchev - who at the time was premier of the Soviet Union - I could help him see that peace was the answer. He looked like my maternal grandfather, who was also Russian, and I've always believed in the power of conversation and connections. Meetings and our industry facilitate that. They bring people together to share ideas and then go on their way to do more. To be part of that is an honor.

That said, our industry has evolved at a snail's pace. We've adopted technology later than many, and indeed are still in the infancy stage of using many high-tech applications. Our events look the same as they always have - the room sets, the design, the format, and flow. Our learners are not as engaged as they could be - or at all - at some meetings.

PCMA is making strides and trying to move things along. Will we evolve faster now than we have in the past? I'm not sure, but I intend to stick around to help make it happen.

2- SUPPLIER PARTNER HONOREE
Charles Ahlers
President
Anaheim/Orange County Visitor & Convention Bureau

Receiving an award for lifetime achievement in your profession is very exciting. More than that, it's very thought-provoking. It makes you pause to understand why it is you are where you are and what helped you get there. Obviously, PCMA is the platform, the accelerator. But, in the end, a lifetime achievement award is recognition for the people around you, the people you've been exposed to and who mentored you. You can't do it yourself - something like this takes a lot of help and a lot of hard work, and not just on your part.

Indeed, the relationships I've built during my 30-some years in the industry are what I treasure most. Throughout my career, I've visited many different places and been exposed to many different things. Which is wonderful - but it's the people I've met along the way who have made the experience truly worthwhile. They're dedicated and hardworking, and they understand the common good. They understand that we're sustaining not just an industry but a culture.

Our culture has many different facets - the way we communicate, the way we get things done, the standards to which we adhere - but at bottom, our goal as a CVB is the same as that of our partners: We're all looking for excellence. We're all looking for a great experience, and the chance to repeat that experience, again and again. There are myriad people in our industry working to make things happen in a positive way so other people can benefit and learn. Because what we do really comes down to education, whether it's an annual meeting, a recertification program, a trade show, or a Webinar.

I'm often asked how the industry has changed since I first became involved in it. More and more, I realize that while things have evolved, they haven't changed all that much. The way we do business has gotten more sophisticated and concerned with legal issues, but we're still looking for the same kinds of outcomes and working with the same kinds of ingredients. And that's a lifetime achievement of which we all can be proud.

3- MEETING PROFESSIONAL HONOREE
Debra Rosencrance, CMP, CAE
Vice President, Meetings and Exhibits
American Academy of Ophthalmology

I remember going to my first PCMA Education Foundation dinner in 1997. I sat in the back, wondering what it would be like to be recognized in such a prominent way by your peers. I even fantasized a bit about being up there one day myself. But when PCMA called last October to say that I was nominated, I was surprised, because I've never really thought of myself as an industry leader.

In many ways I feel like I've received much more than I've given. I have enjoyed my association with PCMA immensely. I'm not sure people realize how much you get back when you volunteer with this organization. I made wonderful friends while serving on PCMA committees and on the board of directors, but I also learned a lot - about leadership and strategic planning, and meeting planning, too. Those hallway or dinner conversations can prove to be invaluable. Receiving this award from PCMA was both a personal and professional highlight for me.

The meetings industry is a wonderful and unique industry. It's one in which relationships still matter. I think that the suppliers and planners who remember that will always be successful. Since I started, the biggest change I've seen has been the advent of electronic communications, especially the Internet. We used to push so much paper in planning our meeting - making notebooks of abstract submissions to send to committee members, hiring temporary staff to process registration forms, and so on. Now all of our program submissions and grading is done online; 80 percent of our meeting registration is done online as well. We post handouts, videos, and electronic posters online after the meeting, thus extending the educational content to those who couldn't come.

I believe that this trend will only continue. More and more of our meetings will happen online, with truly virtual trade shows and conferences. However, I don't think that these virtual events will ever replace face-to-face meetings. As more and more people have less and less human contact, they will want - and, in some respects, need - to come together somewhere at least once a year to see their colleagues and friends. Besides, you might be able to learn the latest information or see a new product online, but it's really hard to share a good glass of wine with someone in a virtual environment!