Just as medical professionals recommend a yearly health exam, Convene has taken the pulse of the industry each year for the past 17 years. This month we're proud to bring you the results of our latest survey. By surveying Convene's meeting professional readers about their events, budgets, staff, and more, we're essentially providing the industry's vital signs on your behalf.

The news this year is fairly positive, though there are certainly challenges to address. You told us that you are hosting fewer meetings, but overall attendance is up. You're organizing fewer events with exhibitors, but overall exhibitor levels are up. Smaller meetings are up, and room pick-up is healthy.

When asked to answer an open-ended question on the No.1 issue affecting the industry, many respondents focused on the issue of rising costs. I also noted that customer-supplier relationships continue to be a source of frustration. Some respondents lamented the shortsighted attention (as in prior to booking) they sometimes receive from certain suppliers.

At PCMA, we try to avoid traditional barriers to forging strong and lasting customer-supplier relationships. That's why we don't have a trade show at our annual meeting. Instead, we aim to bring everyone in the industry together in an integrated community, where we can learn from each other in education sessions and get to know each other in a collegial atmosphere. We will continue to try to find ways to bring both sides together - or at least to build a better understanding of everyone's challenges.

Another top respondent concern this year was greenwashing (see more about this on p. 26). As meeting professionals look to make their meetings more environmentally responsible, they're having trouble cutting through the clutter of green messages to get to the core of what can be done and who can help them do it. I'm hopeful that as time goes on, more standards will be developed for speaking the green language. For now, I encourage you to visit the new Meetings Management Resources section at www.pcma.org for information on greening your meeting.

The meetings industry is in a healthy place, though we all need to roll up our sleeves to tackle some pressing challenges. I encourage you to read over the entire meetings market report, starting on p. 31. While you have those sleeves up, use the report to check the pulse of your organization and your meetings against those of your colleagues throughout North America.