Happy Holidays from ConferenceDirect

Our good wishes for health and prosperity in the coming year.

A Time to Give

President's Message

By Brian Stevens

These days, if you're like me, you either don't open your 401K or you cringe when you do. As a nation, we're hopeful the new administration will guide us to a stronger economic footing. Against this backdrop of 'no good news' and as counter-intuitive as it seems – this might be the year that charitable giving is more important than ever before.

Soon we will look back on 2008, with its numerous bankruptcies and unemployment and ultimately more homeless and hungry people than ever in our lifetime. I'm sure that when all of our investments are poised at half or three-quarters of their prior value, it sounds strange that I'm making a case for giving more money to nonprofit organizations, but that's exactly what I'm going to suggest.

Father Joe Carroll, president of the St. Vincent de Paul Villages tells me that homelessness and hunger is up more than 20% this year versus last. I've always been impressed that in Father Joe's hands, $100 will feed 200 people because of the efficiencies he achieves.

I'm pleased to tell you that in the spirit of this kind and caring season, and in honor of our customers, ConferenceDirect will donate $50,000 to the St. Vincent de Paul Village. It's our way of taking the edge off the twin problems of homelessness and hunger here in California. (www.svdpv.org)

Will you join me in that spirit of giving?

The holidays are a time to exchange gifts, though the real gift is the blessing of time spent with family and loved ones. We all have so much for which to be thankful, perhaps we can do without another material item or two. This year, what about downsizing your holiday exchange in order to be able to help someone or something who needs your help? Elsewhere in this edition, see the article on "Wise Giving" which offers suggestions on how to find top-rated organizations for your charitable donations. It's a place to start if you want to do something and aren't sure where to begin.

On behalf of our ConferenceDirect family, we wish you a bright and beautiful holiday season and a peaceful and prosperous new year.

Gaining the Preparedness Perspective

By Nelson Fabian

Your meeting begins in a week. Suddenly you're hearing about a giant snowstorm or the terrorism alert level moves from yellow to orange or there's an outbreak of a food-borne illness in your event hotel. What's a planner to do?

Fortunately, you're not worried because, as a savvy meeting professional, you knew a cardinal rule of emergency preparedness – that preparing for emergencies begins long before a meeting ever takes place, and you've developed a 'preparedness perspective' to be able to deal with things we all hope won't happen.

Step one begins when you start your career as a meeting planner. Your learning curve includes understanding how to handle emergency situations. At conferences, all sorts of unexpected things happen – medical emergencies, significant weather, labor conflict – and so on. How will you handle them? Which of these emergencies needs a response protocol from your organization? Your planning also includes knowing how the hotel will respond and how you'll interface on major problem issues.

Step two involves the meeting contract. Standard contracts include a boilerplate force majeure clause that vaguely speaks to "Acts of God". You'll want to call out what an Act of God includes – such as a massive snowstorm or citywide flooding. However, "Acts of God" aren't the only emergencies that could put a crimp in your conference. If the terrorism alert gets raised, it may cause attendees to cancel their flights, thereby making your organization vulnerable to consequential attrition penalties. For your organization's protection, add wording to the contract that relieves your organization of attrition penalties should the government's terrorism alert be raised or the World Health Organization (WHO) or Centers for Disease Control (CDC) issue a health threat warning.

Step three – at the conference itself – the staff should all have each other's cell phone numbers and be able to reach attendees quickly. This facilitates coordinated responses and accurate information-sharing. Response plans should exist for everything from an attendee heart attack to something as location-encompassing as a fire or power disruption. Plans and responses should be practiced and understood long before the meeting begins. Having plans in place (which hopefully aren't needed) offers a level of protection both for conference attendees as well as the organization hosting the event.

There's no downside to being prepared, and a 'preparedness perspective' will help you navigate the small and large incidents that will come along in the course of your meetings and events career.

About the Author: Nelson Fabian is executive director of the National Environmental Health Association, (NEHA) and a frequent contributor to ConferenceDirect seminars and this e-newsletter. NEHA's website is www.neha.org

Wise Giving: 'tis the Season!

Thinking of making a holiday donation and wondering how your charitable dollars will be put to best use? Consider an impartial advisory entity like Charity Navigator (www.charitynavigator.org) which offers statistical analysis of most major nonprofit organizations' program to administrative cost ratios – letting you know which organizations are putting your donations to the most good helping others.

TWENTY QUESTIONS: How's Your Holiday Spirit?

Are you an expert on yuletide merriment and lore? ConferenceDirect seeks to identify the especially holiday spirited among its loyal e-newsletter readers. The first five readers to correctly answer all 20 questions will win a $20 Starbucks gift card, courtesy of ConferenceDirect. Tackle the tie-breakers for extra points – used in the case of a multiple tie. To enter, submit an email with your answers numbered 1-20 to editor@conferencedirect.com with your name and organization clearly noted in the email. (Sorry, ConferenceDirect associates and staff are not eligible to win.) Winners will be notified by email in mid-December and a list of winners will appear in the February, 2009 edition of IndustryInsights. Good luck and good cheer!

ConferenceDirect's Holiday Trivia Quiz, 2008

1. For how many nights is Chanukah, the Jewish festival of lights, celebrated?
2. What two words are normally pre-printed on holiday gift tags?
3. Who was the famous actor who starred as George Bailey in It's a Wonderful Life?
4. What carol contains the line "O tidings of comfort and joy"?
5. Name Santa's three reindeer whose names begin with a "D"?
6. In The Night Before Christmas, where were the stockings hung?
7. What one reindeer is not mentioned in The Night Before Christmas?
8. How many pipers piping did my true love give to me?
9. Statistically, what is the most popular tree topper?
10. During the holidays, you can kiss someone if they're standing under what?
11. What did the Little Drummer Boy give to the child?
12. In It's Beginning to Look A Lot like Christmas, where is the tree located?
13. What is the name of the African-themed harvest festival that takes place at this time of year?
14. What American company is historically known for seasonal ads featuring a big, smiling Santa?
15. Each holiday season, outside stores and markets, volunteers ring a bell and collect money in a special red kettle. What is the name of the charity behind that effort?
16. What is Scrooge's first name?
17. On what New York street did Santa's miracle occur?
18. What carol contains the word Fa-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la?
19. What holiday drink contains sugar, milk, vanilla, eggs, and sometimes rum?
20. What is the biggest selling Christmas song of all time? (Hint: As of 2007, it's the best selling music single of all time, too.)

TIE-BUSTERS – each worth two points; only scored to break multi-way tied scores.

1. According to the Bible, how many wise men came to see the baby Jesus?
2. In It's a Wonderful Life – what did Clarence get for accomplishing his mission?