I was in the middle of editing something I wrote when someone (thanks Larc!) sent me this YouTube clip of Hugh Laurie as Shakespeare undergoing the indignity of a Hamlet rewrite.

I don’t know if this is just hilarious to English majors, but I actually did ROTFL at this one.

Two posts you must read if you care at all about measuring the value of your event:

How Do You Feel About Me? by Judith Lindenau. One quick snip (and thanks to Kevin for the pointer):

The important questions have to do with this question: how applicable was the information you heard to what you do in your job? Or (asked at a later date) “what percentage of the information you gained do you remember? What information from the presentation are you using today?” Certainly retention of information and practical application of methods are important goals for our training efforts. And if we are gauging effectiveness based on those values, conveying those value measurements in advance to course writers and presenters will take your program a long way to success.

The other is the Future of Learning: Get Serious,, in which Lisa Junker at the Acronym blog interviews Jeffrey Cufaude. Along with other topics, he talks about evaluations and how we’re basically still stuck at the smiley-face stage. His last line is really staying with me:

My bottom-line takeaway from that is we’re not serious about learning. We’re serious about delivering information, and that’s not sustainable 10 to 20 years from now.

I didn’t attend the press conference, but this is big news. From the release:

The Boards of the Professional Convention Management Association (PCMA) and the Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE) announced plans to develop a progressive and innovative Strategic Alliance. This Alliance will uniquely leverage the strengths of both organizations to benefit their respective memberships while expanding their global brands and enhancing services.

My colleague who attended the press conference said that they stressed this wasn’t in reaction to talks about a potential merger between ACTE and NBTA, and will entail co-location of their conferences. But they do stay two separate entities.

The press release doesn’t say much, other than tossing around a lot of “synergies,” “economies of scale,” “leveraging strengths,” and “best practices,” but I do see how the two communities could work well together. Be curious how this is received by their respective members.

This article is for you: Struggling airlines launch more ‘a la carte’ fees at fliers. Of particular interest is this chart of common airline fees, like for particular seat assignments and booking over the phone.

How hard is it to sort through it all to figure out exactly what a flight will cost? As the writer points out: “It took a week for a USA TODAY reporter — who, unlike most consumers, was assisted by airline public relations staff — to compile 28 different types of fees charged by 14 major airlines.”

I was just reading a writeup of the recent Krisam Insurance Advisory Board meeting, and came across this:

A key problem is how to contract future meetings based on today’s lower attendee numbers while still allowing for a jump to higher attendance in the future. The solution: a two-part contract. The first part reflects a room block and function space based on current numbers. A second, a “first-option contract,” holds additional rooms and space based on past attendance. There are agreed-upon review dates and the planner has first right of refusal on the “soft” block if the hotel gets another offer for the space.

This is so brilliant! I’d be curious to know how amenable to this hotels are, and if planners outside the insurance and financial industry are having success with this type of contract. Sounds like the proverbial double-win to me.

When the Treasury Department released its new executive compensation rules, I’m sure corporate meeting professionals everywhere joined Krys Slovacek in breathing a small sigh of relief when they found out that, while it requires companies receiving Troubled Asset Relief Program funds to develop a company-wide policy for meetings, events, and other corporate travel expenses, it leaves it up to a company’s board of directors to decide what’s frivolous and what’s not (i.e., one would hope, meetings).

But is it too little, too late, as Krys worries? As she says, “The public has been led to believe (by the media and politicians alike) that meetings are frivolous, evil things. And those who attend meetings are frivolous, evil people, wasting TARP funds.” Which as we all know is not the case.

I know the folks at Meetings Mean Business have been fighting the good fight on this one, but I’m with Krys in my concern that the damage has already been done. Or maybe the pendulum, having hit the wall on the one side, will now start slowly swinging back towards meetings as being the vital business tool we all know them to be?

Here’s a handy on-flight entertainment chart for frequent fliers, brought to you by Jaunted. Thanks for doing the research for us (and thanks to Hotel Chatter for the pointer)!

If you’re an association exec interested in how to use social media well and wisely, check out this event: Buzz 2009 Social Media for Associations , coming to Washington, D.C., on Thursday, July 9. Check out the lineup of presenters, which includes word-of-mouth marketing genius Andy Sernovitz and all-around genius Guy Kawasaki, who I may have mentioned once or twice on this blog.

I wish I could make it. If you go, let me know if it ends up being as good as it sounds.

Thanks to Acronym for these great meetings-related posts:

The Future of Learning: Experience It, by Lisa Junker

The Future of Learning: Unlearning, by Lisa Junker (both of these are based on her interviews with Rhea Blanken of Results Technology, who Lisa calls “a passionate advocate for learning in general and new learning formats in particular”–my kind of person!)

Whether you’re hit with the layoff stick during this tough economy or just looking to strengthen your position with your organization, we’ve got a webinar coming this afternoon you might want to check out. Here’s some info:

What: “Demonstrating Leadership During Turbulent Times,” a lively discussion about how to advance one’s career during good times and bad.

Who: It’ll be led by meetings industry veterans Louisa Davis, CMP, CMM, MBA, senior project manager, Prime Strategies; Marlene Blas, MTA, associate director, meetings and events, California Western School of Law; Karen Kotowski, CMP, CAE, and COO, Convention Industry Council; and moderated by my colleague Barbara Scofidio, editor, Corporate Meetings & Incentives.

When: Today at 2 p.m. EDT

Cost: FREE!!!

Brought to you by: MeetingsNet and the Convention Industry Council, and sponsored by the German Convention Bureau.

Extra benefit: Earn one Certified Meeting Professional contact hour when attending for the full hour.

Register here.

If you can’t make the live webinar, it’ll be archived for later viewing, but it’s always better to check it out in real time. And did I mention that it’s free?