A friend recently sent me a link to this site on Buddhism. Being the bizarre person that I am, I found not only lots of food for thought, but a quote every meeting planner should take to heart when designing an educational program: “True wisdom is not simply believing what we are told but instead experiencing and understanding truth and reality.”

I know, not every program is intended to help people develop true wisdom, but wouldn’t it be great if that were the case?

Happy Friday!

A sneak preview from the June issue of CMI (which will be online in a couple of weeks): Sen. John F. Kerry, D-Mass., the presumptive Democratic candidate for president, prefers Comfort Inns, Holiday Inns, and the Hotel Fort Des Moines when criss-crossing the country on campaign stops. President George W. Bush likes Marriott and Hilton hotels when he’s on the stump, according to fundrace.org, a site that tracks money spent by the candidates in a variety of areas, including hotels and airfare.

And both candidates are true red, white, and blue in their choice of air carrier: Bush spends the most money on United tickets, Kerry on those from American Airlines.

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That’s when the Metro Detroit’s third annual Religious
Meeting Planners Forum is scheduled at the Sheraton Detroit Novi hotel. The planners will get to mix and mingle with representatives from metro Detroit hotels, restaurants, attractions and other hospitality industry providers in a tradeshow format. Then it’s off to lunch and a presentation on how to save money by using services from the DMCVB, then training sessions follow the tradeshow.

If you want to register, go to www.visitdetroit.com/meetingplanners.

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Thanks to the good folks on the MIMlist listserve for reminding me that there truly is an association for just about everything imaginable, such as:
Association for Dressings and Sauces
Flying Funeral Directors of America
The Institute of Makers of Explosives
The Academy of Accounting Historians
The National Association of Chewing Gum Manufacturers

If you haven’t been able to find the right association to fit your very narrow niche of interests (the Society for Ladies Who Crochet Booties for Six-toed Alligators, perhaps?), keep looking in databases like this one from ASAE or the really extensive one at the Internet Public Library site.

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According to this article, the news from the American Hotel & Lodging Association recently was, basically, let the good times roll for hoteliers.

For example, Mark Lomanno, president of Smith Travel Research said, “The demand side of lodging is coming back and it is coming back quickly.” For example, March 2004’s occupancy rate of 69.8 percent is even higher than its June 1996 peak of 64.9 percent.

Bjorn Hanson, group industry leader, hospitality and leisure practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers International Ltd., is reported in the article as saying that “average daily rooms sold is expected to grow 4.6% this year and then 2.3% in 2005; end-of-year room supply is expected to be up 1.4% this year and 1.6% in 2005; occupancy for 2004 should come in at 61.2% and rise to 61.7% next year; average daily rate is projected to increase 1.9% this year and then jump another 3% in 2005; and RevPAR is expected to rise 5.2% in 2004 and 3.9% in 2004.”

To receive a weekly blog update, e-mail Sue.