Just think, one of these days you won’t have to spend all that cash flying in your keynoters first class—-according to this article from TRNmag.com, teleportation—-like Star Trek transporters—-may be closer to becoming a reality than you might think. It would quite literally turn the meetings world upside down, inside out, and sideways-—no more need for airlines, and people could teleport home each night instead of staying in a hotel. I can’t even imagine all the implications…but despite recent advances, it’s still pretty far down the road.

And I guess that acceptance, even once it’s perfected and found to be as safe as any other type of travel, would be a long time coming. Or maybe not. While the idea of destroying matter (your body!) to recreate it somewhere else has always given me the heebie-jeebies (remember that Star Trek episode where Kirk was split into two beings, one good and one evil?), I wouldn’t mind teleporting myself to Bora Bora once they get the kinks worked out.

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The confluence of reading this Washington Post article, Rich Westerfield’s post on the TSMI blog, and getting a press release from NYC & Company, New York’s CVB, that new legislation has been introduced to “expand [Jacob K. Javits Convention Center] and allow New York to win a greater share of the multi-billion dollar meetings and convention market” has got me thinking about size as it relates to trade shows, and convention centers.

The push in recent years on both ends is that bigger is better, and that if you don’t grow, you die. For example, the NYC press release says that

“The city is losing nearly $1 million every day in direct visitor spending because the Javits Center is not large enough or properly designed to accommodate the many trade shows, conventions and meetings that want to host events in our city. We cannot afford to delay any longer.”

According to its Web site, “projected data indicates that over 900,000 room nights for potential Javits attendees will have to be turned away over the next several years due to the lack of available exhibition space.” (The source of this data is NYC & Co., which would seem to have a vested interest in this legislation going through, being the CVB and all.)

To be fair, it also cites data from PriceWaterhouseCoopers that the expansion would bring $700 million more per year to the city—which I’m sure it could, if it sold out every day. I dunno, I’m sure far greater minds than mine have gone over the numbers and figured that the benefits outweigh the costs…but, as the Post article points out, with trade shows at best at a plateau phase, generally speaking, and so much competition from Chicago, New Orleans, Las Vegas, et al–not to mention all those other new and expanded facilities coming online–is it really worth the cost and disruption to meetings already on the books at this point in time?

I don’t want to pick on New York–this is going on everywhere. Even close to home: The exhibition business was pretty rosy when Boston committed to building its new center, but by the time the opening came around, they had to shift gears to deal with the new reality of trying to book several smaller shows instead of one giant event at a time. Maybe I’m taking Comdex going belly-up a little too seriously, but seems to me that there just aren’t enough monster shows to go around and fill all this new space.

For some reason, the new(ish) Denver airport just flashed into my mind–I lived in Boulder at the time when replacing the perfectly serviceable Stapleton with a smaller, further-from-the-city airport was a very hot topic of discussion. Pretty much everyone I knew thought that it not only was unnecessary, but actually was a big ole boondoggle aimed to boost the construction industry during a recession. All these new and expanding convention centers are a totally different thing, of course…

What do you think: Is bigger always better when it comes to convention centers in today’s economy and meeting market? Is the tradeshow market growing fast enough to fill all the new space as all these cities hope, or will these centers be dinosaurs before they’re even built? Are the days of the mega-trade shows over, with success going more toward smaller, more vertical shows? (Pick a question, any question, and tell me what you think. We are definitely living in interesting times.)

Humor.about.com strikes again. This afternoon’s choice is “Let them sing it for you.” Just type in your lyrics (I made up some really goofy ones) and the site finds snippets from real recording artists for each word. Hard to explain, but definitely good for a couple minutes’ break.

Whether you’re one of those people who have no fear of flying and feel safe from terrorism in the skies or are more a giant chicken like me, read this article from womenwallstreet.com. It made me think about what threats are real, what threats aren’t, and how on earth we can tell the difference.

At least now I know why flight attendants no longer will let you use any restroom but the one closest to your row.

From snopes.com as of 7/22: The people the author thought to be terrorists making a dry run were not

From Wednesday’s Salon.com: The Hysterical Skies

From Tuesday’s New York Times: What Really Happened on Flight 327?

From Saturday’s New York Times: Dress Code May Hinder Their Work, Air Marshals Say

Michele Wierzgac posted some interesting questions on the MIMlist listserv yesterday about what planners want in their own adult ed. Here’s what I’d like to see:

Sessions that explain specific adult education theories and research in depth, then show (not tell) how they can be applied to participants’ programs. Ideal would be if the facilitator contacted participants ahead of time to learn their specific challenges, tailored the session to theories/research that addressed those challenges, then had participants brainstorm in small groups on how to apply them, preferably with a knowledgeable facilitator in each small group to help them along who also would make him/herself available to that group after the session for additional coaching (or, more realistically, have the facilitator check in regularly with each small group at the session and afterward).

Then a followup community of interest, probably online, where people can share success stories, further challenges and roadblocks, strategies, etc.

That would be way cool. Expensive, but the learning experience would be phenomenal.

What would float your boat, education-wise?

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