PlanSoft Corp. and seeUthere Technologies, two of the biggest meeting supplier marketing and corporate spend management solutions for meetings and events, today announced the merger of the two companies to create OnVantage, Inc. According to a press release, slightly edited to reduce the hyperbole:

OnVantage consolidates the buying power of thousands of corporations and associations. Each buyer will have access to a network of over 40,000 hotel properties and 30,000 meeting suppliers in North America, Europe, and Asia. The combination creates a new marketplace - the OnVantage Marketplace for Meetings(tm).

Click here for more on OnVantage.

This is relatively huge news. I’ll be curious to see how it all shakes out, but combining these two should result in a powerful new resource.

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Last month, we blogged about how the Middle East is gearing up for meetings.

Here’s an update:

In tandem with other emirates such as Ras Al Khaimah and Fujairah, where new resorts are also under construction, Abu Dhabi is to expand its resort options with a new boutique hotel at Al Raha, several international hotel resorts opening on the marina corniche and a flagship development at Jebel Dhanna, 240km west of the capital…As well as extensive banqueting, meeting rooms and outside areas catering for up to 1,000 guests, Jebel Dhanna also features a par-36 nine hole sand golf course and a driving range, plus a host of sports, leisure and restaurant facilities.

Sounds like a pretty good incentive destination to me. But will U.S. attendees want to go Middle Eastern? Or would they rather go to Orlando, Fla., where tourism is rebounding to a forecasted 48 million visitors this year, a 6.7 percent increase over last year?

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I just stumbled across this great compilation of hospitality law-related checklists on hospitalitylawyer.com. Definitely a must-bookmark site for those times when you need anything from a release form for references to a doggie bag disclaimer.

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This AP article outlines the latest news: “A cosmetics company CEO has sued Southwest Airlines, alleging that she was unfairly subjected to its policy of requiring large passengers to buy two seats because she is black.” According to the lawsuit, “”a disproportionate number of women and persons of color are subjects of Southwest’s policy requiring a passenger to purchase a second ticket.”

The airline, of course, disagrees. One can only hope that this is not the case.

The CEO was, of course, on her way to a conference—here’s hoping your attendees don’t have similar stories to tell.

More airline news: “Originally the job of airline carriers, now the government will check the names of airline passengers against terrorism watch lists.”

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If you don’t, this could happen to you: A teachers’ back-to-school motivational video somehow got a pornographic image inserted into it. I’m sure some student somewhere is snickering, but what an embarrassment to the Hempfield Area School District.

And illicit pictures are just one of the many things to worry about–another scary story from Canada:

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In a move that should make life easier for its customers, Dolce International Conference & Resort Destinations has powered up a new 24-hour call center for planners, using StarCite’s RapidRFP lead management technology to help call center employees to build and send meeting requirements to Dolce’s global sales.

Planners can call (800) 57-DOLCE to get answers to questions about capacities, request brochures, or detail their meeting needs over the phone. According to a press release, “Dolce has promoted the Meetings Desk in a marketing campaign that offers incentives to book business meetings of 50 or more room nights in September-December at any center.”

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When I first heard Hooters was starting up an airline, I thought it was a joke. But it wasn’t. And now, it looks like they’re putting new meaning into Vegas’ “Strip” by adding a casino hotel to their growing product line.

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Here’s an idea that has meetings written all over it: dodgeball, a new wireless phone service that connect you with friends—and friends of friends—in your vicinity. Oh goodie, another new form of social networking you can use to hook up attendees who all went to the same session, have the same interests, or want to learn about a particular topic. Very cool.

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It looks like every profession has them. My favorite two from this article:

Attorney

Do whatever it takes to fit your contracts onto a single page: Format with single-spacing, use a 10- or 9-point font, and reduce the margins to less than an inch. Most people assume any contract that fits on one page will be simple and straightforward, and even sophisticated negotiators can be charmed by the lack of a staple.

Nurse
Patients will occasionally pretend to be unconscious. A surefire way to find them out is to pick up their hand, hold it above their face, and let go. If they smack themselves, they’re most likely unconscious; if not, they’re faking.

What are the tricks of the meetings and hospitality trade?

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Portable travel flower vases–what an interesting idea! Might make a nice pillow gift for those VIPs who spend too much time on the road and would like a little human touch in their hotel rooms.

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