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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