Jerry Colonna hits the nail on the head with his Diversity Rules manifesto on changethis.com. Diversity goes beyond race, religion, age, and ethnicity—it also means a diversity of personality types and styles.

It’s all too common for managers to hire people who are “like them,” and to encourage certain types of thinking while discouraging those who think differently to, well, think differently. Sure, it’s more comfortable when everyone’s on the same page, but you lose the benefit of hearing another point of view—especially important for those in the meetings and hospitality business, whose clients can, and often are, Martians to your organization’s Venusians.

And it’s a great reminder to look behind the behaviors of coworkers, clients, attendees, and others we deal with in the workplace and without to see what the real story is—and we each do have a story worth hearing that goes far beyond our workplace roles.

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

Thanks to the Experiential Marketing Forum listserv, I recently read about how Tylenol is doing some very low-key sponsorships at extreme sporting events to market to the 18- to 35-year-old demographic. The scary thing is, according to the article, that “pain is cool” to the body-piercing, tattooed younger crowd, so Tylenol is trying a “cooler” approach by supporting events that cause pain.

OK, this one hurts my brain (Tylenol, anyone?), but this is a good indication that sponsors and exhibitors are willing to, as Apple once said, “Think Different” to target this age group by giving money to event organizers to almost sneak their way into youth consciousness.

Are any of your event sponsors looking to boost themselves with this (or any other) demographic? I’d love to hear about any other ways companies are using events—and giving them financial support—to get innovative in their marketing.

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

Unite Here, a 440,000-member labor union that includes hotel employees, has released the first edition of itsHotel Labor Advisor Newsletter for Meeting Planners. When I talked with Jason Ortiz, the union’s spokesperson, last week, he said that with citywide contracts between hotel employees and employers already expired in San Francisco and Los Angeles, and an impending expiration in Washington, D.C., planners need to stay in the know with what’s going on with labor at their meeting properties.

In a pretty slick move, Unite Here also managed to get the newsletter distributed to all MPI meeting planners in the US and Canada. According to the press release:

“We find that when planners are given accurate, timely and useful information during contract expirations it helps them make informed decisions to protect their interests,” said Jason Ortiz, Research Analyst with UNITE HERE. “In the event of a labor dispute, we want to ensure planners know exactly what’s going on, and know exactly what their rights and options are.”

Regardless of whether their unspoken intention is to have planners turn up the heat on hotels that aren’t playing ball with the union (what can I say, I’m a little cynical–Jason says it’s purely to inform people of what’s going on), the first issue of the newsletter I saw was pretty darn handy, including city-by-city updates, a bit on force majeure language, and model language, drafted by the union’s general counsel, that it says “would fully protect planners from a potential labor dispute.”

And if you have something coming up in San Francisco, this article on the labor situation there is a must-read.

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

Hard to believe, but a backpack containing cosmetics was mistaken by bomb-sniffing dogs as potentially being explosives, shutting down Ontario, Calif.’s airport last week. Earlier, imported Indian pickles also were mistaken as a threat.

Then a flashlight battery explosion shut down LAX on Saturday.

Is this just a California thing, or is airport security everywhere seeming a little nuts lately?

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

A really good behind-the-scenes look at what went into the security efforts at the Democratic National Convention in Boston from a CSO magazine reporter who tailed along with the security chief.

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