Facing labor strikes and the potential for more in the near future if the unions get the two-year contract they’re asking for, San Francisco’s hospitality community is worried about future effects. The union says a two-year contract will put San Francisco workers on the same schedule as members in other major cities, making it easier to negotiate on a national level with the chains that employ their bartenders and bellmen. The other side of the story:

Steven Hacker, spokesman for the International Association for Exhibition Management, said if Local 2 UNITE HERE prevails in winning a two-year contract, meeting planners could avoid The City in 2006, scared away by the prospect of another strike. Hacker said meeting planners couldn’t afford to take any chances.

“If they sustain one bad year because an event was disrupted and people didn’t attend, it could be catastrophic,” he said.

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I got an interesting note from a friend recently who was musing over what may turn into a trend for industry attorneys: Combining law degrees with the CMP certification. She now knows of five people who are either CMP-bearing planners going into the law, or lawyers who want to learn more about the meetings industry and have pursued the CMP designation.

I know, five people does not a trend make, but I thought it was interesting, and, as my friend noted, a commentary on the meetings industry–that we need more lawyers who understand the business.

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If you’re thinking about going back to school to enhance your career potential, this site lists links to 120 colleges that offer hospitality-related curricula.

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Great news for two of the industry’s great women, from the New Orleans Metropolitan Convention and Visitors Bureau. From the press release:

Effective November 1st, 2004, Executive Vice President Kathleen “Kitty” Ratcliffe will lead convention sales and Donna Karl, CMP, vice president of client relations, will steer meeting planner service.

Both convention and hospitality industry professionals were hired to reinforce NOMCVB’s focus on expanding and increasing city-wide association convention sales and growing short-term meeting bookings. Kitty Ratcliffe brings to the role of executive vice president one of the highest sales executive profiles in the industry, nationally. The role of NOMCVB Vice President of Client Relations filled by Donna Karl is the first of its kind for any CVB in the nation and serves to optimize the customer service experience for meeting planners and their organizations.

It’s good to see two women land in VP jobs at a CVB, especially at a top-tier city like New Orleans. For a historical look at this trend, see this article from 1996 in Association Meetings. For a more recent look at gender issues for association planners, check out this article from AM last year.

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From a Convention Industry Council press release:

At its 2004 annual meeting the Convention
Industry Council (CIC) unanimously approved accepted practices from the
APEX (Accepted Practices Exchange) initiative‚s Resumes & Work Orders
Panel, making this the third series of practices to be established by the
initiative. Accepted practices have also been approved in the areas of
terminology and history/post-event reporting.