Michele Wierzgak posted this quote on the MIMlist today. It’s so apropos, given all the rhetoric about whether or not the U.S. is doing enough to help those devastated by the tsunamis in South Asia, that I wanted to repeat it here:

People are often unreasonable and self-centered - forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of ulterior motives - be kind anyway.
If you are honest, people may cheat you - be honest anyway.
If you find happiness, people may be jealous - be happy anyway.
The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow - do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough - give your
best anyway.
For you see, in the end, it is between you and God - it never was between
you and them anyway. ~ Mother Teresa

Yesterday, I wondered what, if any, plan PCMA had in place for tsunami-related contingency planning. Today, I find out kudos are in order. A big fat contingency plan is plastered right on its Web site. Good job, PCMA.

A couple of useful articles on who, when, and how much to tip:

Service NOT Included

Tipping Guidelines

K-E-Y–why? Because they like you! Yup, Disney World just started a new service that’ll pick up your luggage at the Orlando airport for you, eliminating those long waits at the luggage carousels.

Starting in May, the resort will begin offering a service that lets visitors on domestic flights, staying at Disney hotels, check their luggage at their hometown airports and bypass waiting at the luggage carousel at Orlando International Airport, company officials said Tuesday…The service will be complimentary during the 18 months of Disney’s “Happiest Celebration on Earth,” which commemorates the 50th anniversary of the opening of Disneyland, the company’s first theme park. Details, such as cost, haven’t been worked out for the service beyond the celebration.

(Via the MIMlist listserv)

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At least, I certainly hope every meeting planner and hotelier who reads this blog has already put a risk management plan in place. It’s shocking to me how many did not, even after 9/11, push safety, security, and contingency planning to the top of their to-do list. While there probably weren’t many meetings or incentives in the path of the Dec. 26 tsunamis, don’t forget that these are not uncommon elsewhere–like in Hawaii and California, two of the hottest U.S. meetings destinations.

Please, put a plan in place. Do it now. Whether it’s tsunamis or terrorists or a blackout, s***t does happen. Regularly. Here are a few resources that can help:

MeetingsNet’s Risk Management site

Meetings, War, and SARS

Meetings and 9/11

P.S. Anyone know what tsunami-related risk management plans PCMA has in place for its upcoming event in Hawaii? Enquiring minds would like to know.

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Looks like blogger Benjamin Rosenbaum has pulled together ratings for tsunami relief organizations. So if you want to make sure your donations will be put to good use, this should prove to be a good resource. As he says, give wisely, generously, and soon.

Looks like blogger Benjamin Rosenbaum has pulled together ratings for tsunami relief organizations. So if you want to make sure your donations will be put to good use, this should prove to be a good resource. As he says, give wisely, generously, and soon.

Big news! Roger Dow, who I had thought would be a lifer at Marriott, just took over as the Travel Industry Association of America as the new president and CEO. From the press release:

The Board of Directors of the Travel Industry Association of America (TIA) appointed Roger J. Dow, senior vice president Global and Field Sales for Marriott International, Inc. as TIA’s new president and CEO at their 30th annual Marketing Outlook Forum in Arizona. Dow, an industry veteran for more than three decades, will assume the top leadership position at TIA on January 1, 2005. William S. Norman, TIA president and CEO since 1995 announced his retirement effective the end of the year.

Congratulations to Dow and TIA! Here’s hoping that it turns out to be a long and productive partnership.

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A while ago, I was daunted by the prospect of trying to provide security for the presidential inauguration. Then I ran across this article from the Washington Post about what planners at the Ritz-Carltons in D.C. are putting together for events in their hotels.

Ten high-level company executives hunkered in a subterranean meeting room one recent afternoon, a flip chart at hand and objects of the discussion laid out on the glossy finish of the oval conference table. Their focus on details in this critical campaign session evoked the celebrated attention of Karl Rove.

Key agenda items: white chocolate cowboy boots, yellow roses, and red, white and blue cocktails with a special “handmade” Texas vodka. The hats the staff would wear. In every room, a half-filled vase of water so guests would have somewhere to place their yellow roses without having to think about it.

Not surprisingly, these guys are going all out to make sure both their inauguration-related visitors and their other guests understand the true meaning of “putting on the Ritz”!

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Travel & Leisure magazine has released its picks for the best hotels this year. A few of the winners:

Best in the Eastern United States: is Blackberry Farm, Walland, Tenn.

Best country hotel in the Western U.S.: the Post Ranch Inn, Big Sur, Calif.

Best in Canada: the Wickaninnish Inn, Vancouver

Best in England: the Buckland Manor Country House Hotel, Gloucestershire

The least expensive hotel on the list of 500 was the Beau Rivage Resort & Casino, in Biloxi, Miss., where a mere $139 US gets you about 40 square metres and a marble soaking tub.

Personally, my faves are the Grove Park Inn in Asheville, N.C., The Fairmont Banff Springs in the Canadian Rockies, The Bora Bora Lagoon Resort, Bora Bora, French Polynesia, and a little bitty place right on the Twin Lakes east of Independence Pass in Colorado. I don’t know if it’s still there, but it was a former stagecoach stop/bordello, and had feather beds and the nicest owners I’ve ever met. Plus great food. I had some great times there back when I lived in Boulder.

Anyway, what’s your favorite hotel of all time?

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Incentives are coming back. But they may look a little different this time around:

the industry, battered by the post-9/11 resistance to air travel and the concurrent souring of the economy, has been excruciatingly slow to come back, in part because some companies view such programs as optional expenditures in tough times.

“Gone are the rah-rah days, the endless sources of cash,” said Bennett Ockrim, a vice president with Hitachi Consulting who has spent the past 20 years in management posts with a number of high-tech firms.

What’s emerging in this modest, tentative revival is an industry much changed, and chastened, since the red-hot days of the late ’90s.

While you’re at it, it might be a good idea to reward more than just your top salespeople. They may look like the money people, but without those who make the products and keep the company running, they’d have nothing to sell. Sorry, that’s a pet peeve of mine.

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