This site promises to be a very cool tool for planners who coordinate conference calls and videoconferences–it gives you the time, down to the second, of the various locations you plug in. Thanks to Anne Taylor-Vaisey for the pointer!

Too bad there isn’t a site to help synchronize peoples’ brains with the information, isn’t it? Maybe then people would pay attention instead of reading e-mail, surfing the Internets, or shopping on eBay.

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As CMI’s editor, Barbara Scofidio, points out in this issue’s editorial, incentive attendees may love the idea of exotic foreign lands, but don’t forget about the attendant risks of the destination.

That struck me, then struck me harder after I read this article, which says a Phoenix-based nurse who is also vice president of communications for Ottawa University picked up a parasite that gave her diarrhea for a year and a half. The doctors think she picked it up in business meetings that included food like shark-fin soup. Some of the other examples are even worse, like the guy who picked up a parasite in Mexico that ended up causing hallucinations that caused him to kill himself.

If you don’t include a health-related waiver (in addition to those for any potentially dangerous activities) in your materials for international attendees, after reading these things, I’d be calling the lawyer. Today.

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Did you know that the State Department can help with the visa issues so many international participants are having when they try to come to U.S.-based meetings? To find out how, check out this article, titled, State Department Helps Planners, from Medical Meetings. Especially useful is the information at the end, available on in the online edition, which tells you exactly what you can do, and where you need to go to do it.

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Waikiki Beach Marriott Resort and Spa just became the seventh hotel in Hawaii to get the Energy Star seal of approval, moving its rank in the nationwide list of top 25 percent of environmentally efficient buildings.

OK, so that’s good news for environmentally conscious planners, but was it worth the portion of the $60 million Marriott International spent on the property since it bought the hotel five years ago? According to a press release:

After the Waikiki Beach Marriott Resort and Spa invested over a million dollars in four new chillers and energy efficient lighting fixtures throughout the resort, the resort recorded an annual savings of $350,000 in energy operating costs and reaped more than $150,000 in rebates from the Hawaiian Electric Company.

I’d say that’s a pretty positive endorsement for doing the right thing, wouldn’t you?

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