If your event has a decade theme—the sixties, the roaring 20s, etc.—crazyfads.com can help connect you to what was hot at that point in time. It’s scary how well I remember some of the fads from early on in my life, especially my teenage years when fads were, like, so important. Everyone thinks of Saturday Night Fever and leisure suits when it comes to the seventies, but that decade also brought us Gee Your Hair Smells Terrific (check, had that), Earth shoes (loved those!), and string art (tried it and gave it up—too frustrating. Went back to macrame, which strangely doesn’t make the list for the sixties or the seventies).

Anyway, there’s lots there to spark some creative decade-based theme ideas. Thanks again to UNLV professor Patti Shock, who it appears is a fount of information when it comes to this kind of thing.

Don’t let their looks fool you: These are no ordinary sushi. That tuna? It’s really a strawberry-flavored chocolate with a milk chocolate hazelnut center and a touch of green tea “wasabi” on a rice cookie. That’s right, these are all desserts—now that’s my kind of sushi! Check out the full menu at Suedy’s Koo-ki Sushi. Talk about a unique giftie for the right VIP.

(Thanks to UNLV hospitality and tourism professor Patti Shock for the pointer.)

I’m sure you’ve seen Bjorn Hanson quoted numerous times in the meeting industry magazines—I know I’ve interviewed him a lot, and he always comes up with a great quote or two. Anyway, according to this article, Bjorn’s moving into more of a research role with PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, and Scott Berman is taking over as advisory practice leader of the firm’s US hospitality and leisure group. Good luck and congratulations to both.

That’s what this article on hotel-online predicts. With Westin’s much-heralded announcement yesterday, nonsmokers of the world rejoiced. But for meeting planners whose attendees include a large contingent of smokers (granted, a circumstance that gets rarer all the time) and for those who plan international meetings, I can’t help but wonder if this would entail excluding Westin and others that may follow suit from consideration. I know that the restaurant bans haven’t turned out to have hurt them much, and smoker attendees are pretty used to going outside at convention centers in the U.S. But this seems a little different to me.