Well, sailing actually. I’m shaking off my shackles and heading to the Grenadines with my significant other for a bareboat sail from Monday, the 9th, until January 20. So, I’ll be far, far from my computer (no, I’m not bringing a laptop, or a BlackBerry, or any of that. It’s a vacation). But I have advanced posted some stuff I hope you find interesting. I did talk one of my very busy colleagues into moderating comments while I’m gone, but it might take a little while for yours to show up. My apologies in advance if that happens.

So, see you in a couple of weeks.

I know, I’m really late posting about this, but ASAE’s Great Ideas Conference in December 2005 had some really, well, great ideas. Like the Creativity Room, which had all kinds of things to get your juices flowing and your mind working. I love the sacred cow barbeque station, where attendees could write down the long-standing things that need to go, then skewer them in the “barbeque pit.” Please note: In this closeup, “No More Tired Meetings” is front and center.

I wish I could have gone to this one, or the next one being held in late Feb. in San Diego. Ah well, I’ll follow the bouncing blog and try to live it vicariously.

I’m talking about Socialtext Eventspace, which sounds so amazingly cool that I wish every conference organizer would at least check it out. But it’s also a little scary, in that it puts a lot of the control over what’s said about your event in the hands of attendees, and you know, there’s usually more than one in every crowd that will just kvetch endlessly. But you know what? They’re doing that already, and you can edit—it just means someone has to be paying attention. But shouldn’t you be paying attention anyway? To see what this is all about, check out the Eventspaces for the Web 2.0 Conference, Supernova, and the PC Forum.

If someone reading this has used Eventspace, please e-mail me about your experience with it. I’d love to learn more.

I don’t know any more about this than what I read in the press release, but this sounds interesting: Some folks have volunteered to form a network of Latino meeting professionals after holding a focus group with senior Hispanic meeting professionals this fall. Sounds like it’ll be based in Washington, D.C. From the press release:

The mission of the group is to “create a nurturing environment for all Latino meeting professionals, fostering the exchange of ideas and learning to embrace the concept of living our lives in color.”

They’ll be meeting Jan. 20 at the Hamilton Crowne Plaza in Washington, D.C., to discuss how to critically analyze a meeting, and will meet the third Friday of each month in D.C. from noon to 2 p.m. Meetings are free of charge.

To learn more, visit nlmponline, or contact Jeannette Gonzalez, CMP, Agora Occasions, (703) 542-2025, jgonzalez@agoraoccasions.com.

I love this editorial by my colleague, Regina McGee, Association Meetings‘ editor:

A Better Tom: The Convention Industry Council will launch a new campaign to boost awareness in Corporate America of the existence–and importance–of the convention industry. Instead of ads in The Wall Street Journal featuring management guru Tom Peters praising the importance of face-to-face meetings (as in the previous campaign), CIC will hire actor Tom Cruise. Cruise will appearon the Oprah Winfrey Show, where he will jump up on her couch and excitedly declare his love for meetings of every sort. “They are just so fantastic and incredible–the most fantastic, amazing, experiences.”

Name Changes: Having hired a pricey consultant last year to develop a new name that signals the new role for convention bureaus, Destination Marketing Association International will revert to its former name, International Association of Convention and Visitor Bureaus. It turns out no one, including any CVBs, use or intend to use the words “destination marketing organization” when referring to CVBs. Oh well.

Meanwhile, the International Association for Exhibition Management will succeed in getting members to approve a new name for the association–exactly 12 months after a seemingly hastily considered attempt to change the name at last year’s annual meeting failed spectacularly. However, instead of the International Association of Exhibitions and Events, as previously proposed, the new name will be the International Association of Exhibitions and All Other “E” Words.

Merge But No Purge: The Professional Convention Management Association and Meeting Professionals International, after years of competing for members, will decide the time has come to put aside any hostilities and to approve a proposal to merge the two associations. After months of haggling over the new name, during which both associations refuse to give up any of their former initials, the new name is announced: The Professional Meetings and Convention Management Association International, or PMCMAI. Members of both organizations veto the proposed name, however, in favor of the shorter PMP, or Professional Meeting Professionals, stressing that meeting professionals–long in search of professional recognition from the outside world–can’t emphasize their professionalism enough.

This ran in today’s edition of Association Meetings Extra, which also has a couple of other items worth checking out. I’m glad she did it—I was trying to do something similar, but this is better than what I could have come up with.

Oh, this post on Creating Passionate Users—A Crash Course in Adult Learning—is a must-print-and-send-to-everyone-involved-in-meetings thing. Author Kathy Sierra romps through the basics, with lots of great visuals, and gives you a good time while you learn. Which, of course, is one of her points. She shows while telling. It’s just brilliant. And while you’re there, check out some of the other posts. There are so many great ideas for meeting planners who, of course, would love to create some passion about the event in their attendees.

For travel and hospitality, here’s USA Today’s pick of the five biggest trends in 2006:

1. A-380, a mammoth new plane from Airbus, takes to the air. “Longer, taller, and wider than the White House,” the article says. Wow.

2: New Orleans returns, with predictions for a strong fall comeback for meetings. We’ll see.

3: Registered travelers get rolling. They predict the new TSA security program that allows some passengers to trade a background check for shorter lines will prove popular. But: “Some people, such as former TSA administrator John Magaw, have warned that terrorists could enroll and bypass rigorous scrutiny.” Sigh.

4: New rooms in New York—and even higher rates than ever.

5: Atlanta gets a new runway, a move that hopefully will cut down on flight delays.

I’m still mulling over my own top whatever list of predictions for the meetings business…

From Epicurious, this year’s best and worst food and beverage trends of 2005. The best of the best, IMHO:

The Death of Fancy Raw Cuisine: There’s a wonderful cooking tool called fire, and for the most part, haute cuisine tastes better when it’s employed — chefs across the country came to their senses about this fact in 2005.

The worst of the worst:

Edible Menus: Another spawn-of-Ferran phenomenon, menus printed on edible paper just seem silly, though we suppose astronauts and mountain climbers might appreciate light, foldable gourmet meals-on-the-go.

Somebody forgot to ask who else was in town. That’s the only way I can imagine that adolescents on a five-day soccer tournament and a swingers party ended up at the same hotel, the Crowne Plaza Hotel-Airport in Orlando. From the Orlando Sentinel:

“The kids could see through the glass atrium into the ballroom where naked people were dancing,” Young [one of the soccer dads] said. “There were exposed breasts, thongs and see-through dresses on women who were not wearing any underwear.”

I guess one of the lessons would be to check to see not only what other groups are booked for meetings in-house, but also if there are any parties planned that your group might find objectionable. To quote my late grandmother, egads!