For all you meeting planners who live and die by your Excel spreadsheets: Google Takes Aim at Excel. From the New York Times:

Stepping up its attack on Microsoft’s core business, Google plans to make available on Tuesday a test version of a Web-based spreadsheet program that is intended to make it simple to edit and share lists and data online.

The company said that the free program, called Google Spreadsheets, would be able to read and create files in the format used by Excel, the Microsoft spreadsheet software that is installed on millions of personal computers.

Just imagine a world where you can share your spreadsheet with up to 10 people, and discuss the changes in real time with instant messaging (also from Google), and you all don’t even have to have Excel on your computers. Look out Microsoft, I smell a Googleopoly in the making.

When oh when will people learn not to put sensitive customer data on laptops they carry around with them? Here’s the latest: Ernst & Young laptop loss exposes 243,000 Hotels.com customers.

Customer data—including registrant lists—should always be secure. Do we really need to say this?

>I know I’ve mentioned this before, but the watermelon carvings on this site are so lovely that I just had to share. Wouldn’t something like this make a great centerpiece for a banquet?

Did you know there’s a pending telecom law that could have a big impact on the use of wireless technology at meetings (think wireless mics and WiFi)? Ray Verhelst, president of ConventionDisc, Inc. wrote about it on the MeCo listserv this morning, and gave me permission to re-post it here:

A pending telecom law that had been introduced in both the House and the Senate back in February … was asking for the law to be changed to where the FCC would start auctioning off unused bandwidth in the unlicensed frequencies for new communication alternatives. The unlicensed bandwidth discussed is actually the regions used for things such as cordless telephones, wireless broadband (WiFi / 802.xx), Bluetooth devices, wireless microphones and other types of common controllers. The availability of said bandwidth varied within each market so what might be used for one thing in Chicago could be completely different in San Diego. Without hardware industry support, you would need to know each and every frequency assignment for each market you traveled to in order to make sure your equipment would be compatible.

Making this additional bandwidth available for auction was a reaction based on a lack of competition within the broadband market to more rural areas but it was offered up without real industry support. The major detractors were major television networks who believed that without the necessary technical support from manufacturers, each major market would have different players being awarded different frequencies making it impossible to map out different equipment usage for things such as wireless camera broadcast connections for both sports and live events as well as the use of the more common wireless microphone. It is the latter that really has the potential of creating havoc for our industry.

Since that time, another bill has been offered up (American Broadband for Communities Act - H.R.5085) which takes into account a more focused look at how the assignable bandwidth will get used and how both the FCC and the industry will support it with strict technical requirements that virtually eliminate the free-for-all assignment of local market bandwidth. While the first two pieces of legislation have not gone away, many of the supporters have jumped on the bandwagon of this new piece of legislation including many corporations such as Intel.

Without getting really technical over the actual dividing of the frequencies amongst the players, the FCC has already looked at where some of this unused bandwidth will come from. Because of the pending change from analog television broadcasts to digital between now and 2007, there will be significant frequency release (channels 52-69 have already been released) and therefore are becoming available for auction. These are not the channels on your cable box but they are spectrum ranges. As more broadcast elements switch to the digital format a greater number of “channels” will become available.

This new bill actually works well for us in the meeting and events industry because it promotes greater coverage of wireless broadband connectivity for the delivery of everything from television programming to voice such as Internet-based telephone systems. The manufacturers of wireless hardware are looking to the FCC and their new rulings to determine best how to configure the next generation of equipment. Granted, this could force older items into faster retirement but that seems to be the common price to pay for growth.

The TIA (Telecommunications Industry Association) is behind this new bill and supports the greater use of bandwidth to spread alternative delivery of broadband content to more of the country. They claim that issuing these licenses will increase competition for wired and direct satellite delivery services that currently hold a significant amount of control over this market. More competition means lower costs for the consumer and less of a digital divide. More coverage means we can expect greater speeds and better signal quality.

The FCC will start auctioning off some of the new bandwidth on June 29th with a new provision that provides a condition upon awarding that a licensee cannot initiate any new services that interfere with existing wireless technologies until a legitimate workaround can be implemented to the satisfaction of all parties.

For now we can rest assured that our wireless microphones will continue to work as well as our wireless links between our cellular phones and other devices will remain connected without any additional interference.

Thanks for the update, Ray!

Frustrated by the endless hold times as you wait for someone, anyone, to pick up the phone when you call the airlines? Check out GetHuman.com, in particular, this page, which lists shortcuts that they say will get you a live human being to talk with at various airlines and other travel-related companies.

If you or one of your attendees have a medical emergency in flight, let’s hope you’re on a Virgin Atlantic plane. According to this article, the airline has implemented some pretty cool technology to link flights to medical help on the ground, allowing non-medical people to help the afflicted. From the article:

Tempus uses the satellite technology that operates Virgin Atlantic’s onboard telephone system to transmit medical information such as pulse rate and blood pressure readings as well as video images to medical experts at the MedAire Centre in Phoenix, Arizona. The ground-based doctors can then diagnose the problem and advise the crew on the next course of action, enabling crew to use their medical training to assist the passenger.

Simone at Something Extra very nicely is sharing her lessons from the road, and they’re good ones. Here’s a couple of them:

from Mexico: IF a hot meal is being served, avoid the back of the plane
from Hawaii and Ecuador: Be willing to try something new; yet travel with bottled water and Imodium AD!

Click here to find out how she learned to check baggage tags the hard way, and other ideas.

I’ve learned to roll my clothes instead of folding them to keep the wrinkles down, and to expect airport delays (and be delighted when all goes as scheduled and thank the staff profusely. They’re so used to getting yelled at that it confuses them, but I think they like it). Also, to make sure that if I bring food on the plane, it doesn’t have a really strong odor that could gross out my neighbors and/or make them stare longingly at my chow with puppy-dog eyes (kids are particularly good at this). I’ve also learned to hoard all uneaten snacks, because you never know when you’re going to end up at an airport, starving, at 2 a.m., waiting for a connection. My mom swears by noise-cancelling headphones and eyeshades, but I haven’t tried that yet. I feel I have to stay fully alert and aware of my surroundings at all times when in flight, because without me concentrating so hard on keeping the thing in the air, who knows what might happen!

What have you learned as you earned your frequent flier miles?