For some reason, this YouTube video tune just made me smile:

Happy Friday!

In this case, it was getting people to stop talking during a meal at MPI so they could listen to the speaker, but it could work almost anytime you have a non-attentive crowd: Clap three times.

As the presidential primaries march on from Super Tuesday, the Democratic donkey and the Republican elephant will continue to leave foot- and hoofprints from sea to shining sea. Which for some reason got me wondering: Why donkeys and elephants?

Thanks to Google, it was easy to find out. It started with Andrew Jackson’s 1828 presidential campaign. After his Republican opponents called him a jackass, he took the insult and appropriated it for his own campaign posters. Cartoonist Thomas Nast took the symbol and ran with it in his cartoons, later labeling an elephant as “The Republican Vote” in a cartoon where a donkey wearing lion’s skin was terrorizing zoo animals. And so they clumped and clodded into history.

But now we reach another historic landmark—the dawning of the era of the rise of the meeting professional. All we’re missing is a mascot that truly represents the qualities that meetings pros bring to the table, whether we’re talking national political party conventions or the next board meeting.

So, my fellow Americans, meeting planners, and those who love them, what should your mascot be? E-mail your nominations, and the reasons why they deserve our votes, to spelletier@meetingsnet.com, or drop a comment below.

If we get some good and/or funny ones, I’ll set up a poll (a straw one, of course) for the candidates. May the best beast win!

Another item for the Globe, this time on how to upgrade your travel by working the system. Nothing to earth-shattering, but there are some good tips, like getting upgrade alerts from sites like TravelZoo and Sidestep.com that I hadn’t been aware of.

Update: I just found this on Inflight HQ: 10 ways to get the best deal on air.

Here’s an interesting articlein today’s Boston Globe about how conventions here in the hub of the universe are getting pretty star-studded these days. This is mainly because of the size of conventions the city is bringing in now with the new convention center, it says. From the article:

There was a time when meeting organizers thought less about “exciting” than “useful.” Professionals attended conferences to network, stay current, maybe get a break from the routine. But at a time when conferences in this city are growing both in number and size, professional groups are vying with one another to grab celebrities - both as speak ers and performers - to increase their chance of drawing a crowd.

“What drives the conference business is attendance and corporate sponsorship,” says Joyce Kolligian, executive director of the annual Simmons School of Management Leadership Conference in Boston, which has signed up singer Gloria Estefan as the May 3 keynote speaker. “And if you are going to do the record-breaking numbers . . . you need celebrated names to get the draw.”

“Everything is about what speaker can you get, what political leader can you get, what entertainer can you get,” said Pat Moscaritolo, president of Greater Boston Convention & Visitors Bureau. “Unless there is real sizzle, people don’t think there is any steak there.”

I’d like to think it’s still about the steak, not just the sizzle, but Pat may have a point. While it’s been going on forever, now that people expect to be entertained along with their education, the star-studded convention is likely to keep growing, even when the stars chosen have absolutely nothing to do with what the conference is about.

But it was interesting to hear that Oprah can be a stage hog: One conference organizer said she just went on and on until her friend Gayle King got out the hook.

This is the first I’ve heard of an airline trying biofuel: Virgin jet to use biofuel blend in test flight in February from London to Amsterdam.

Airline industry officials, environmentalists and energy companies all have a huge interest in the future of air travel as it pertains to fuel consumption, carbon emissions and global warming.

From the business perspective, the airlines are under great financial pressure because of soaring fuel costs; the price of crude oil is consistently flirting with $100 per barrel. On the environmental side of things, aircraft represent up to 12 percent of greenhouse gas emissions produced by the U.S. transportation sector, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

Believe it or not, TSA now does in fact have its own blog, evolution of security. The TSA blogging team is doing a good job, including asking for readers to submit their own favorite TSA stories, good or bad. Check ‘em out–there were 218 of them last time I was there.

They also say they plan to try to answer questions posted by readers, so if you have a burning question for them, go for it. They definitely get an A for chutzpah.

Well, they’re actually 10 rules from the Immaculate Heart College Art Department, but I’m adopting them for life. Here’s the link.

#8 is one I need to work on: “Don’t try to create and analyze at the same time. They’re different processes.”

#6 is my favorite: “Nothing is a mistake. There is no win and no fail. There is only make.”

(via Kottke>

Check out this product page from Dutch department store HEMA. I have never seen anything like it (wait for a few seconds for the fun to begin, and turn the sound up if it won’t give away the fact that you’re goofing off to your boss).

Lessons for meeting planners? None that I can think of, other than if you make your registration page fun in some way, people might pass it along to others the way someone (thanks!) passed this product page link along to me.