This YouTube video of Louis CK on Conan just cracked me up: Everything’s amazing, nobody’s happy. His airline riffs, starting around 2:00, were exactly how I’ve felt about flying (at times)

And Nick Thune on his first love, well, it’s a classic:

I’m looking to collect a few for our next issue, and was hoping you might be willing to help out. What’s your favorite quote that’s related to meeting planning in some way? Please feel free to drop a comment below or e-mail me at spelletier@meetingsnet.com. Thanks!

My Dad has been researching our family’s genealogy for quite a while now, and he periodically e-mails around notes of interest. He sent this one the other day with a subject line of “So what’s new?”:

Extract of letter from Edward Stanley Abbot to “Cousin Emmie” October 10, 1857.

The hard times don’t affect the people in the country, I suppose, so much as they do those in the cities. The state of the money market is the absorbing object of interest in Boston now, new failures are announced every day, some of the largest firms in the city have broken down business, men say they have never seen anything like it, not even in ’37 but little business is done at the store this autumn though the fall is usually the busiest time of the whole year.

You have to check out this editorial on MPI’s magazine blog: Senator Kerry Admits Lack of Personal Worth. Wish I’d thought of it first!

(Thanks for the pointer on Twitter, GloNelsonCSEP.)

I’m pleased to say that the Professional Convention Management Association’s chairman, John Folks, has launched a new blog called (un)Conventional. He hasn’t posted a lot yet, but what he has is pretty interesting. Check out his post about marketing a meeting in today’s economy and his take on the TARP legislation.

I spoke with him briefly on the phone the other day about the new blog, and he seems really excited about having this new (well, new to PCMA, anyway) way to communicate with members. As for me, I’m looking forward to hearing more of his take on this crazy business.

It doesn’t say anything we haven’t been saying all along, but it is heartening to read this editorial from Harvard Business Publishing: Don’t Cancel that Meeting

Here’s a Wordle I just made of recent posts here on face2face (click on the image for enlarged view). Inspired by this Wordl created from Twitter posts about ASAE’s Great Ideas conference, I love this idea! Wouldn’t it be a great thing to put on the cover of your next conference brochure?

Check it out: The Meetings Industry Crisis Center, brought to you by MPI. The MeetingsNet Career Corner also has some good resources for those interested in professional development.

Another voice, this time New York Times editorial writer Maureen Dowd, chimes in to bash the meetings business. While she makes a good point in that they should have toned things down, when she says this in “I Ponied Up for Sheryl Crow?,” she lost me completely:

Northern Untrustworthy even offered junketeers the chance to attend a seminar on the credit crunch where they could no doubt learn that the U.S. government is just the latest way to finance your deals and keep your office swathed in $87,000 area rugs.

C’mon, Maureen, that’s a bit of a low blow. If these folks don’t need education on how to do their jobs better right now, who does? (Thanks to Kare Anderson for reminding me to post about this one. If you want more on this topic, check out yesterday’s post on Sen. Kerry’s latest proposal.)

Update: Just found this post via Twitter: Dear Senator Kerry… And this one from Mike the Podcast guy: John Kerry Wants to Ban Conferences. And check out the comments on this post from MPI’s site: Lawmaker Hopes to Ban Conferences for Bailed-Out Companies . There’s a good sample letter there, just in case you feel moved to write.

I’m sure you’ve heard all about how various government officials and agencies think companies receiving Troubled Asset Relief Program funds should handle their meetings (in case you haven’t, some references: Treasury Dept. TARP Guidelines Target Meetings, Model Guidelines for TARP Fund Recipients, Industry Response to Meeting Restrictions Shifts into High Gear, Coalition Plans P.R. Tool Kit for Meeting Industry).

Then we hear through this article on Bloomberg, Golf After Bailout at Northern Trust Prompts Outcry, that Senator Kerry of the great state of Massachusetts has decided to join the anti-meeting fray with some proposed legislation of his own.

Key points from the press release on Kerry’s TARP Taxpayer Protection and Corporate Responsibility Act

• Any recipient of TARP funds shall not be allowed to host, sponsor,
pay for conferences and events and pay for holiday or entertainment events
for the year in which they receive TARP funds.

• A recipient may seek a waiver from the Secretary of Treasury for
any event which the recipient believes is directly related to the operation
of the business. The Secretary has thirty days to respond to a waiver
request.

• Any violation will require the federal government to be reimbursed
by the company’s CEO for the cost of the event and there will a fine of
$100,000 per violation. A recipient will have 30 days to reimburse the
government and pay the fine. The fine increases $10,000 a day for each day
after 30 days.

If you’d like to send a letter to Sen. Kerry and tell him what you think, his e-mail is available here. We’ve been talking about this on the Miforum listserv, and several people already have let him know they are less-than-pleased with his ideas. Please feel free to join the chorus. The Meeting, Event, and Incentive Coalition has put together some sample letters you can use to get started, if you need any inspiration.

And stay tuned, because this is far from over…