In case you wondered why face2face went dark for the past week, I was officially goofing off, on vacation sailing in the Abacos. I know, life is tough! Remember what I said about t-shirts being a good giveaway? Here’s a data point of one proving the point:

That’s the t-shirt ASAE and The Center handed out to the press at last year’s meeting. And here’s the catamaran we chartered, the lovely Qiannu:

OK, I’ll stop with the photos now! But I would highly recommend the place, not so much for the sailing (not much wind, at least not this time of year) but for the drop-dead gorgeous seas and scenery. All right, time to get back to work.

The trade show business may have dipped almost 12 percent in early 2009, but here’s CEIR’s Doug Ducate putting those CEIR Index first quarter results in context by comparing them to the newpaper and other business advertising (you have to rub it in, eh?).

And if you need proof, just check out this post: Sometimes sorry is the best PR, by Alli Gerkman. The point we all should take to heart and repeat endlessly when one thing goes bad, then another, then a whole cascade of bad things drench us in muck:

Believe it or not, some of my best evaluations have come from conferences that couldn’t catch a break. After all, it’s easy to represent your company or your brand when everything is going right, but it’s how you react when things go wrong that can set you apart.

And it’s true, at least in my experience.

This tongue-in-cheek calorie quiz from the Boston Globe cracked me up completely. Plus, I think I aced it, which is probably not a good thing. Here’s a taste:

2. You’ve just flown from London to New York. Your flight left at 9:30 a.m. and arrived at noon local time. You ate lunch and an ample snack on the trip. When you arrive in New York, you eat lunch again, and dinner that evening. What happens to those extra lunch calories?

c) This is why it’s not a good idea to travel internationally. Better you should have gone to the Cape.

I have always believed a) to be the truth, but b) probably applies, too. So you should probably double up on the food while flying to keep from wasting away to nothing before you land, right?

If this quiz doesn’t make you laugh, try tickling some apes.

Looking for some tips to promote your meeting? Check out these ideas from The Forum Effect. I would emphasize writer Susan Nowicky’s fifth tip: “Market your meeting aggressively with regular targeted messages to your key attendee segments.”

But I mean really target. Tell each segment (students, senior-level people, every niche your industry serves) specifically what they’ll get out of it, which sessions are there just for them, people in their segment who will be speaking, special networking events just for them, etc.

And triple-check your database sort to make sure the right message goes out to the right person. There’s nothing worse than getting a message that’s beautifully targeted…to someone who’s not remotely like you.

Remember the news about a month ago that Starwood had accused Hilton of dealing in corporate espionage? (The gist: “Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. filed a lawsuit accusing Hilton Hotels Corp. of “aiding and abetting” two Hilton executives in illegally obtaining information that would hasten the development and launch of Hilton’s new Denizen “lifestyle” brand, and reduce the costs and risks of repositioning its luxury brands.”)

Now it sounds like this might end up settling, at least if Hilton has its way. It’s what I’d want if I were in their shoes, to make it go away as quickly and quietly as possible.

In-room coffee pots are on my mind these days, having just (barely) survived an overnight in New York at a hotel that doesn’t offer them or have caffeine in the lobby or have an open restaurant at 6 a.m. (I’m too cheap for room service so I didn’t even look into that). I had to wander the streets in the dark and misty rain for blocks before stumbling onto a deli that was open and had some go-juice for me.

Anyway…so that’s why this post from Chris Eliott caught my eye: A fee for drinking coffee in your room? What’ll they think of next!

The thing that I’ve been noticing was commented upon by Ed in the comments: “I’ve noticed that the more upscale the hotel, the more nickle and diming you are subjected to…I find that the more affordable hotels are more inclusive!”

Ain’t that the truth!

I just read Tom Peters’ post about how the Army continually trains and retrains its personnel, but the rest of us really don’t. Oh, we have the annual “name your industry” association annual meeting, which is of course good. But we don’t have sustained, credible, real-world training available for the most part, much less required.

Which is why I was intrigued when I got a press release this morning announcing Train2Meet, a collaborative of top meeting-planning-related experts just launched by gMeetings, Inc.

Check out the lineup:
- Joan Eisenstodt of Eisenstodt Associates for Content Delivery and Ethics
- Brad A. Goldberg of Trigold Consulting for Risk Management
- Eli Gorin, CMP of gMeetings, Inc – Founder and Trainer
- Tyra Hilliard, PhD, JD, CMP of Hilliard Associates for Legal/Contracting
- James Hogg of the Rosen School of Hospitality Management for Meetings Technology
- Carol Krugman, CMP, CMM, of Krugman Maller LLC for International Meetings
- Gloria Nelson, CSEP of Gloria Nelson Event Design for Special Events
- Bonnie Wallsh, CMP, CMM of Bonnie Wallsh Associates for Intro to Meetings/Events
- Michele Wierzgac, MS, CMM of Michele & Company for Strategic Meetings Management

I’ve been to enough industry meetings to have heard and/or met all these folks, and they are IMHO the people in each of their respective areas of expertise I would want training me (if I were a meeting planning pro, that is).

More from the press release: “Individual training programs are tailored to client’s needs and focus on best practices within the specific trainer’s segment. Future programs will also include face-to-face and virtual seminars hosted by Train2Meet featuring a variety of topics which affect the way business is being done in the industry.”

What a great idea.

(Note to self: What’s with all this posting about press releases? I never do that! Except, I guess, today.)

A tip of the hat to Virtualis, the convention and learning center in the virtual world of Second Life, on being designated as one of 31 international firms earning the “Gold Solutions Provider” designation in Second Life by Linden Labs (which created and runs the virtual world).

What that means, according to a press release, is that Virtualis has the stamp of approval as a go-to partner for organizations that are new to Second Life. Even though we haven’t been hearing a lot about Second Life lately, the place has been hopping, according to Dan Parks, President and Creative Director of Corporate Planners Unlimited, Inc., and one of the creative forces behind Virtualis. Especially for meetings. When we spoke a while back, he told me the facility has doubled in size due to demand from both corporate and association clients, and can now accommodate 360 virtual attendees in its arena. While people’s avatars may look strange, the convention center itself has all the usual amenities (registration area, lobby, prefunction and ballroom space, breakout rooms). It also includes the Eisenstodt Learning Center, which has all kinds of interesting meeting space that has to be experienced to be believed.

I haven’t been there in a while, but it’s good to know things are cooking in that virtual world. It’s funny how the media attention comes and goes–a couple of years ago, SL was the media darling (and yes, we wrote about it too). Now it seems to be Twitter’s turn. But the Virtualis press release reminds me that work, and meetings, keep happening in alternative spaces, even when the spotlight has moved on.