Benchmark Hospitality has released its top 10 beverage trends for 2010. I’m sad about #1 (I like my chardonnay a bit oaky, not fruity), have begun to notice #5 (a resurgence in sangria) on menus lately, and lament #6’s apparent staying power (rendering traditional martinis, mojitos, and margaritas into unrecognizable, almost always way-too-sweet echoes of what they’re supposed to be. I’m not opposed to making up new drinks, just don’t call something made out of chocolate liqueur, creme de cacao, vodka, and half-and-half a martini. Really. Whew, didn’t realize I felt so strongly about that!).

And I’m all for finding interesting ways to serve, but wine popsicles (#7)?

Speaking of food and beverage, the International Association of Conference Centers just released the results of its roundtable discussions held earlier this year to determine what customers want in a complete meeting package. Number 1 is “Customize menus for special dietary requirements.”

We found this awesome post about Opryland’s recovery from this spring’s 100-year flood on Lodging Hospitality’s Front Desk blog and asked Ed Watkins if we could reprint it. He said yes, so here it is.

Opryland Turns Disaster into Opportunity
By Ed Watkins
There’s a fascinating story playing out in Nashville, and I can’t wait to see how it ends. As you may remember, the Opryland Hotel was devastated by a hundred-year flood this spring that knocked the 2,881-room mega-convention hotel out of commission until some time this fall. It was a tragedy for Gaylord Entertainment, the hotel’s owners; the 1,700 workers who lost their jobs; and for the entire Nashville tourism economy.


But according to a recent story in the Nashville Business Journal, the company is turning disaster into opportunity. Led by charismatic CEO Colin Reed, Gaylord has used the three months since the hotel closed to build for the future, not look to the past. In a speech to local leaders last week, Reed says the company has nearly completed the flood cleanup, which caused $225 million in damage (in addition to $62 million in lost business so far.) And until the planned November reopening, crews will perform nearly $30 million in additional upgrades that were planned before the tragedy struck.


And the company’s sales team has been hard at work: Reed says the hotel has booked 300,000 room nights from January to June of 2011. That’s a 10-percent increase in advanced bookings from the same date last year. Even more heartening was news the hotel has begun rehiring its laid-off work force.

The secret, Reed told the business group, was the company’s extensive disaster plan. And as he so eloquently said, “It’s absolutely stupid for organizations—it doesn’t matter how big or how small—not to be prepared for emergencies.”

Here are the first installments of #ASAE10’s sitcom:
Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

What do you think? I’d say the acting is good, but I’m not laughing much (except for the last line of Part 2, which is hilarious). Maybe it’s just my sense of humor. I don’t know that I’d be brave enough to try this myself, though I love the idea of highlighting members’ talents at the annual meeting.

And, while the production quality’s not quite the same(!), what’s not to like about these YAPster flashmobbers?

ASAE’s Lisa Junker posted three great questions to ask yourself about your career if you are considering making a change (gleaned from a conversation she had with June Cline, CSP, CSAC, Open Heart Communications, a career coach at #ASAE10’s annual meeting. The first one is key: “Does [your job] give you energy or does it take it away?”

It really resonated with me because of a conversation I had the other day with a friend who left a stable, if boring, job to take a leap into entrepreneurship. He said he had really begun to notice that he was wrung out after working his day job, but energized after working on his new business. It was, he said, night and day, and made it obvious which direction he should move in.

Here’s hoping your job, while I’m sure it’s not without its frustrations, keeps you humming (even on a Monday)!

Stole this Twitterfountain code from Maddie Grant, but I’m pretty sure she won’t mind. Though something about the way the tweets drop away makes me a little woozy…

Here I thought I was being so forward-thinking when I suggested conference organizers include a recharging station at their meetings so participants could get their laptops, netbooks, and phones nice and juiced. I just took a quick skip through ASAE’s annual conference Web site and saw that they had the same idea, right down to using it for sponsor-bait:

“Charge your cell-phone at one of two stations conveniently located in Connection Central in the South Lobby and in the CEO Networking Center. Come learn about the Association of the Future (AOTF) project and meet the volunteers while you charge your phone. A special thank you to our Corporate Partner, Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau, for sponsoring the charging stations.”

One more thing to miss about missing ASAE this year!

I know it hasn’t even started yet, but I’m already missing ASAE and The Center’s annual meeting, which is in Los Angeles this year. I’m crazy busy next week, but I hope to be able to hop on the virtual train and experience at least a little of it from 3,000 miles away, like maybe a general session or two. I haven’t poked around much yet to see what will and won’t be available for laggards like me.

One thing I do want to check out from afar: Remember last year’s theme song/video that they played at the general sessions (and during walk times between sessions)? I got an e-mail from PCI Communications, which produced the song for ASAE last year, about their plans for this year. Because the meeting’s in LA, they’re going to open the general sessions with a three-part original sitcom that stars 30 ASAE members as actors.

This could be the best thing yet, or it could go horribly, horribly wrong. Comedy is hard — I wish them the best (somehow, hoping they break a leg just sounds wrong). Here’s the trailer.

Here’s an interesting idea: making badges out of home-cooked bioplastics. I know there are a bunch of other green badge options, but I kind of like the DIY nature of this one.

I know it was wrong of him on so many levels, but still I find myself wanting to applaud the JetBlue flight attendant who quit his job in a pretty spectacular way after a nasty passenger turned out to be one too many for him. Sounds like he cursed the guy out over the intercom, grabbed a couple of beers and exited down the emergency slide.

I don’t know why people feel entitled to be rude, crude, and mean to flight attendants (and gate agents), but you see them getting abused all too often. And taking it. I’m not surprised when I hear one snaps–thankfully no one was ever in any danger.

Can we all just be human with each other? I know air travel isn’t all that much fun these days, and “nice” may be too hard. But let’s at least be human.

If you have read the fabulous Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, you’ll recognize the dilemma in this post’s headline. What does that have to do with meetings? Check out this post by Andrew over at BabelFish: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Better Meetings.