In a totally brilliant grab off recent headlines, the Rockford, Ill. CVB invites people to come hide away in its fair city — even if you’re not a Wisconsin Democratic senator. Awesome.

Thanks to Bill Geist for the pointer!

For the first time in memory I didn’t get sucked into watching the Oscars last night. But I did follow along via Facebook and Twitter (who knew I knew so many people who cared so deeply about this?). It was hilarious — I’m guessing infinitely more fun than actually watching it was.

So, in honor of the Oscars in the social media age, here’s a compilation of the funniest tweets about the 2011 Oscar extravaganza. I could swear I saw even funnier ones, but I’m not going to wade through it all to find them. Wish I’d thought of it at the time!

(Thanks to Dan on the MeCo Social Media Headquarters Facebook page for the pointer.)

I love this post by Trish Rafferty about the laignappe moments she’s had in the midst of meeting planning madness. Well worth a read if you want a smile, or just a sense that sometimes, despite all evidence to the contrary, things really do just work out for the best.

By now I’m sure you’ve heard about the new Economic Significance of Meetings to the U.S. Economy study, which “estimates that 205 million people attended nearly 1.8 million meetings in the U.S. in 2009. Those meetings generated $263 billion in direct spending, supported 1.7 million jobs, and contributed $106 billion to the gross domestic product.” While it took two years to complete, the study, which was conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers for the CIC and funded by 14 of its constituent associations, gives us some much-needed fuel to fight the “AIG syndrome” and other perceptual woes.

But let’s not forget our hotel partners in all this. As Ed Watkins so rightly points out in this post, we should be lauding the effect every new hotel opening has on the local economy as well. As he says, after attending the grand opening of the JW Marriott in Indianapolis, “In an era when job creation is at a premium, the JW Marriott and its four sisters is a jobs machine. The JW used 2,000 construction workers in total, with 150 onsite daily throughout the project. And, perhaps more importantly, the property generated 700 full-time jobs for the city.” That’s something to celebrate.

Ah, the golden question to which we all know the answer: good learning and good networking (with extra points for good location and yummy chow). But no one puts it quite as well as Fast Company’s self-professed conference junkie Nancy Lublin, who actually put together a quiz to take to decide whether or not a conference is worth the time, energy, and money. Plus it’s pretty funny.

(Thanks to Acronym for the pointer.)

Here’s a handy-dandy, printable list of TSA rules you can carry with you to the airport, along with a list of the TSA supervisors at each U.S. airport (and their direct-dial numbers) should you need to get in touch with one. Nice!

(Thanks to BoingBoing for the pointer!)

I heard from a reliable source that the TV show 30 Rock last night included some spoofs on a subject near and dear to my heart — meetings magazines! He said:

In one scene Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin) is talking about a big presentation he has coming up that “Meeting Magazine is already calling the Meeting of the Decade.” Then later in the show he’s talking to Liz Lemon (Tina Fey) about how he is supposed to represent NBC at a meeting that The American Journal of Meetings rated 4 Chairs.

Then Liz Lemon responds: “I’m sorry, is that another magazine about meetings?”

Snort! I don’t usually watch that show, but I’m going to have to check out that episode once it’s on the Internet. Too funny.

Update: I think this is it — have to wait until the workday ends to watch it, though. (Further update: Check out 1:30 and 7:15.)

Dude nails it once again: The Space Matters. We all know this, and yet all too often we find ourselves compromising on the environment and trying to make up for it through programming, or speakers, or F&B. Something to think about.