Cindy relates the tale of an association that found something from their meeting on YouTube that they really, really didn’t want to be out there for the world to see. This is exactly the thing I talked about in this editorial from Association Meeting’s April issue (what? You didn’t read it? Gee, and I thought everyone read my stuff ;0).

Cindy asks: “Should associations make decisions about our events, functions and meetings in the future realizing anything that happens could be minutes away from YouTube?” I say of course they should. That horse has left the barn, sorry folks. Not to quote myself (but I will):

Are we ushering in a new era in which no one can say anything in a public forum without the expectation that it’ll show up on YouTube 10 minutes later? Would that result in education that, to avoid any possibility of offense, hits the lowest common denominator? Would people not feel free to be critical of the status quo, knowing their words could be taken out of context and/or blown out of proportion in an online forum? We talk about wanting greater transparency, but have we really thought through what that might mean for our meetings?

But think it through we must, because like it or not, it’s our new reality. The hardest part, especially for us older folks, is giving up the illusion of control. And it is an illusion, because whether we condone it or not, attendees already are blogging, Twittering, and otherwise letting their feelings about the meeting be known far and wide. Burying our heads in the sand or trying to beat the trend into submission with draconian rules will do nothing but alienate tomorrow’s attendees.

Instead, let’s talk about how we can reconcile transparency with what needs to remain private — and find the wisdom to know the difference between the two.

I just recently learned about the International Network of Travel Directors’ new Web site, and thought it sounded like a great resource for both TDs and meeting planners who want to hire them. Generally hired to handle the on-site logistics, TDs are an essential component of many meetings, particularly those where the planner can’t be there in person, so I thought this would be of interest to both the planners and TDs among us.

INTD’s Web site, on a brief skip through, allows planners to connect directly with freelance travel directors, and gives TDs their own networking and career center. In an e-mail introducing the INTD site, executive director Alison Ray, CMP, said, “As a business owner and planner for over 10 years I found it extremely challenging that it took so long for me to locate experienced and qualified staff when I was hosting meetings and events across the world. After spending several years interviewing travel directors and discussing this issue with other meeting planners, I realized there was a definite gap in the industry. This became my motivation for founding an organization that would bridge the gap between planners and freelance staff.”

What’s not to like?

According to a post recently on the MeCo listserv, it looks like the housing pirates are still alive and well. You know, the folks who find your exhibitor and/or attendee list and try to market rooms to them for your show, sometimes posing as the actual show organizer, sometimes saying things like the block is sold out (whether or not it actually is) and offering rooms at hotels both inside and outside the organizer’s blocked facilities. Can anyone say attrition?

If you run into this, this article, though I wrote it a while ago, may have some tips on how to deal with pirates who try to raid your attendee block.

A lot of people don’t, it would appear from reading this post on Joan Eisenstodt’s blog. She outlines just a few of the ethically challenged scenarios planners and hospitality partners face all the time, and notes that many don’t seem to understand why that particular carrot (say, you get an iPod for booking business with us) is a little on the slimy side.

The biggest issue, as I noted in a comment there, is that, ethical or not, these come-ons work, and not all just because some people don’t understand why certain practices are wrong. I think a lot of people know it’s wrong and do it anyway–take that fam to Hawaii even if you’ll never plan a meeting there, or book that hotel over another for personal points–maybe as a reward for other parts of the job that seem unfair, kind of as a way to balance it out. But that doesn’t make it right.

So the problem is two-fold: Educating those who really don’t get why it’s wrong to profit personally from a business decision, and trying to get those who get the idea but somehow can justify it to themselves to cut it out. The former will be infinitely easier to do than the latter, I’m afraid.

If you ever need a reason to be glad we don’t do business on a handshake anymore, this cautionary tale ought to do it: Wal-Mart’s former video-production company now is selling footage from its meetings. Including some things its execs, former execs, and even a presidential candidate would rather not see in the public eye–but because there never was anything in writing, the company seems to be getting away with it. At least for now. From the article:

For nearly 30 years, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. employed a video-production company here to capture footage of its top executives, sometimes in unguarded moments. Two years ago, the retailing giant stopped using the tiny company.

At first, the decision threw Flagler Productions Inc. into a panic. Now it’s Wal-Mart that’s squirming.

In recent months, Flagler has opened its trove of some 15,000 Wal-Mart tapes to the outside world, with an eye toward selling clips. The material is proving irresistible to everyone from business historians and documentary filmmakers to plaintiffs lawyers and union organizers.

Just in case you needed any other excuse to quadruple-check your contract.

That’s the name of the (relatively) new blog this industry guru is now writing over at the Meetings Collaborative, where you also can rate hotels from a meetings perspective, and do lots more fun stuff. Check out Joan’s blog here. Particularly provocative is a recent post about how politics and meetings collide, and yet we don’t talk about it much in public. She asks why it is so difficult to talk about politics or religion as they pertain to planning.

Well, if she saw some of the reactions I got to a series on diversity and meetings, she’d see why. People get awfully hot under the collar about these two topics, even when trying to apply them to business situations.

I wish we could talk about religion, politics, and other real-world issues that shape meetings as much as they do all other aspects of our society, but we’re not yet at a place where this can be done productively (except among those who all hold the same views, but that doesn’t do much to move things forward). I’m not entirely sure we’ll ever get there, frankly.

But I do think it’s important to keep trying (she says, still licking her wounds from the December diversity series).

This is a new one on me: When an organization failed to pay its meeting tab on time, the facility started to charge the attendees. From an article in the ReviewJournal.com:

The Coaching Center of Austin, Texas, was delinquent to the Westin Casuarina on payment of nearly $57,000 in unpaid food, beverage and associated costs. Dible, and other conference attendees and speakers recently began receiving charges on their credit card statements for a “pro-rated amount per attendee” from the hotel.

“We told (the Coaching Center) we would have no recourse but to charge the attendees,” said Hud Englehart, spokesman for the Westin’s owner, Crestview Hills, Ky.-based Columbia Sussex. “That still didn’t cause them to bring payment forth so we began charging the attendees.”

What?? I’ve never heard of this one before.

John Moore over at Brand Autopsy has been doing a “would you miss” series of posts that I’ve found to be fascinating, if a little scary. Like yesterday’s entry: Would you miss Pizza Hut if it went out of business tomorrow? He adds:

Does Pizza Hut provide such a unique product and customer experience that we would be saddened if it didn’t exist? Does Pizza Hut treat its employees so astonishingly well that those workers would not be able to find another employer to treat them as well? Does Pizza Hut forge such unfailing emotional connections with its customers that they would fail to find another pizza joint that could forge just as strong an emotional bond?

Now replace “Pizza Hut” with the name of your organization, or even just your meeting. Now do you see why it’s a little scary?

Nancy Wilson, CMP, who authors one of my favorite new blogs offers this cautionary tale about why you should check to make sure the facility you’re using is actually living up to its green promises. I don’t know why this shocked me so badly, given that housekeeping always washes my towels even when I give them the secret “leave-’em-on-the-rack” signal, but it did. Wow.

for not honoring a room block: The guarantee only means we’ll hold the reservation, not the rooms. Huh? Good thing that an appellate court in New Jersey rejected that argument recently when Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort in Atlantic City used it as a rationale for walking people in 26 of the 60 rooms auto-finance firm Onyx Acceptance Corp. had reserved as part of a banquet back in 2001. In fact, the judges called it “Orwellian.” Unbelievably, the hotel is “considering an appeal.”

The appellate decision, citing testimony from a 24-day trial in 2006, described an often-angry scene in the hotel’s lobby. At one point, it notes, an Onyx employee noted the firm had prepaid almost $30,000 for the rooms.

“However, the front desk clerk was unimpressed with that figure and responded by saying, “Ma’am, we have people who spent $30,000 a hand,’ ” the decision recounted.

Hmm, we may be in need of a little customer service training too. Who knows if this would hold up elsewhere, but I would think the decision would be a warning flag to hotels that routinely overbook that some planners aren’t going to take it anymore.

Thanks to MiForum for the pointer.