I had been looking forward to this one because, while I’m not sure Richard Saul Wurman’s done the world a favor by unleashing a million TED knockoffs (then again, I shouldn’t blame him for others piggybacking on an idea that may not be a great fit for their meeting) and I’m not convinced his www.www conference format is all that (then again, as he said, he doesn’t care, since he didn’t invite me anyway).

From the abrupt introduction—here he is—to the abrupt end—I might as well stop now since I got a laugh—he was not everyone’s cup of tea, but I was delighted through and through. What a cranky, unique, fearless individual he is. He created TED because “I wanted to design a meeting I’d want to be at. I did TED because I wanted to do it.”

He described the designing process for TED as one of subtraction: He took out panels, dress codes (he cut off the tie of anyone who dared to wear one), took out the podium (which he described as just something to protect your groin and to give you a place to put papers to read off of—and “who wants to be read to?”). Meetings, he said, are made up of small things that make people feel comfortable so they can learn.

He talked a bit about his new www.www conference, which he’s again designing through subtraction (no tickets, no presentations, no set schedule). One thing that sounds interesting is how he plans to disseminate the conference later, which is going to be in black-and-white film available online that will offer customizable ways to find out more about each of the discussion participants. Basically, again looking to create a conference he’d like to be a part of, he’s looking for a modality that allows people to create their own experience based on what they’re interested in.

He went on for a while about a fable he created in his books What If, Could Be and 33. I won’t go into it, but it involved turning everything into its opposite (example: copyright becomes right to copy. Note to self: Buy these books. They sound really interesting.).

More favorite quotes:
“I don’t show visuals because I don’t want to be a caption.”
“The more famous you are, the shorter the introduction.”
“Learning is remembering what you’re interested in.”
“I’ve tended to fail sideways throughout my life.”
“Humor is not trivial: It’s the opposite of expectation.” (He said this just before reeling off some of my favorite Stephen Wright one-liners, like, “Everything is within walking distance if you have enough time.”)
“We live in the age of also.” (As in, you can do it this way, and also that way.)

And in case this wasn’t eclectic enough, he ended up with a quick biomimicry example of learning a better way to peel a banana by watching an ape do it. I actually learned this one a few years ago and have been peeling my bananas from the bottom up ever since. I later on in the afternoon got into a really interesting conversation about what else we can learn about meetings from mimicking what nature perfected a long time ago. Stay tuned for more on that one…

Now that we’re heading toward winter and many of the Occupy movement’s encampments are breaking up (or at least being ordered to vamoose), one has to wonder what’s next for the occupiers. Perhaps a convention?

Down in Florida, they’ve already decided that the next logical step is to start a statewide Occupy Florida event called The People’s Convention of Florida. This Friday, local delegations are gathering in Orlando to pull together a list of “desired changes that will resonate with any ethical person,” according to the Peoples Convention of Florida Web site. Then they’ll march on to Tallahassee to present the list to the legislators on January 10. While their venue of choice is still a park—which is more comfortable this time of year in Orlando than Boston—than a ballroom, if the idea spreads from state to state, region to region, and perhaps nationally, they may end up having to move into more conventional meeting space.

Stay tuned…

Was that a flying pig I just saw? Must have been, because swine on the wing is pretty much on a par in my mind with the words “Dr. DeWayne Woodring is retiring from the Religious Conference Management Association.” But in fact, he actually is stepping down from the RCMA executive director position he’s held since RCMA was founded 40 years ago. He’s handing over the reins to Rev. Harry Schmidt, who previously was the vice president of RCMA’s board.

I worked very closely with Dr. Woodring when I first joined MeetingsNet as the editor of RCMA’s magazine, Religious Conference Manager. I’ll never forget meeting him at my first RCMA annual conference, where I already was a little frazzled at the thought of producing the show daily newspapers, something I hadn’t done before. Then I came down with something horrid and spiked a fever of 102 degrees the day before the conference was to begin. I was a wreck. But not Dr. Woodring, who calmly sent me to my hotel room to recuperate (which fortunately I did pretty quickly and was able to carry on the next day—phew!). I have so many memories of him, but that’s one of my favorites. He may have been an executive director, but at heart he’s a meeting planner, too, and whatever came up at the annual conferences (and of course, there’s always something), he and his staff handled it with aplomb.

I’m sure many things will be said about his leadership of the organization, his strength of will, his fierce desire to provide the best education out there for his members, his sensitivity to the unique needs of an organization whose membership is ecumenical and religious simultaneously, his sense of humor, his laser-like focus on the details…it’s really hard to imagine RCMA without him at the helm. But while it’s sad to see him go (what I wouldn’t give to go to his farewell banquet!), I’m sure he and the board have given as much attention to the succession as they did to everything else, and that Rev. Schmidt will both carry on the traditions and bring his own new ideas to the organization.

But what I really want to know is what Dr. Woodring will do with all that energy now that he won’t have RCMA to pour it into. I hope his lovely wife Donna and his kids and grandkids can keep him occupied! My best wishes for a long and happy retirement, Dr. Woodring. You are truly one of a kind.

David Peckinpaugh’s new position as president of Maritz Travel is big news for sure, but how it gets pushed out to the world can be, well, interesting. Take this account on ancient-wall.com which, as my colleague who scoped this version out this morning so aptly noted, “is so crazy, as if the original press release got translated into another language and then translated back into English.” A brief snippet:

“Today, Maritz announced it has allocated David Peckinpaugh, former vice boss of business expansion for HelmsBriscoe, to boss of Maritz Travel Company, a tellurian personality in meetings, events and inducement travel. Peckinpaugh will assume his purpose Jun 13 and will be obliged for a leadership, vital prophesy and ubiquitous management of Maritz Travel. Interim boss Jane Herod will continue to offer as Maritz Travel’s arch handling officer, expanding her current care purpose within a business.”

Say what??

(Trish Rafferty, I’m dedicating this post to you—enjoy!)

(Update: Please note that this is not Maritz’s work; the original press release is perfectly grammatical and sensible. I don’t know what happened in between their issuing it and this version being published, but it must have been a doozie.)

I just read this post from TSA’s blogger Bob about the quick actions TSA agents took as the tornadoes ripped through the St. Louis airport. I tend to be a touch critical of TSA, but in this case, there are a few people who must be awfully glad they were at the airport in their time of need.

David Spain of The Luxury Partnership was on the scene at the fabulous royal wedding of Prince William and Kate last week. Here’s his report:

One thing is for sure – you don’t see much at a Royal wedding unless you’ve been personally invited, you have a press pass or you’re prepared to camp out on the pavement two nights before, and I couldn’t check any of those boxes. What you do get though is a real sense of occasion, a memory that lasts a lifetime and being able to say with a good deal of pride: “I was there!”

Weddings are generally happy occasions and it was clearly evident that was the case for the one million well-wishers squashed in front of Westminster Abbey and lining the route to Buckingham Palace, up Whitehall and down the Mall, plus an overflow crowd in Trafalgar Square who watched on large screens and were entertained by Boris Johnson, London’s flamboyant mayor as soon as he’d scooted back from the Abbey.

How do you plan an event such as a Royal wedding? It was an event that had two significant challenges: 1) it was only announced at the end of November, just five months before, and 2) statistically it’s mind-blowing – a service in Westminster Abbey (a place of worship for over 1,000 years) for 1,900 dignitaries; at Buckingham Palace a wedding breakfast for 650 high-ranking guests of Champagne and canapés followed by an evening dinner for 300 of William and Kate’s friends, with dancing; 8,000 accredited journalists; 5,000 police officers and an army of “event personnel” providing crowd control that ensured the size of the crowd was at all times contained and manageable; a few hundred army, air force and navy personnel and those impressive Household Cavalry with very large horses; a fly past, at exactly 13:31, of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight — two Spitfires and one Wellington Bomber, followed by four Tornados, flying over Trafalgar Square, the Mall and the Palace; …and don’t forget the technical aspects of providing live feed to the two billion who watched it all on TV around the globe! And a whole lot more.

Also, one of the wonderful aspects of the Royal wedding was the way in which so many more than the million along the route were able to be engaged and participate by way of the countless wedding parties – village parties/street parties /block parties/house parties, from the Barking Road in Camden Town, to Battersea to Bucklebury (Kate’s home town), where 2,600 locals reveled in their village green festivities.

“It was nice …fantastic, legendary planning…” , said Peter York, writer/royal journalist on a BBC-TV morning chat-show the morning after. Boris Johnson, London’s mayor, raising his glass of Champagne to toast the happy couple and imploring the rest of us in Trafalgar Square to do likewise, even though the rest of us didn’t have any Champagne, said the wedding was a “complete triumph, bringing people together as a community”.

There was no one single organizer of course, in spite of the fact that Pippa Middleton, Kate’s chief bridesmaid and stunning sister, owns her own event company called “Table Talk”, and her parents have a (now) well-known, on-line, party supply company. It is reported that Pippa played a hand in the organization of the wedding breakfast and dinner at Buckingham Palace, but that’s just one small part of the mosaic that was the Royal Wedding. Ultimately it came down to the personal wishes of William and Kate, both of whom were very much involved, supported by all those who had their own specific responsibilities, from Church to crime, from Team Middleton to traffic control …an almost infinite list. What was really impressive was that given the enormity of the task how impressive an event it was.
A few interesting anecdotes:

The Choirboys from the Westminster Abbey Choir, and the Choir of the Chapel Royal, will each receive £7,500 ($US 12,300 approx) in royalty payments for their broadcasting rights around the world. The Choir of Westminster Abbey is made up of 30-dedicated choirboys who attend the Abbey’s Choir School and 12 adults known a Lay Vicars. The Choir of the Chapel Royal is made up of ten schoolboy choristers and six adults, known as Gentlemen-in-Ordinary. The boys all attend the £4,350 ($US 7,100 approx) per term City of London School.

There was surprise that William was in the uniform of a Colonel of the Irish Guards, not the RAF, for whom he is a full-time Search and Rescue helicopter pilot. Sarah Burton at Alexander McQueen, who designed the dress, lives and works in London and it’s anticipated that it will be a shot in the arm for London fashion for years ahead. Bookies heavily favored odds on the Queen wearing a yellow hat …and they were right! The open top car that William drove Kate from the Palace the half mile to Clarence House after the wedding breakfast, complete with “just married” cans on the back, the number (tag) plate JU5T WED and the red “L” (for learner) on the front, was Prince Charles’ 1969 Aston Martin Volante, a gift from the Queen on his 21st birthday.

Two intrinsically “mean spirited” aspects of the wedding that left their mark: the lampposts in Trafalgar Square were resplendent in their fresh “anti-climb” paint and children hanging off the very same lampposts were covered with generous, hard to get off, dollops of paint. And the fact that, traditionally, still-living prime ministers are always invited to official events of this magnitude. David Cameron, John Major and Margaret Thatcher were indeed invited, while Tony Blair and Gordon Brown weren’t! The difference – those invited are Conservative and those not are Socialists. It was seen as a particularly mean snub to Tony Blair who had done so much after Princess Diana’s death to convey the mood of the people to an initially indifferent Queen.

And lastly, it was a bit of a surprise that rather than Kate’s expected official title of Her Royal Highness Princess Catherine, the Queen conferred on William the title of Duke of Cambridge and so Kate becomes Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Cambridge. It could be thirty years until William becomes King though, and Catherine his Queen, so we common folk have been told its okay to refer to the couple as Prince William and Princess Catherine. That’s a relief.

The Monarchy is an institution that remains at the core of British life and in spite of a dramatically changed demographic and the media revolution since the wedding of Princess Diana to Prince Charles which has changed the way we see the royals, one statistic claims that 80% of the British support the monarchy in the UK. “The British people turn out for the Monarchy regardless of whether they’re Republicans or Monarchists, because it’s Britain at its best”, said Arthur Edwards, the Royal photographer for The Sun, a popular British tabloid.

While for the most part the 1,900 guests at the wedding in Westminster Abbey looked decidedly short on the common man and heavy on the old-school elite – “looking forward to nostalgia” as one commentator described it, it probably is a fact that William and Kate have injected new vigor into the Monarchy. Even so it’s possible that this “strange fascination for Britain’s longest running soap opera by the British…”will as a result only be extended by another 20-years or so before its inevitable collapse imposed by a multi-cultural society that no longer relates to the Monarchy and demands its leaders be elected by popular vote.

True or not, there’s no denying the Royal Wedding was one hell of a party and the vast majority of us wish the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, a long and very happy life together. Long live Prince William and Princess Catherine!

Joan Eisenstodt, chief strategist of Eisenstodt Associates, LLC, is no stranger to awards—she’s been inducted into the Convention Industry Council’s Hall of Fame,, recognized as an Educator by the PCMA Foundation for Lifetime Achievement, and earned the International Association of Conference Center’s Pyramid Award for sustained contributions to IACC education.

Now she’s done it again: She just became the first non-IACC member to win the Mel Hosansky Award for Distinguished Service since Mr. Hosansky himself. Congratulations to Joan for this honor, but more to the point, thanks for all the work, advice, teaching, learning, prodding, moderating, facilitating, mentoring, and championing Joan has done and continues to do for this industry and, if I had to hazard a guess, I’d say likely thousands of individuals within it. And I know just how passionate she is about the role of conference centers in the meetings industry, so this is just right on so many levels.

According to a press release, she said as she received the award, “This is the ultimate! Particularly since it’s named for somebody who had more integrity than anyone I’ve known in hospitality. I see the award as reflective of Mel’s value and contributions to this industry segment, and that’s particularly meaningful to me.” She also expressed hope that “IACC conference centers would continue to be true to their mission, that they would be places where true learning would happen.”

Congratulations to Joan on winning this award, which is a special one to us here at MeetingsNet. While I never had the pleasure of knowing Mr. Hosansky, I did get to work with his daughter Tamar Hosansky, when she served as editor of Medical Meetings.

Oh, and did I mention that ahem, our publisher, Melissa Fromento, also won IACC’s Pyramid award this year? I don’t want to blow our own horn too much, but Melissa has put her heart and soul into the IACC Thought Leader Summit since she facilitated the first Summit in 2008 (she chaired the 2010 and 2011 Summits as well), and served for four years on the Annual Meeting Conference Planning Committee. How good was this year’s summit? I wasn’t able to attend in person, but the thought-leader summit my colleague and I attended virtually was dynamite (here’s our writeup of that session if you want to check it out for yourselves).

The Canadian Society of Professional Event Planners has honored 11-year CanSPEP member Sandy Biback, CMP, CMM, of Imagination + Meeting Planners Inc., with its Industry Builder Award for her work in educating the current, and the next, generation of meeting planners. I’ve known Sandy for a while now, and she is an educator to her soul. Good call, CanSPEP!

Congratulations also to the other winners: Paul Marchildon (Industry Innovator); Julie Holmen (Industry Mentor); Jessica Ambrose (Industry Rising Star); Susan Prophet (Industry Volunteer); Nicola Kastner (Industry Planner); and Jane Wallbridge (Industry Veteran).

Congratulations to the award-winners of Event Marketers experiential marketing awards, including Cisco, which beat out some worthy competitors to win the 2010 Grand Ex.

A couple more good reads I’d like to mention, in case you need some blogs to peruse over the upcoming long, hot (at least it will be here in New England) weekend:

It seems like everyone knows Joan Eisenstodt, of Eisenstodt and Associates fame, the listmistress of the MiForum community and ubiquitous speaker at meetings industry events. But did you know she’s also a blogger? Check out Eisenstodt on Meetings, where you can chat with Joan about everything from risk management to the viability of virtual meetings.

And just this morning I learned about Michelle Bruno’s fabulous new blog, Fork In the Road. Michelle, a long-time meeting planner who has written about a gazillion articles, tackles the ever-growing synergies between social media and meetings in Fork, and it’s a fascinating read.

Update: Tech guru Corbin Ball just started up a new blog about meeting technology called Corbin’s TechTalk Meetings Technology Blog. Definitely one to keep an eye on.