Written by: Vickie Sullivan  |  April 02, 2013

Let’s Fight Back

Spring is in the air so it must be time to…beat up the meetings industry.  First Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn introduces an amendment to limit Federal employees from attending conferences.  (Withdrawn at press time, but you never know when it will pop back up.)

Then The Wall Street Journal jumps into the act with a March 8th column  “Conferences are Bordellos for the Brain” from technology and science writer Holly Finn.  (If Ms. Finn is an expert on the power of meetings, well then…I’m a science and technology expert.  For those of you who know me, stop laughing.)

Here’s what these strange bedfellows forget:  the power of face-to-face interactions.  The access attendees get to us in real time before and after the speech.  How opportunities are created after the concurrent sessions are over.  If this isn’t a case of “penny-wise and pound foolish” then I don’t know what is.

The meetings industry is fighting back with media responses and petitions.  Maybe it’s time we step it up as well and voice our displeasure.  Just think:  how many people could we educate if we spent just one blog post on this issue?  To make it easy for you, here are the links from Successful Meetings:

Conferences are Bordellos for the Brain

Federal Bill Limits Government Attendance