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Professional Development
  • Posted by Jason Hensel at
    12:00AM 03/14/2013 • 0 Comments

    The Tie Between Convention Centers and Educational Trends

    Melissa Greenwood, SmartBrief’s senior education editor, recently wrote about five educational trends she saw at last week’s SXSWedu Conference and Festival in Austin, Texas.

    Two trends, though, stuck out to me as immediately relevant to our industry: “let learning be iffy,” and “bring students in as curriculum designers.” 

    “Learning should be iffy in the sense that students don’t always know the outcome when starting out, [Dale Dougherty, president and CEO of Maker Media] explained, adding that makers need three things: projects, process and practice, and space to create,” Greenwood wrote. 

    Space to create is right in line with what MPI’s Future of Meetings research shows. Convention center managers and architects should keep in mind space in which to play, as it’s tantamount to engagement and innovation.

    “Architect [Robert] Hopkins sees new concepts emerging in educational buildings based on new social and scientific knowledge,” Jackie Mulligan wrote in “From the Outside In: Meeting Distribution.” “He says that in large schools, he’s working on creating communities of approximately 120 pupils who have their own spaces to look after. Then, there are collaboration spaces for small groups, large working spaces and open plan designs.”

    If they’re not already, convention center managers should be seeking to provide spaces (indoor and outdoor) for multi-sized groups in order to accommodate the varied teaching and learning styles of presenters and attendees. 

    And now that we’re talking about presenters, amend “bring students in as curriculum designers” to “bring attendees in as curriculum designers.” This already happens during un-conferences, at which participants lead or facilitate discussions. What I’m talking about, however, is offering space to attendees to create their own content outside of what your event may be focused on. Perhaps an attendee can see a link in content that you don’t see. Encourage that type of spontaneous or off-the-cuff creation and engagement.

    Once again, adaptable space is needed for such activities. 

    “…impromptu meetings will need to be catered for, according to Chris Sanderson, a co-founder of The Future Laboratory,” Mulligan wrote. “Spaces will be designed to enable facilitation of rapid meetings, or at least ad-hoc meetings.”

    By keeping track of educational trends, we can know better the trends in our industry. Because, when it comes down to it, the best meeting professionals are educators at heart. 

    What kind of trends from other industries do you see affecting meetings and events?



  • Posted by Jason Hensel at
    12:00AM 09/19/2011 • 0 Comments

    Tinley Park Convention Center Expansion

    State and village officials gathered recently at the Tinley Park Convention Center—located in Chicago’s Southland region about 25 minutes from downtown Chicago—to celebrate the completion of a major facility expansion that doubled its size and added new amenities.

    “This expansion creates an enormous leap for the convention center’s competitive edge in the regional marketplace,” said Tinley Park Mayor Edward Zabrocki. “With the anticipated creation of new jobs and its effect on the local hospitality and convention services sector, the new facility is expected to bring to our area an annual economic impact of US$265 million.”

    The expanded Tinley Park Convention Center features 70,000 square feet of event space, 18 breakout rooms, a 12,000-square-foot ballroom, full food service offerings and an attached 202-room hotel.

    “The expanded Tinley Park Convention Center meets the needs of the majority of meeting, event and convention planners, and its close proximity to restaurants, services, downtown Chicago, O’Hare and Midway airports and the interstate system make Tinley Park an ideal location for Midwestern meetings, events, trade shows and conferences,” said Jim Garrett, president and CEO of the Chicago Southland CVB.



  • Posted by Jason Hensel at
    12:00AM 04/29/2011 • 0 Comments

    New Milano Congress Center Opens

    Europe’s largest congress center opens its doors on May 7 in Milano, Italy. The new structure, managed by Fiera Milano Congressi, will accommodate up to 18,000 people and will include a 1,500-seat auditorium, meeting space with 4,500 seats, 64 meeting rooms and 54,000 square meters of exhibition area. On its opening day, the congress center's name and logo will be announced.

    The project, designed by architects Mario Bellini for the exterior and Pierluigi Nicolin for the interior, reuses for congress purposes part of the exhibition space (Halls 5 and 6) no longer used by Fiera Milano in the city and integrates them with the already existing Milano Convention Center (MIC), which was already Italy's largest congress center. 

    “The decision to triple the size of the MIC is derived from the demands of the market," said Francesco Conci, executive director of Fiera Milano Congressi. "There are international conferences of more than 10,000 delegates taking place, for which we are now—with the new complex—able to compete. And the extension project has immediately been successful, as we already have international events booked in the new center up until 2017, for between 5,000 and 20,000 delegates. In effect, we thought immediately of international congresses with large numbers, but we have also had strong interest from the corporate sector, which likes the design and the high standard of technology available.”



  • Posted by Michael Pinchera at
    12:00AM 03/15/2011 • 0 Comments

    Convention Ctr. Debate Cont.

    Jacksonville, Fla., is concerned about convention space, not having enough of it and losing hundreds of millions of dollars, according to an editorial in The Florida Times-Union.

    "That debate [of whether or not to expand meeting and event infrastructure]--whenever it kicks in--will be a lot about the money it will take to build a new center. But it should also be about the money we'll miss out on if we don't at some point."



  • Posted by Jason Hensel at
    12:00AM 10/18/2010 • 0 Comments

    Buoying Budgets

    My hometown of Granbury was recently featured on public station KERA as part of their "Your Town, Texas" series, which explores the economic and political concerns of four north Texas towns. 

    What caught my ear, though, was the discussion about the Granbury CVB and how dissolving it caused a drop in tourism.

    "Our city opted to dissolve the convention and visitors bureau," said Rod Bleeker, owner of American Heritage House Bed and Breakfast."It was we have austere times and so we need to cut salaries, with the exception of staffing at our convention center. And when that happened, when you graph it, whoa, there was another significant drop."

    Granbury has focused on its new Resort and Convention Center during these tough times, drawing interest from regional planners and creating a healthy buzz.

    "This has certainly been a positive influence," said Charlie McIlvain, who manages the center. "And this is something else, if this facility had not been here the last two years, with the economy being as flat as it has been, we would have really felt, you know, the economic downturn would have been a lot more critical here in Granbury than it was."

    I'm curious if other, smaller cities are experiencing the same thing—namely, the meetings business buoying budgets.  



  • Posted by Jason Hensel at
    12:00AM 08/26/2010 • 0 Comments

    Stacked Chair Inventor Dies

    You may not recognize the name David Rowland right off, but I'm sure as a planner or supplier you know his work. He's the inventor of the 40/4 (40 chairs stacked four feet high). 

    Rowland created the chair in the late 1950s, and it's now included in permanent museum collections around the world, such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York. His chairs can be found in all kinds of venues, from rural clubs to churches to convention centers. 

    Rowland passed away on Aug. 13 at the age of 86 in Marion, Va.