There’s something arrrfully shady happening on the hotel high seas. If no one is stationed in the crow’s nest, you might not see them coming. By then it will be too late. Overnight, your ship’s wheel will be taken over, and the next thing you know, you’re sailing toward the Attrition Strait.

I’m talking about pirates. Specifically room block pirates.

Vanessa LaClair, CMP, wrote a great blog entry titled “Case of the Room Block Pirates” for the Social Tables Blog, in which she offers a personal story of encountering pirates and how to fend them off with ease.

“Last week I was checking out the room block details for an event I plan to attend in July, when my phone rings,” wrote LaClair, immediate past president of the MPI Northeastern New York Chapter. “A representative (who I didn’t know) from a company (I didn’t recognize) was calling to tell me that the room block rate had been lowered and that they could get me all signed up—if I would just complete the form they planned to send me via email.”

LaClair says she provided her email address so that she could check out who was calling her.

“Once I received the info, I passed along this story and the form to the people directly involved with planning the event,” she wrote. “Come to find out, this so-called housing company that called me was actually a Room Block Pirate! Have you heard of this? I had seen stories floating around on Facebook recently, but this was the first I had ever been contacted by said Pirate.”

Check out her blog entry for the full story, along with her thoughts on what to consider when booking room blocks. And please let us know in the comments if you’ve ever encountered room block pirates.

And while we’re on the subject of “real” room blocks, be sure to check out the registration page

for the World Education Congress in Las Vegas. The rates at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino’s Main Tower and THE Hotel at Mandalay Bay are now US$150 and $190, respectively.

If your last business photo was taken at Glamour Shots, then now's your chance to update to an image that's more contemporary. 

Thanks to this year's official WEC photographers—Orange Photography—you can have a FREE professional headshot taken. Stop by MarketSquare booth #42 outside The Hub during one of the following times:

Saturday 2 - 4 p.m.;



Sunday 8 - 10 a.m. and 5 - 6 p.m.;



Monday 8 - 10 a.m. and 5 - 6 p.m.; and



Tuesday 10 a.m. - noon.

After your free photo is taken, you'll be handed an electronic copy of it to do with however you want. Perhaps you'll want to include it on your resume (stop in The Hub for resume advice), or maybe you'll want to update your MPI profile with a picture of yourself. The world is your oyster. Go crazy. 

(Glamour shot via Flickr: A. Currell / Creative Commons) 

Growth is an understatement when referring to the meeting and event industry in Latin America. Two of the world's largest events, The Olympic Games and the World Cup will grace the region in upcoming years, in Brasil specifically. 

In 2010, Brasil spent more than US$1.25 billion on events alone. 

This extensive growth in the region has lead to the evolution of the Latin American Meeting and Event Conference (LAMEC) in Sao Paoló, Brasil on December 12, 2011.

More than 300 delegates are expected to attend this conference specifically focused on the expanding professional and business development needs of meeting and event professionals in Latin America.

"During the past three years we have seen the meetings and events industry grow at an unprecedented rate in Latin America," said MPI President and CEO Bruce MacMillan. "MPI is committed to helping our Brasil chapter deliver upon that need to the industry in the region and beyond."

LAMEC will be modeled off of the success of MPI's European Meeting and Event Conference (EMEC) in Europe as well as World Education Congress (WEC) in the U.S.

For more information on LAMEC, visit www.mpilamec.com.br

For more information and to register for EMEC 2012 in Budapest, Hungary, visit http://www.mpiweb.org/Events/EMEC2012.

There's an interesting piece on The Faster Times website about journalist Peter Bergen.

"Peter Bergen was one of the first to regularly and consistently say that the best track to bin Laden would be through couriers, and my gut hunch is that the focus that the Obama/Donilon/Panetta team put on the Osama hunt followed the Bergen groove perhaps more earnestly than those that preceded it..." Steve Clemons wrote.

You may recall that Bergen was one of our speakers at last year's WEC in Vancouver. Just another example of the quality speakers we line up for our attendees year after year. 

Below is Bergen speaking to us about transportation security. 

Just my opinion, but the future of tradeshows is clear to me . . . the biggest ROI is in hosted buyer programs. Just look at the success that IMEX, EIBTM and even MPI have all had with hosted buyer programs in recent years. While other aspects of tradeshows have shown some decline since 2008, hosted buyer is on the rise. Why? Well, the proof is in the pudding as they say.

It's all about proving value. For the supplier the value is in knowing before the show even starts that the money spent on a booth is not going to waste because rather than standing around waiting for buyers to come to them, they have a list of pre-qualified buyers already on their schedule. One of the many values for buyers is time management—not having to roam around the tradeshow floor aimlessly looking for potential matches for their clients. Buyers and suppliers are pre-matched based on interests and needs so the one-on-one meetings create an entirely new definition of the business value of meetings.

Still not convinced? Well, as we reported in the October 2010 issue of One+, a great example of value from a hosted buyer meeting is the program MPI held at WEC 2010 in Vancouver, BC. Following the event, 88 percent of hosted buyers said they connected with suppliers who matched their needs and 97 percent said they planned to call on suppliers they met for future business.

More than US$450 million in business was contracted from the IMEX 2010 hosted buyer program in Frankfurt, and value is also seen in hosted buyer statistics from EIBTM in Barcelona. In 2009, EIBTM saw a 3 percent increase in attendance and a 4 percent increase in prescheduled appointments. The event just released its 2010 numbers today and reported increases in both categories again this year—a 5 percent increase in attendance and a 1.35% increase in prescheduled appointments.

I can tell you, while I was at EIBTM this past month, I did roam around the tradeshow floor periodically. You know what I saw? Business getting done. So often at tradeshows I see more people walking around picking up tchotchkes and I often wonder, there has to be a better way. Well, in my mind, the better way is clear. The ROI at tradeshows is participating in a hosted buyer program.

As hosted buyer programs grow in popularity around the globe, how will the concept change the dynamic of tradeshows? And even more important, many feel tradeshows are a dying breed. Are hosted buyer programs the saving grace? 

On a side note . . . If you're wondering about the strategic value of tradeshow tchotchkes, assistant editor Jessie States has a story for you too. Check it out in our November/December 2010 issue of One+.

I just discovered a new Web application thanks to Midori Connolly, and I feel like a kid getting a surprise present. It's called Almost.at, and it allows users to follow events in real time across multiple platforms such as Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, Foursquare and blogs.  

It's now my go-to application for following all things WEC related, along with another cool application, Paper.li, a newspaper rundown of what's happening at WEC via Twitter, videos, etc. Check them both out and stay in the loop!  

Finding unique bars is one of my favorite activities whenever I visit a city. Most of the time, I rely on friends that live in some place to show me their locals and haunts. But the most exciting finds are those just stumbled across out of the blue. 

Co-editor Michael and I were walking last night in Vancouver's Gastown looking for a bar to experience. We were about to enter one when Michael saw a sign pointing to a nearby basement bar. Well now, what do we have here, we thought. What we have, we discovered, was greatness. 

The place is Guilt and Company. The vibe is welcoming and fun. The staff all wear suspenders and hats. The music is jazzy (at least last night it was).  

"Our stage is an experiment. We bring artists (who may never have even met before) together to improvise on stage. It is a format that is entirely new to Vancouver…and it is exciting! Every performance is one of a kind," said the venue's website. Our kitchen is an experiment. We make pickles and antipastos from scratch. We make our own mustards and potato chips. You can buy a chunk of cheese off the wheel behind the bar. Our bar is an experiment. We infuse alcohols. We make all of our own bitters, tinctures and garnishes. Some of our drinks have aphrodisiac qualities. Others come with Polaroid pictures. We encourage collaboration, socialization, mingling and playing one or more of our 14 board games…preferably with people you’ve never met before."

Encouraging collaboration, socialization and mingling with people you've never met before sounds exactly like one of the many goals of WEC, of actually the whole meeting industry. In fact, let's just expand that and say that's what life is about. 

Guilt and Company features a comedy night on Wednesdays and live music Thursday through Saturday. I'll be going back there tonight after the Welcome Reception. Perhaps you'll join me?

See that fish there on the left? It's a sablefish, and because of its tasty nature, I may actually start liking fish. I already enjoy shellfish, but I've never really enjoyed non-shellfish. Fish has always been too, um, fishy tasting.

Today's lunch at Oru at the Fairmont Pacific Rim, though, featured sablefish as an appetizer. I have never tasted fish this good before. It was cooked perfectly and left me wanting more. Isn't that all you really want in a great meal, wanting more?