 Dear Power of Travel Coalition,
Our efforts over the past several years to amplify the travel industry's relevance with policymakers resulted in a major win for our industry this week. Yesterday in Orlando, FL, President Obama announced a national strategy on travel and tourism to boost travel to and within the United States.
Key components of the President's initiative include the creation of an interagency task force charged with developing a National Travel & Tourism Strategy, shortening visa wait times, expanding Global Entry, promoting our national parks, and working to expand the visa waiver program.
 The New Year brings new possibilities for virtual meeting technologies and virtual meeting organizers, reports Michael Doyle, founder of Virtual Edge Institute. As the organization brings together leaders from the digital meeting industry at the 2012 Virtual Edge Summit in San Diego, CA from January 9-12, Doyle released his top seven predictions for the virtual meetings industry for 2012.
1. More movement toward a simpler, “less is more” approach.
The trend toward a more simplified, Web page-based graphical interface for online events and meetings will continue in 2012. Platform vendors are moving in the “less is better” direction with their new versions.
2. More embedded event and meeting solutions.
Events in 2012 will be open and easily accessible to attendees wherever they are located. Many event and meeting producers will want to take some code and embed their events and learning programs into their existing websites to simplify the attendee experience.
 Certain, Inc., a leading provider of cloud-based event management software for the global meetings and events industry, today released its 2012 predictions on technology trends that will drive increased business value from events. Based on insight from visionary industry leaders, customers and partners, Certain has identified key shifts that it believes will shape the industry over the next 12 months.
"2012 will kick off a breakthrough for the industry that will revolutionize the value that attendees, meeting professionals and executive sponsors derive from events," said Peter Micciche, CEO of Certain. "A tsunami of connectedness, driven by social, mobile and virtual, will ultimately enable the attendee engagement experience. Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter are mainstream, making integrated event marketing the new normal for event professionals. This integration of digital solutions with event planning software will result in 2012 as the 'year of the platform.' Software-as-a-Service solutions are now seamlessly woven together into a comprehensive ecosystem architecture designed to meet, track and measure planner, marketer, sponsor and attendee needs."
 With a stress score of 49.85, Event Coordinator lands the #6 spot on the list of most stressful jobs, according to the 2012 CareerCast.com Job Stress Report, an annual survey of 200 different professions that measures work environment, job competitiveness, and risk.
"An event coordinator is responsible for planning all logistics and activities associated with the events for which he or she is responsible," the CareerCast.com report states. "Though they may conduct many events through the year, any event may be a once-in-a-lifetime special occasion for the people involved. Therefore, events often have very high visibility and high stakes for the coordinator involved."
Enlisted Military Soldier earned the top spot as the nation’s most stressful job, while Medical Records Technician ranked as the least stressful.
 UFI, the Global Association of the Exhibition Industry, continues to develop market research to provide reliable data on the international exhibition market. Several recent studies provide statistics giving a good picture of the industry at three levels: venues, the events held in those venues, and the companies who organize those events.
UFI’s 2011 “World Map of Exhibition Venues” identifies 1,197 venues with a minimum of 5,000 square meters of indoor exhibition space worldwide, corresponding to a total gross indoor exhibition space of 32.6 million square meters. This is an increase of 57 venues since 2006, with an overall growth of 3.4 million square meters (54% of the increase is related to new venues and 46% to extensions of existing venues).
by Midwest Meetings  With a decade of experience in developing and implementing meetings, conferences, and events ranging in size from 45 to 28,000 attendees, Mitchell Biersner, CMP (Certified Meeting Professional) prides himself on his expertise to maximize ROI for organizations and clients. He’s recently come home to the Midwest, where he’s currently in between industry jobs and actively searching for the next great opportunity.
It’s a story all too familiar to other industry professionals still feeling the after-effects of budget cuts and staff reductions in recent years. Biersner discusses how he got here, his perspective of the Midwest job market, and what he’s doing to prepare for a return to the meetings industry.
 The inaugural IMEX America tradeshow last fall flooded meetings media pipelines with US and global industry buzz, plus tons of post-show survey data. From there, the IMEX Group released its predictions for the 2012 meetings, incentive travel, and events market, including the following.
1. Business is looking up – globalization is increasing.
In post-show survey comments, buyers indicated an uptick in business over the last 12 months — though predominantly at a conservative rate and mostly short-term focused. There is also a trend toward more, but smaller or shorter, meetings and events and slight growth in attendance at association meetings and events.
 Here at Midwest Meetings, we're always on the lookout for new columns, blogs, product/service reviews, and other content produced by and about meeting/event professionals.
As an active member of the online meetings community, your voice helps to influence the industry dialogue, and that's why I'm inviting you to consider Midwest Meetings as an additional outlet for your thoughts and opinions about the events world.
Do you have re-printable articles or current commentary, top-ten lists or tips and tricks, war stories or lessons learned, firsthand how-to's or personal reviews, photos or videos, or any other ideas or input you'd like to see online at MidwestMeetings.com or in print through Midwest Meetings magazine?
 What a difference a year can make. Unlike the start of 2011, the Incentive Research Foundation’s (IRF) latest survey of incentive industry trends finds planners struggling with the effects of an economy caught in a slow recovery.
According to IRF President Melissa Van Dyke, “Survey participants demonstrated that their program’s sensitivity to internal pressures, competitor reactions, and perceptions of extravagance were lower than in the spring and actually at a level equivalent to or below 2008. However, they cited the economy as having a significant impact on all incentive plans.”
 Meetings demand in 2012 appears to be on the rise, according to a recent survey and in-depth interviews of meeting experts, including planners, buyers, and hotel suppliers based around the world, conducted by American Express Meetings & Events. Of the meeting planners surveyed, 42% of North American respondents see signs of increased activity from their clients. Additionally, 60% of meeting suppliers also expect the number of meetings planned to increase.
Higher travel and meeting costs are anticipated, driving the need for companies to focus on striking the right balance of cost effectiveness and experience impact when selecting venues.
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