Ah, now to the meat of the Smart Meetings Summit! Our hearty band of planners met at the Diamond Head auditorium, a theater-in-the-round type of venue, for a seminar at sea. Cecilia Blevins, the account executive for Norwegian who partnered with us, took everyone through the steps of planning a meeting aboard Norwegian Cruise Line —a real “how to” that covered everything from the first phone call to the on-board experience. Each of the ship’s department heads, including food & beverage, guest services and room service, explained their function and how the cruise line worked with planners to produce smooth results. Q&As followed each presentation. These seasoned planners had all the Q’s covered; the crew had the A’s.

After Marin’s short-but-sweet presentation about the magazine and our vibrant online presence, smartmeetings.com, Mike Murray, CMP, CMM, CASE, vice president of sales and marketing corporate, meetings & incentives for the Hawaii VCB, took center stage. And center isn’t just a figure of speech—with this type of auditorium set-up, the speaker is in the center, surrounded by overhead screens for videos, PowerPoints and other types of presentations.

Spreading that “aloha” spirit around, Mike gave an overview of all the major Hawaiian islands: Oahu, Maui, the Big Island, Kauai, Molokai and Lanai. There’s plenty of news and exciting things happening here, from Waikiki Beach Walk to the $125-million renovation of The Ritz-Carlton Kapalua. There’s also plenty of meeting space (including a convention center on Oahu), and of course, plenty of things to do. For an easy example, about half of our group were off immediately after the seminar for a snorkeling adventure arranged (by popular demand—yesterday!) by MeetingBuilders. Talk about being fast on your feet!

We capped the day with a pre-dinner soiree at the Napa Wine Bar (guess what the cocktail du jour was here!) and a final group dinner at Little Italy, another of the ship’s theme restaurants. It must be the sea air—we all seem to be hungry and ready to dine at the mention of “dinner.” Or breakfast, or lunch, for that matter. 

We glide out of port tonight, and when we wake up tomorrow, we'll be in Kona (the Big Island). Is this fantastic, or what?