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February 2007

Enchanting New Mexico

Albuquerque’s more than 100 art galleries and studios should be the first clue that the city tends to provoke the creative spirit. A mere glance around explains the city’s inspirational effect. 

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Destinations

Albuquerque

This Southwestern state renews, revitalizes and rejuvenates

Albuquerque’s more than 100 art galleries and studios should be the first clue that the city tends to provoke the creative spirit. A mere glance around explains the city’s inspirational effect.

 

Lake Tahoe

Shared by California and Nevada, Lake Tahoe’s “blue world” draws large

Mark Twain was right on the money when he described his first look at Lake Tahoe in 1861: “At last the lake burst upon us—a noble sheet of blue water lifted six thousand three hundred feet above the level of the sea, ...

Portland

The Rose City’s efficiency, accessibility and love for the environment will come like a breath of fresh air for your meeting

It’s a city where parking meters are solar powered, where city planners ripped out a four-lane highway and replaced it with a park and where meticulously synchronized stoplights at 225 intersections have saved an estimated 1.1 million gallons of gas annually.

Los Angeles

Come to L.A.'s Wetside and tank the tried-and-true

Saturday morning, while stopped at an intersection on Sunset Boulevard, I had an epiph-any about Los Angeles, my native city.

Palm Springs

As Ivana put it, don't get even, get everything!

As Ivana put it, don't get even, get everything!

Yosemite

A Life-Changing Experience

Yosemite's history and immense beauty will inspire your meeting with a life-changing experience.

Santa Fe

This southwestern state renews, revitalizes, and rejuvenates

Though Santa Fe isn’t the biggest city in New Mexico, no one can deny it its capital status. It is, in fact, the oldest and highest capital city in America.

Brand News

Flight Plan

Meeting planners have been warily watching the cost of air travel climb even as travel budgets remain static. Airline mergers and cutbacks have resulted in fewer flights, fewer seats and myriad new baggage rules that are anything but uniform. That makes planning for 2007 a daunting task.

I Love My Job

Seven top Bay Area meeting professionals gathered to dish at the fabulous new Le Méridien San Francisco Hotel at our recent Smart Meetings reader roundtable. They represented a cross-section of organizations, from independent-to-legal-to-retail-to-association-to-medical, but their likes were remarkably similar.

Not Your Assembly Line Meeting

Chuck Salem, headquartered in Pennsylvania, is holding a sales workshop in San Francisco this month. His group will be meeting at MicroTek Computer Labs, where instead of handing out big, thick manuals, he’ll provide everyone with a JumpDrive for the entire presentation. When they plug it in, it’ll display the same (slide) as on the screen, with a notes page beside it.

Off-Sites That Work II

This exceptional article ran in the June 2006 issue of Harvard Business Review. The points on best practices for designing off-sites are of such merit that we want to present the feature to you in its entirety. This is the second and final installment. (You’ll find Part I, “Preparing for the Meeting,” in our January issue.)

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Show us how smart you are and request FREE property information from our Smart Cart and you could win a trip to Mexico

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A publication tailored for you, the meeting planner professional. We focus exclusively on locations in the western United States (including Alaska and Hawaii), Mexico and Canada.