May 4, 2012 Julie Ballard
The media frenzy in the wake of the GSA spending scandal landed in our laps --- when Senator Coburn (R-OK) introduced legislation that, if passed, would severely harm any event or exhibition organizer who engages with federal agencies and their employees. Details of the mess went out yesterday to all domestic members in a Legislative Bulletin along with a call to action. If there is any good news to this episode, a powerful coalition of industry organizations immediately came together in an...

April 20, 2012 Julie Ballard
26 students will attend the first-ever session in Taipei. Al Lomas has been teamed up with a local instructor to present the inaugural program. It took us nearly eight years to secure permission to conduct programming in Taiwan from our colleagues in Beijing and another two years to create the Taiwan syllabus. 

April 13, 2012 Julie Ballard
Next week we provide the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security with answers to their follow-up questions arising from testimony we presented in March. We need reports especially from China and India of those who were denied visas and could not attend a US-based event. The Subcommittee is very sympathetic to our concerns and it is crucial that we arm them with incident reports with which to challenge the State Department and Homeland Security. Please share information with...

April 6, 2012 Julie Ballard
We issued the annual Call for Presentations this week for sessions at Expo! Expo! 4-6 December 2012 in Orlando, Fla. this week --- Members who wish to present at the meeting must submit their proposals to us on or before 25 April!   Submissions will be accepted until 1:00 p.m. CDT on Wednesday, 25 April. Additional information about the process and criteria can be found here . Selected presenters will participate in at least two of the following pre-show education events to...

March 30, 2012 Julie Ballard
The Committee clerk has reached out to us for more detail especially about delegations of buyers whose visa applications were rejected. If you can share details with me about any key buyers or exhibitors who were rejected for visas in the last two years please send along a detailed description ( shacker@iaee.com ). Include the consular location, circumstances, especially important will be any indications that the individual or group had previously attended your event(s) without incident....

March 29, 2012 Julie Ballard
Watch this video and find out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVueonLI7_4

March 23, 2012 Julie Ballard
Consider being the author for the Strategic Planning chapter! If you have knowledge on how to develop a strategic business plan for exhibitions and have an interest in being published, let us know. The chapter has a maximum length of 3,750 words and a basic outline will be provided. Authors are eligible to receive hours toward CEM recertification, and the contribution also meets CMP recertification requirements. If you can help, contact Cathy Breden ( cbreden@iaee.com ).

March 16, 2012 Julie Ballard
An IAEE WHITE PAPER on Wi-Fi and Internet Access at Exhibition Facilities --- serves as an important learning resource and a first important step on the path to manage what promises to be the industry’s next really big challenge. The proliferation of tablet devices and smart phones is quickly overwhelming the existing infrastructure of most places of public assembly including the floor of exhibitions and trade shows. More than 60 million tablets will be sold in the US in the next year...

March 9, 2012 Julie Ballard
The Chairman of the Singapore Convention and Exhibition Association, (the organization with whom IAEE signed a Reciprocity Agreement in December) announced this week the intention of the city and government to build the world’s largest exhibition facility. It will contain 4.3 million sq ft of indoor space and another 1 million sq ft outdoors. The existing facility in Shanghai, the New Shanghai Exhibition Center can no longer accommodate many of the nations’ burgeoning events...

March 9, 2012 Julie Ballard
STEP- A federal grant program you may want to look into if you are doing or planning to do business across borders. The State Trade and Export Promotion Program (STEP) is a 3-year pilot trade and export initiative authorized by the Small Business Jobs Act of 2010. Funded by federal grants and matching funds from the states, the STEP Program is designed to help increase the number of small businesses that are exporting and to raise the value of exports for those small businesses that are...