Event Profiles

Meeting Professionals International, the official sponsor of Smart Monday, has added five new programs to the inaugural day of IMEX America.

Paws for a Break

MPI is teaming up with Love Dog Adventures—a Las Vegas animal-assisted therapy program. Designed as a stress-reducing activity, several dogs will be present during Smart Monday for attendees to cuddle with. These puppy sessions are quickly becoming a hot new trend and have been featured in a number of World Education Congresses. Puppy Cuddling is sponsored by Visit Norfolk.

Q&A With Event Director Jaime McAuley

Do you have conferences you look forward to every year? Ones where you learn, see a lot of people you know in the industry, and have fun? That is a special combination and one that can almost guarantee planners decent attendance numbers. The two conferences I nearly always attend are the Colorado Governor’s Tourism Conference, held just a few days ago in Mt.

A stellar PAMPI event is just around the corner.

Taking place Aug. 19 at the Franklin Institute the “The Art of Connecting People” is free for PAMPI members and is sure to be an enlightening opportunity.

Jessica L. Levin, MBA, CMP, CAE, president and chief connector, Seven Degrees Communications, LLC., will discuss ways in which to get people excited with volunteering and membership organization and how to maintain that enthusiasm.

Food festivals have become as common as movie openings in Los Angeles, with one or more just about every weekend. But L.A. Loves Alex's Lemonade, which took place a couple of weeks ago on a grassy plaza on the UCLA campus, stands apart from the rest - in both the top toques it attracts and the cause it supports. The event benefits Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation, a nonprofit that funds research into childhood cancer.

Timed to include a sunset over the Newport Beach Harbor, the launch party for Newport Beach’s new culinary marketing initiative Dine Newport Beach had a picture-perfect backdrop that only a California coastal city can provide.

Summertime is wine tasting event season in California. Every weekend brings at least one major, long-standing event to cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego with entire weekends like San Luis Obispo’s Roll Out the Barrels (2014 was the 24^th edition) ongoing in wine country. How does a new wine event stand out and attract participants in this crowded schedule? The organizers of the Garagiste Wine Festivals came up with a winning formula in 2011.

Sure, Boston likes to claim its independent roots, but nothing screams American independence quite like Philadelphia. And while we are on the subject of all things American, few things seem more red-blooded, good old US of A than a cold beer. That’s why Visit Philly is serving up one of the best festivals this summer - the "Summer of the Beer Garden." This 12-week festival features pop-up happy hours on Fridays in six distinct settings.

Cafe Pinot sits adjacent to the Central Library in downtown Los Angeles.

You may say to-may-toes and I may say to-mah-toes, but when it comes to San Luis Obispo’s Ode to Tomatoes festival, one would have to be a fool to call the whole thing off. So, when I was invited to the third annual tomato festival by SLO’s Boutique Hotel Collection, I wisely said yes and asked a friend from San Francisco to meet me. The Central Coast is midway between L.A. and San Fran, less than a four-hour drive in either direction.