In a new survey of almost 9,000 business conference attendees, 78% of all generations report that destination factors into their decision, with 20-30% saying it's the deciding factor. Write-in comments ranged from destination appeal, to drivable distance, to airlift, to overall cost. Also mentioned was the importance of rotation and experiencing new places.

In a session titled Events and the Integrated Enterprise at BIMS last November, three industry experts recommended that publishers stay on the cutting edge for their events. This may not always be easy, but in discussions with publishers who have experienced drop-offs in attendance, it must be considered.

SIIA’s Executive Spotlight Series provides a look into some of the most successful executives in our industry. Hear how many of them got to where they are today, what is shaping their businesses and the industry today, and special advice they would give to others trying to grow a successful company.

The SIIA is delighted to introduce the newest member to SIIA’s Software & Services Division, CadmiumCD, an event management platform provider. I had a chance to sit down with Michael Doane, Head of Marketing at CadmiumCD to learn a little more about how technology is changing event management. Please find my interview below. Rhianna: Tell us about CadmiumCD and what makes you unique. Michael: CadmiumCD was founded in the year 2000 by the husband-wife team, Peter and Michelle Wyatt. They were chemical engineers at the time and attended industry conferences often. But they saw a problem: they had a library of conference proceedings binders that were taking up way too much space on their shelves back home. They thought there must be a better way. So they started taking those conference proceedings and putting them on CD for conference organizers. They then tackled the content collection problem by developing software which makes it easy for organizers to collect biographies, p ...