April 25, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

At Tradeshow Week, our work week is essentially reversed. Instead of winding down on Friday afternoon, we are busy preparing to go to press on Monday and still going full steam ahead getting stories done while most people are drifting off to a relaxing weekend.

So, what usually happens is that on Tuesday morning we figure out what we are doing for the next issue and some time around Wednesday afternoon, Thursday morning, if lots of news hasn’t come in, a mild sense of panic starts to set in.

Are things happening we don’t know about? Or is it really just a slow news week? I will tell you from the experience of working for a few different news establishments now, this is something ...Read More

April 1, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

At this point, it’s hard to keep track of all the bad news coming from the airline industry about canceled flights and passengers stranded for one reason or another. Besides all of the winter storms that left people scattered around the country trying to get somewhere else with snow and wind getting in the way in the midst of it all, Southwest Airlines got into massive trouble for not checking their planes out properly.

To Southwest’s credit, they said they had filed all of their maintenance records with the Federal Aviation Administration and assumed everything was up to snuff, but the FAA balked at what it deemed to be serious lapses by Southwest and grounded a slew of planes. Of course, passengers who had no warning were caught up in the ensuing chaos as plane...Read More

February 14, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

I always say I may have been born in a small town in Ohio, but I “grew up” in the Big Apple, having arrived in New York City when I was 19.

So, suffice it to say the now-canceled plan to substantially expand the decrepit Jacob K. Javits Center of New York, which it desperately needed to stay competitive, was, well, personal.

After all, New York is one of the greatest cities in the entire world, one that I and millions of others have, and do, live in. The fact that it has a smaller convention center than 15 other U.S. cities, including Louisville, Ky., and Harrisburg, Pa., is just ludicrous.

At this point, ...Read More

December 21, 2007 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

Sometimes, as a reporter, a story that starts out as one thing takes on a life of its own in a very short period of time due to unforeseen circumstances. Such is the case with a story currently posted on our Web site, “New Orleans’ Image Suffers,” that will also appear in our Jan. 7 issue.

It all started on the showfloor at the Intl. Assn. of Exhibitions and Events’ Expo! Expo! at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas Dec. 10-12. My colleague Heidi Genoist and I met Bob Johnson, who heads up the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans.

Johnson was bemoaning a University of New Orleans study released earlier that day based on a survey o...Read More

November 19, 2007 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

A lot of cities are working on revitalizing their downtowns. Oftentimes, once-thriving areas have waned over the years as people and businesses moved to the suburbs, but now more and more downtowns are making a comeback, or at least trying to.

I was recently in Dallas, and the skyline is dotted with cranes everywhere. I was in town for the 50^th anniversary of the CVB and convention center, and was lucky enough to have someone from the bureau take me on a tour of downtown.

We walked the arts center, with three art museums already there; a performing arts center, theater and refurbished arts school are also on the way. Pretty impressive. 

Mixed-use developments, such as Victory Park, have high-end hotels that are fairly new, such a...Read More