News

SEC Group Teams with Losberger

The SEC Group has signed on to handle sales and support for Losberger U.S. in the Western and Southeastern United States.

SEC’s home office in Wilsonville, Ore., will provide sales and support for Losberger’s line of tent products on the West Coast, while its Atlanta office will offer services in the Southeast.

“The SEC Group, with its 30-years-plus of tent experience and the fact [that] they have used Losberger structures for numerous projects, makes them a perfect fit for our team,” said Pat Moughan, national sales manager for Losberger.

Great American Group still handles Losberger’s sales and support in the Midwest and Losberger handles the Northeast directly, Moughan said.

The SEC Group, headed by founder Spencer Etzel, also offers other tent-related items such as Baytex liners and Fibertech doors.

For more information, visit www.losbergerus.com or www.secsalesgroup.com.

New Speakers Bureau Launched

Ingage Inc., a start-up business-mentoring company in Hawaii, has launched a speakers bureau targeting the meetings, retreats and events industry with experts in teambuilding, finance, information technology, organizational development, and sales and marketing.

Ingage has retained 20 speakers in a variety of disciplines, including Lisa Burgin, former senior vice president of brand advertising for Bank of Hawaii, and Charles Daugherty, a former senior financial analyst for Microsoft. All are available nationwide.

“Companies are always looking for speakers to motivate and educate their employees and senior management,” said Christine Ing, president of Ingage. “Our speakers bureau features experts in their fields who have hands-on knowledge and experience in applicable and practical topics.”

The company charges $350 per hour, excluding travel costs.

For more information, visit www.ingagementors.com.

Vegas Departures Made Easy

Attendees of events and meetings at the Las Vegas Convention Center are now allowed to check their luggage at the convention center on the day they depart under a new program developed by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority in cooperation with McCarran International Airport.

The new service, available for now only to travelers on Southwest Airlines, costs $20, and includes retrieval of a boarding pass.

Airport officials said they hope to expand the remote check-in service to other Las Vegas locations in the future.

For more information, visit www.lvcva.com.

IFEA Names Temple Top Certificate Program

Temple University’s Event Leadership Executive Certificate Program was selected as the winner of the International Festivals and Events Association’s Gold Pinnacle award for Best Event Management Certificate Program.

Temple’s School of Tourism and Hospitality Management offers six certifications, including Certified Meeting Professional (CMP), Certified Exposition Manager (CEM), Certified Festival and Event Executive (CFEE), Certified Special Events Professional (CSEP), Certified Incentive Travel Executive (CITE) and Certified Meeting Manager (CMM).

“This honor is unique because it is the first time the award has been bestowed on an institution of higher education,” said Joe Goldblatt, senior lecturer at Temple University’s School of Tourism and Hospitality Management and executive director of the event leadership program. “Temple has not only won wide acclaim for this program, but it also sets the mark that others must meet or exceed in the future.”

The event leadership program includes courses in event solution processes, event outcomes, event sustainability, cooperative event leadership, entertainment and production, sponsorship and fundraising, and other related areas.

Students in the program usually have three to seven years of industry experience. The faculty includes producers of Super Bowl halftime shows, Event Solutions Event Industry Hall of Fame members and other leaders in the events industry.

For more information, visit www.temple.edu/STHM/el/.

Tent Maker Acquired

Meyco Products Inc., known primarily as a manufacturer of swimming pool covers, has acquired TopTec Inc., the event tent manufacturing division of EventTec.

TopTec, based in South Carolina, manufactures frame tents from 10-by-10-foot to 60 feet wide and push-pole tents from 15-by-15-foot to 80 feet wide.

“Special event tent rental companies have a reason to feel very good about the marriage of these two companies,” said John Ciniglio, president of Melville, N.Y.-based Meyco and its new subsidiary, TopTec Products LLC. “We plan to put the full resources of Meyco Products behind this product line, and support our rental partners just as we do with our nationwide safety pool cover dealers.”

For more information, visit www.eventtec.com.

Minneapolis-St. Paul Wins Republicans Over

The 2008 Republican National Convention will be held in Minneapolis-St. Paul, pending a vote by the Republican National Committee in January.

The group’s site selection committee recommended the Minnesota location after a site visit in August. Other cities under consideration were Cleveland, New York and Tampa-St. Petersburg.

“We are thrilled to accept the bid from Minneapolis-St. Paul
to host our 2008 convention,” RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman said
in a statement. “We are confident that we will partner for a successful event.”

The four-day event will be held at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, home of the National Hockey League’s Minnesota Wild.

Democrats were also considering the Twin Cities for their convention, but with the GOP’s announcement are now choosing between New York and Denver.

In making its choice, the GOP site selection committee took into account a number of factors, including the number and proximity of hotels, size of the arena and its capacity to hold the convention, transportation, security, media work space, convention office space, and ability to finance the operation.

The convention will be held Sept. 1-4, 2008.

For more information, visit www.gop.com.

New MPI Leader Named

Bruce MacMillan has been appointed president and CEO of Meeting Professionals International, beginning in December.

McMillan will leave his current post as president and chief executive of Tourism Toronto, a position he held for four years.

Lyle Hall, Tourism Toronto chairman, said MacMillan’s time there had been effective.

“Bruce joined us with a mandate to rebuild our organization on a number of fronts in order to more effectively lead and make a difference for the community’s tourism industry,” Hall said in a statement. “No one could have then imagined the significant challenges that would manifest for our industry and membership in the coming years but through it all, our organization has made substantial advances on all fronts.“

MacMillan isn’t new to MPI; he was vice president of marketing there prior to taking on the job in Toronto, and is currently a member of the international board of directors.

For more information, visit www.mpiweb.org.