GOLD MINE: The Aspen Institute — as well as celebrities — call this former mining town home. Participants in a recent press trip to this breathtaking destination discovered why Aspen is where skiers, music fans, thought lead- ers, and those who just love the great outdoors flock (see p. 18).
HO CAN IGNORE A GOVERNMENT report claiming that the U.S. Depart- ment of Justice (DOJ) was charged $16 each for muffins at one if its conferences? Certainly not the national media, which blew up that takeaway from a recent audit of confer- ence-planning and food-and-beverage costs at DOJ meetings. As it turns out, the real story was much less interesting. The report — prepared by DOJ’s inspector general — found a pattern of “wasteful or extravagant spending” at 10 DOJ conferences held between October 2007 and September 2009, exemplified by “one confer- ence [that] served $16 muffins while another served Beef Wellington hors d’oeuvres that cost $7.32 per serving.” That was all it took. CBS News reported:
“Muffingate: DOJ pays big bucks for snacks.” In The Washington Post: “A $16 muffin? Justice Dept. audit finds ‘wasteful’ and extravagant spending.” And so on. But, having learned its lesson from its slow response to the AIG Effect three years ago, the meetings industry didn’t hesitate to punch back — with multiple organizations pointing out that the report fundamentally misunderstood how conference billing works. “The information was improperly looked at, improperly analyzed, improperly reported,” Charles Sadler, CGMP, CHSP, CHSC, executive director and CEO of the Society of Government Meeting Professionals, said in an interview with Convene. “But no one from that office will come back and say that.” Right after the report became public, Hilton continued on page 19
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News and notes for the meetings and conventions industry