OCT. 4:Extra,Extra! Surely most of you read a couple of weeks ago about the now-infamous $16 muffins at a recent Justice Department meeting at the Capital Hilton inWashing- ton, D.C.Well, the ombuds- man for TheWashington Post, which brought the Jus- tice Department inspector general’s report that cited the costly pastry to the public’s attention (http://wapo.st /oRzmYv), recently revisited the issue, and determined that the reporting wasn’t entirely accurate. Patrick B. Pexton writes
(http://wapo.st/oI7aSA): “[A]s a journalist, my instinct tells me that the muffin story was just a bit too good to be true.” Turns out it was. The
total cost for F&B at the mandatory five-day immigra- tion-law training conference, which only provided break- fast and snacks for its 534 attendees, was $39,360, or $7,872 a day. “Divide that by 534 people attending,” Pexton writes, “and you get $14.74 per person per day for continental breakfast and snacks.” Pexton continues: “So why did the IG’s
office say the immigration judges were eating $16 muffins? Because the item- ized receipts from Hilton are imprecise: The coffee and fruit were provided free, and they allocated all the fees to the muffins, croissants, bagels, brownies, and cookies provided for morning and
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11_11 TWITTER: @pcmaconvene
afternoon refreshment. Hence it looks like $16 per morning pastry and $9 for afternoon brownies, cookies, and bags of chips. But really it was $14.74 per head per day.” Sounds like an open-and-
shut (and toasted, and but- tered) case to me. —Hunter R. Slaton
One of New York City’s most iconic buildings has now become one of its greenest: The 80-year-old Empire State Building has been awarded LEED Gold for Existing Buildings certification from the U.S. Green Building Council (www.esbsustainability.com). It’s also serving as an example for other large and
drafty old buildings: The strategies used in the project, which will reduce the building’s energy use by 38 percent and save $4.4 million in energy costs annually, have been published as an open-source model so that the results can be replicated in other buildings. Wonder what convention center might be up for a
similar project? — Barbara Palmer pcma convene November 2011
Roger Rickard,a partner with REvent LLC, left acom- ment in response: The bigger industry issue is not about “Muffingate.” The post is correct that once the facts were revealed, it became an open-and-shut case; it is about the lack of respect and knowledge about the value of the meetings industry. We have little or no influ-
ence, and it is strangling our industry. When are we going to explain our business value? When are we going to prove that what happens in meetings and events drives commerce, creates innova- tion, educates, and is the engine behind the growth of free enterprise? It’s not shame on them for
attacking —it is shame on us as an industry for not quickly standing up for what we know is right. Big kudos to those who stood up and spoke out on the value of meetings, and the value of the meetings industry.
For a news article about the meetings andhospitality industry’s response to the $16-muffin story,see p. 13.