CONTENTS

April 2013 Volume 32, Issue 4

COVER STORY/CMP SERIES 42

‘We’ve trained the customer to expect that they can get whatever they want and they can get it now. If they want to do a search in 12 different cities, guess what — they can do it.’

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Request for Problems

Hotel salespeople say they’re buckling under the weight of lead spam. Planners say they’re not hearing back about their proposals as quickly as they need to. Is the RFP process broken? And can it be fixed? Christopher Durso

Features

Monitoring the Affordable Care Act More than three years after President Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act into law, the most significant government overhaul of the U.S. health-care system since the passage of Medicare and Medicaid is under way. Are medical meeting professionals ready? Michelle Russell

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Cover illustration by Brian Stauffer

2 PCMA CONVENE APRIL 2013

The World of Science Convene went overseas to explore the mysteries of two international scientific meetings: What is an oil-rich destination like Abu Dhabi doing hosting the World Future Energy Summit? And why did Singapore decide to create the Global Young Scientists Summit? Molly Brennan and Katie Kervin

PCMA EDUCATION CONFERENCE PREVIEW Jason Jennings

The entrepreneur and author believes that the business of radical reinvention is personal, that every successful organization has a noble purpose, and that, when it comes to meetings, “the fellowship and camaraderie, learning from your peers, one on one — that absolutely will never be replaced with technology.” Barbara Palmer

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