Word: conventioneers
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Not every convention goes far afield. Only 9% of state associations ever meet outside their home state, according to the trade monthly Successful Meetings, though cheaper airfares are beginning to encourage more adventuresomeness. In the decade before 1977, 12% of national organizations met or scheduled future meetings outside the U.S...
Some conventions are more sought after than others. Wealthy groups like the bankers, the medical associations and the auto dealers (who have a reputation as particularly free spenders) are hotly desired by local convention officials. They can be expected to spend triple the average conventioneer's $50 daily outlay. New York City went to extraordinary lengths to court and cater to the American Trucking Association this year (see box). Waikiki postponed its Aloha Week parade last October lest the road from the airport be blocked for the 15,000 delegates to the American Bankers Association (who spent $8 million...
There are at least 200 such professional convention consultants in private practice, about an equal number on the staffs of major associations. They will write speeches, build exhibits, put on skits with bona fide Equity actors, order food and drink, bribe hotel employees to be especially solicitous, arrange side-trips...
Both groups of specialists spend much of their time trying to satisfy the often peculiar demands that conventioneers sometimes make. So you want a naked lady to pop out of the cake? No problem. But New Orleans' John Abbott had to come up with two 100-ft. trees for a convention of chain-saw manufacturers to demonstrate their goods. Las Vegas decided to allow 26 aircraft to taxi down Paradise Road from McCarran Airport to the convention center for the Agricultural Aviation show...
Scanlon declined at first, but relented when Lloyd's of London agreed to insure its depredations. Three elephants at a time in the Waldorf ballroom have presented no problem, and three others are scheduled to be present at the Associated General Contractors convention in Bloomington, Minn., this winter. Sheraton-Waikiki...