Next week I'll be at both IMEX America and at LDI (Live Design Institutes) in Las Vegas.  I'm hoping to come back with a lot of new industry updates, information and data about the newest technology.

Hopefully I'll be able to catch up with many friends from across both the meetings industry and AV worlds.

If you'll be attending IMEX, give a shout and look for me walking the show floor all three days and on Smart Monday.

​See you in Las Vegas!

On this edition of the podcast we're joined by an old friend, Tracy Stuckrath, CSEP, CMM, CHC, CFPM.  Tracy is one of the leading consultants to the meeting and event planning industry on nutrition.  She travels around the world speaking to industry groups like MPI, PCMA, NACE, ILEA and SGMP on a wide variety of food related topics.  Tracy has extensive information and resources about all types of food and nutrition areas as they relate to planners on here website: Thrive Meetings & Events.

On todays podcast in honor of "Vegetarian Awareness Month" we talk about the various types of vegetarian classifications and some of the ways that planners can best understand and address them for their attendees.  We also talk about Tracy's upcoming sessions at IMEX America coming up on October 17-20, 2016 in Las Vegas.

If you're attending IMEX and have an interest in nutrition, food waste and legal aspects of food service to your guests and attendees, be sure and seek out her sessions and visit her website for information and resources.

On today's Hall of Leaders edition of the podcast we talk with John "Jack" Patronski of Global Experience Specialists (GES).  Jack is being honored at the CIC Hall of Leaders Celebration coming up in October in Las Vegas.

We discussed his history and background that brought him to the industry, how he moved from law enforcement into facilities management and then to Andrew Bartlett and later GES for the past 23 years.

Jack is a PCMA Education Foundation Trustee and has been very active in PCMA, the Convention Industry Council and numerous other vital industry groups and initiatives in the Chicago and nationally over the past twenty years.  We look back at the history of the industry as well as forward to the future as he's honored for his years of work advancing the meetings and events industry.

You can join Jack and all the other honorees on October 18th at the Jewel Nightclub at Aria in Las Vegas for the 2016 Hall of Leaders Celebration.

Podcast Show Number 3 with Carol Krugman is now available here, and on our podcast hosting site.  You can find a link on the menu above under the Blog tab to our podcast page.  

You can also find us on iTunes and Stitcher where you can subscribe to make sure you never miss an episode.  

Or, you can also click here to download the episode: Download this episode (right click and save)

The first episode of the brand new Strategic Meeting Tech Podcast will be available on our linked podcast site tomorrow.  After that you can expect to see a new podcast each week where we will discuss trending topics, technology and other stories that affect all of us in the meetings and events industry.

Hosted by Jon Trask, CMP, CMM; a radio journalist and a former co-host of the ground-breaking "Meetings Podcast" for nearly 10 years.  The Strategic Meetings Tech Podcast aims to become a go-to source for news inside the meetings industry.  We have a slate of solid guests already lined up, as well as some very interesting previews of the CMP Conclave, The CIC Hall of Leaders, an update from MPI, and looks ahead to IMEX America and LDI all coming up over the next few months.

Please drop us a note or comment with any areas that you'd like to have covered.  This is intended as a conversation and not a monologue, so tell us what you want hear about and we'll do our best to cover it.