Our gift to you!  McMenamins is now offering a 20% discount on all holiday menus for catered holiday events!

o   Available for events between Friday, November 27, 2009 and Sunday, January 31, 2010.
o   Discount available on all holiday menus.
o   Available anytime – day or night, seven days a week.
o   Available at all McMenamins Historic Hotels and Properties.
o   Offer available for new bookings only.
o   For more information visit us at mcmenamins.com or call 503.492.2777.

Look no further for the perfect holiday gift.  Enjoy one stop shopping with McMenamins Gift Cards!

o   One size fits all, easy to wrap, and bulk discounts now available!
o   Good at any location, for any product or service!
o   $500.00 to $999.00 receives 5% off
o   $1000.00 and up receives 10% off
o   And schools always receive a 15% discount on any amount – no minimum required.
o   Call 503.492.2777 for more information.

A Large but Sustainable Brand Launch Event for Microsoft 

Hollywood Lighting Services recently completed a large low-energy lighting set up for Microsoft, Inc, for a brand rollout event. “Bing,” Microsoft’s new search engine that has been launched to compete with popular sites such as Google and Yahoo, has a distinctive logo that was presented in a very-large format. 

“It needed to be extremely bright, but draw as little power as possible. It also had to be animated, said Dwayne Thomas, president of Hollywood Lighting Services. “Traditional projectors or LED video would not have done the trick and would have 
been prohibitively expensive, so we decided to do an end around to get to the 
solution.” 

The LED logo array was over 60′ wide when finished, and the entire job was installed and ready to show in less than a day. 

As seen in the event photograph, the beam of light from the logo was significantly brighter than that of the nearby pod of (20) 7,000w searchlights in the top right-hand side of the photo. However, the logo consumed on average less than 10% of the energy of the searchlight beam, changed color and played back video, and, of course, had the added bonus of actually spelling something! 

The logo was filmed via Helicopter for future advertising use.

Hollywood Lighting Services is proud to be the oldest and largest event lighting production, rental, and sales operation in the Northwest, and operates as a sustainable business both in internal practices as well as through innovative low- energy and high-efficiency product offerings. In June 2008, HLS was certified by Recycleworks as a green company. 

Hollywood Lighting Services contact information: 

• 660 S. Dakota St, Seattle, WA 98108 800-547-2353 
Tony Bove – tony.bove@hollywoodlighting.biz 

• 5251 SE McLoughlin Blvd, Portland OR 97202 800-826-9881 
Dwayne Thomas – dwayne@hollywoodlighting.biz

Read about this in Meeting News – “Keep America Meeting (KAM)” is a grassroots campaign designed to promote meetings as an important business practice – especially in light of the recent press on large corporations mishandling their funds. The campaign’s centerpiece is an online petition that individuals and organizations may sign in support of the meetings industry. Petition signatures will be collected by KAM – a collaborative group of meetings, events and incentive travel industry participants and delivered to the US Travel Association and other industry associations, so they may use them in order to advocate on behalf of meetings, events and incentive travel during ongoing discussions about corporate responsibility with the Obama Administration and with Congress.

KAM has attracted a wide group of endorsers, including the Society of Incentive Travel Executives, the Society of Independent Show Organizers, the San Diego Convention & Visitors Bureau, PGA National Resort & Spa and many others.

Click Here to Sign the Petition.

Whenever we’re feeling the pinch of the sagging economy and the cutbacks associated with them – just take a look at what some larger corporations and industry groups are doing.  Northwestern Mutual Financial Network/Oregon & SW Washington is holding an event at the end of the month (their annual banquet) at The Nines Hotel… the Entrepreneurial Organization’s website has events planned almost every month through 2010 with a regional event tonight in Seattle for 300+ featuring the Beatniks … and I recently read about a huge event in Canada with a “Bond 007″ theme complete with live models painted in gold and an auction that raised several millions of dollars.  It’s good to see corporate event planning “alive & well” in the Pacific Northwest.

Not everyone may have the ability to afford such lavish events – so be creative with your event planning funds… cut back on the number of people, have a buffet instead of passed hors d’oeurves, host beer or wine only instead of a full bar and limit drink tickets to just a couple per person.  Check with the facility or a decor company, such as Royce’s Prop Shop, Barclay Events, West Coast Event Productions or Hollywood Lighting to see if they’ve used a theme recently that you can “piggy-back” on.  This will save the costs of creating items from scratch, plus it’s good for the environment too when you recycle items.

Certified Meeting Planner (CMP)- What does this mean? In 1985 the Convention Industry Council (CIC) created the Certified Meeting Professional title. A CMP has studied information in 27 areas of meeting planning and passed a test. This does not mean that the person is a better planner or supplier, but many feel a sense of personal growth after completing the course. These letters make other industry professionals aware that a level of knowledge has been reached, although many clients are not aware of what these letters mean. The CIC reports that in 35 countries, over 13,000 have received the CMP title.

More information about earning a Certified Meeting Professional designation can be found at www.conventionindustry.org.

Other industry certifications:

CMM- Certification in Meeting Management, www.mpiweb.org
CAE- Certified Association Executive, www.asaecenter.org
CEM- Certified Exposition Manager, www.iaee.com
CITE- Certified Incentive Travel Executive, www.site-intl.org
CSEP- Certified Special Events Professional, www.ises.com

Source: Successful Meetings, July 2008-07-10