By Christine Born

The past month has been a whirlwind of meetings for me, even more so than usual — first, the Destination Marketing Association International (DMAI) convention in Atlanta in July, than last week’s first-ever Connect Marketplace in Las Vegas. Keynote speakers, educational sessions, interviews and networking in hallways and at social events — my mind is racing with anecdotes, information, ideas, inspiration and advice. Everything a meeting is supposed to provide.

“Passion is what I hear in this room,” said one planner attending the planner “boot camp” at Connect Marketplace. She aptly captured the spirit that moved more than 150 attendees who crowded into a meeting room for six hours to learn more about contract negotiations and risk management — and emerged still ready to continue the discussion.

And the conversation did continue. While many sessions focused on concerns about future bookings, pricing and attrition, there was no question about the future of meetings for the association and specialty group planners present at Marketplace. Business continues. Meetings are being planned, many far into the future.

Author and branding expert Bruce Turkel challenged a receptive audience at the opening general session “not to participate in the recession.” In a fast-pace presentation, punctuated by tunes from his harmonica, he illustrated the importance of differentiation to branding, bringing it all around to seven points. (More about these later.) The overriding message was that successful people and businesses find ways to do business in good times and bad. Flexibility and creativity are important factors.

The following day, keynote speaker and former U.N. Ambassador Andrew Young enlightened a rapt crowd about the important role meetings play in bringing people together, especially when there are great distances and differences between them. “If we keep the larger vision of connecting, the world will be a better place and you’ll have had a hand in it.”

Meetings are about so much more than how many people are coming to dinner. They start with a vision, no matter how small. A vision that is developed and carried through by meeting planners, and all the suppliers and strategic partners who provide the support system for meetings and events. And, as the meetings and travel industry’s marketing and branding campaign says, meetings mean business.

That message resonated for me even more after listening to so many speakers and planners. Like throwing a rock into a pond, a meeting — no matter how small — has a ripple effect that continues far beyond its origins.

Bruce Turkel’s 7 Points of Branding:

1. It’s all about them! How can your business change your customer’s life?

2. Hearts than minds. Make sure the consumer can make an emotional connection.

3. Make it simple. Whittle your message down to the essentials; remove everything else.

4. Make it quick.

5. Make it yours. What are you going to own that no one else does?

6. Use all five senses.

7. Repeat, repeat, repeat. But don’t be repetitive; find new ways to say the same old thing.

Great ideas seen at Connect Marketplace:

• Myrtle Beach Area Convention & Visitors Bureau sponsored Bruce Turkel’s session, “Branding and Marketing Your Event,” and stole the show with a great example of marketing and integration. Beside every place setting was a money clip containing a crisp $1 bill wrapped around the CVB’s business card. It was a memorable, creative attention-getter that amused and delighted attendees, acted as a conversation icebreaker as people sat down, and earned more recognition for the sponsor when Turkel used it as an example for one of his branding points — make an emotional connection.

• As planners know all too well, food can make or break an event. The Red Rock Casino, Resort & Spas, host site for the 2009 Connect Marketplace, won rave reviews from attendees. Some real crowd-pleasers — freezer carts filled with Haagen-Dazs ice cream bars during one afternoon break; boxes of Cracker Jacks during another.

• Small duffle bags with colorful beach towels from Red Rock were dropped in rooms, a useful gift for attendees who escaped to the pool between activities.

Read more about the 2009 Connect Marketplace (as well as a collection of tips from the “Real World” panel discussion) in the next issue of Connect magazine.

We’d like to hear about your Marketplace highlights. Please add your comments below or on Twitter.