Chicago’s McCormick Place, which instituted major reforms to lower costs, improve labor relations and relax union work rule flexibility, netted the rebooking of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), which reversed its decision 15 months ago to drop Chicago from its rotation.

The association, which along with the Chicago Convention & Tourism Bureau announced the decision to the international meetings industry at PCMA’s Convening Leaders conference in Las Vegas, said it will also meet there in 2015 and 2019.

“Chicago got a big wake-up call in the last 18 months,” said Jim Reilly, trustee of the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority, “but the most important part is Chicago responded and made changes.”[

H. Stephen Lieber, president and CEO of HIMSS, said the decision to return to Chicago, which has been very popular with its attendees in the past, was not difficult.

“It is somewhat of an easy decision,” he said. “The changes were so dramatic that we feel very, very comfortable with this decision.”

PCMA Adds Boston, Chicago to Schedule

PCMA’s Board of Directors approved Boston as the location of its 2014 Convening Leaders conference and Chicago, where the association is based, for its 2015 annual conference.

The 2012 conference will be held in San Diego and the 2013 show will be located in Orlando.

PCMA Sets Attendance Record

PCMA's Convening Leaders annual conference, held at the MGM Grand Hotel & Casino here, set an attendance record for the association, according to President and CEO Deborah Sexton.

Although the association said it will not release exact attendance figures until after the conclusion of the conference, Sexton confirmed that the numbers it did have showed the event broke the previous high-water mark.

"Las Vegas without a doubt is going to be the highest numbers PCMA has ever had," Sexton said, adding that typical Las Vegas meetings enjoy a 14 percent bump in attendance, and the 2011 Convening Leaders "could very well be there or above."

Sexton also pointed out that the association enjoyed an 83 percent retention rate in 2010.

Sexton said that recent PCMA research points to a recovery in the meetings industry, giving perhaps a sneak preview of the association's Meeting Planner Intentions Survey, which it expects to release in mid-February.

"We are on the upward swing," Sexton said. "We're very optimistic. More meetings are happening and attendance is up.

"It isn't business as usual, but we're back to business," Sexton continued. "Last year it was cautious optimism. This year it's optimism."

Sexton also said to expect news by the end of the week of collaboration projects with other meetings industry organizations to consolidate redundant programs.

A major aspect of this year's event is the association's jump into the virtual meetings world via its recent partnership with the Virtual Edge Institute and co-location of the Virtual Edge Summit.

Sexton told press that executing the simultaneous virtual conference in effect was similar to planning and running two shows concurrently, and represented a major shift, or augmentation, to the way PCMA offers its Convening Leaders programming.

"It looks like we'll be spending equal time on both," Sexton continued, comparing PCMA's staff effort producing the virtual event, offered via its PCMA365 brand, and traditional face-to-face meeting.

Sexton said this year's conference might be thought of as carrying a "meetings deconstructed" theme, which was evident during the opening general session, in which attendees entered the MGM Grand Arena through the back entrance behind the stage, past areas that were set up for interviewing attendees and broadcasting over the Internet.

Sexton said that PCMA will be aggressive in mixing up its content offerings and distribution channels, and even though it may not always be successful, the association will serve as a testing lab of sorts for its membership to learn from.

Given that virtual meetings consume less hotel rooms than face-to-face meetings, one could expect pushback from the association's hotel members, which Sexton said has not happened to date.

"We're not getting pushback," she said. "I think a lot of them are looking to see how they can incorporate this into their convention offering. What I asked for is a huge amount of [bandwidth for this meeting]. MGM gave us the connectivity that is necessary….Hotels need to think about this in the future for conventions like us."

Other news coming from the conference included Gaylord Entertainment Chairman and CEO Colin Reed being awarded the PCMA Chairman's Award, the association's highest honor, for his crisis management work during the massive floods in Nashville last May.