Meeting and event planners are all in show business, and isn’t putting on a big show probably one of the key reasons people get into the industry? I mean, forget all this stuff about ROI or navigating complex contract clauses—where’s all the fun in that? Contracts? Some of the best record deals in history were probably scrawled on the back of a napkin, after all. (But that’s another story altogether.)
Behold our May issue, which celebrates the historic music venues that are sure to impress your groups!
And how about that cover? The backstory is kind of neat, too, in that I came across this jaw-dropping photo of the late, great Chuck Berry, along with Elvis arguably the most influential figure in rock history, while sorting through my Facebook feed and coming across a post by famed photographer Robert Altman.
That photo of Berry, rocking his signature “duck walk” stage move during a 1969 concert, immediately stopped me in my tracks. It was only later, however, in one of those “light-bulb moments,” that I realized it would make the perfect cover image for our Historic Places & Properties story so thoroughly crafted by Jeff Heilman. Luckily, Altman—one of the foremost photographic chroniclers of the 1960s and chief staff photographer in the early heyday of Rolling Stone, obliged by providing a file of the original.
I’m sure you’ll agree that Heilman has spun an entertaining and thoroughly researched piece, interviewing some very compelling characters in his quest, which he described as one of the most favorite stories he’s ever written. So I hope you enjoy this cover—and the cover story—as much as I do.
In other news, the clock has officially begun to tick on our annual Meetings Today Best of Awards, so head over to www.MeetingsToday.com/Bestof to make sure the facilities that went all out to rock your meetings get some airtime! Rock on!
