In the third installment of “Meetings Horror Stories,” we heard even more of the crazy things that can go wrong in the meetings world … often when you least expect them to!

In this second installment of “Meetings Horror Stories,” we heard from people in the industry about some crazy things that can go wrong with speakers and the hired entertainment.

In the first installment of "Meetings Horror Stories" we heard from planners and industry veterans about what can go wrong when your CEO wants to make an entrance on a horse, why releasing live doves at your event might not be the best idea and why if it's not on the menu ... it's probably not what you think!

Every turn down every aisle at the San Jose Super Toy Show fills me with an inescapable sense of product lust. I understand why I want the 19 1/2-inch Shogun Warriors Godzilla doll. Sure, it’s going for $600, but it has a spring-loaded fist that can launch across the room. What I don’t get is why I want the Star Wars Early Bird Certificate, a symbol of childhood disappointment.

Just in time for Halloween, our list of haunted hotels extends from coast to coast, each one teeming with stories of spirits to keep guests company while meeting there with a group. Whether guests are fans of fright or modern-day ghost hunters, we advise entering at their own risk when it comes to making a reservation with any of our picks below.

Marvel’s The Black Panther did more than smash box office records this year. It inspired Wakandacon, a three-day celebration of Afrofuturism at the Hilton Chicago that combined community building with Blerd (short for Black nerd) culture.

At the Cocktail Robotics Grand Challenge kooky inventors and their booze-slinging bots compete for $1,000 in prizes, but the whole thing starts with a mechanized cocktail party. Can these robotic bartenders keep up with their human counterparts? Bob Calhoun investigates.

When I first agreed to speak at Nerd Nite East Bay in Oakland, California, I thought I could get away with reading an especially gnarly passage from the book version of Shattering Conventions, crack a couple of jokes and answer a question or two. I was totally wrong about this.

You have to keep your eyes on the ground while walking through the halls of California’s San Mateo Events Center during the Maker Faire. There are robots down there. You look up at the towering Godzilla woven entirely from wool and then you’re almost tripped up by a small moving platform trimmed with aqua blue lights. The platform scoots around the floor, weaving in and out of peoples’ footfalls

It’s hard to tell what the llamas are thinking as they are mobbed by students on Memorial Glade at UC Berkeley for the event that is now called Llamapalooza. These Peruvian pack animals have been coming to this grassy field on campus ringed by three of the university’s imposing libraries for four years now.