Checking In

September 1, 2008

Tyler Davidson

Besides all of the association news coming out of the recent MPI WEC in Las Vegas, the announcement of what appears to be quite a handy tool for meeting planners also commanded attention.

Representatives of the CIC showed off the latest APEX (Accepted Practices Exchange) tool, APEX PowerShop, which promises to further streamline the meeting planning process through software that auto-populates and stores information.

Instead of the thankless chore of re-entering data for an event that may be quite similar every year, for instance, users can access an interactive database and output the info in both XML and MS Office documents.

This wasn’t news to me, however, as I had just finished editing our APEX Update piece, which details PowerShop and checks in on the ongoing efforts of the larger APEX effort.

Like Sisyphus being forced to push a boulder up a hill in Greek mythology, standardizing the many loose ends of the meetings industry is a challenge that may appear never-ending, but progress is being made.

Check out Contributing Editor Ruth A. Hill’s story, to gauge the progress.

About the author

Tyler Davidson is the vice president and chief content director for Meetings Today, which publishes the meetings industry trade magazine Meetings Today as well as MeetingsToday.com, various newsletters, webinars, the in-person Meetings Today LIVE! Hosted-buyer events and other meetings and events industry B2B channels.

Tyler has covered the travel trade for nearly 35 years. In his role with Meetings Today, which recently won the prestigious FOLIO: Eddies Award for best magazine issue, Tyler leads the editorial team on its mission to provide the most in-depth meetings content in the industry. Previously, he worked as the Asia, Canada, Pacific Northwest and Western U.S. editor at Travel Weekly magazine and TravelAge West. Before joining the dual editorial staff producing destination sections for Travel Weekly and TravelAge West, Tyler was the Africa, Israel, Middle East, Switzerland and Pacific Northwest editor at TravelAge West. He also undertook general news and feature assignments while working at the magazines.

Besides reporting on the travel trade, Tyler has covered the real estate industry, held various editorial positions at the San Francisco-based national satire magazine The Nose, wrote freelance technology industry pieces and covered the San Francisco 49ers and Oakland Raiders for a bilingual newspaper in San Francisco. He has a B.A. in Journalism from San Francisco State University, where he worked in various editorial capacities on its award-winning student magazine, Prism.

Contact: tyler.davidson@meetingstoday.com