Checking In - East April/May 2010

April 1, 2010

Tyler Davidson

With many segments of the meetings industry having difficulties—to put it mildly—the past year-and-a-half or so, medical meetings are becoming just the prescription for destinations wanting to put some very big-spending heads in beds.

Our cover story this issue examines this lucrative market and the efforts many CVBs are taking in order to get doctors to make a house call to their city.

In the East, Cleveland is partnering with its Cleveland Clinic to help sell the destination to planners and is also in the process of creating a medical mart attached to a new convention center.

In Philadelphia—where medical meetings have always been a focus due to its premier universities and biotech startups—the CVB upped the dosage by creating the Greater Philadelphia Life Sciences Congress, which boasts a board composed of some 60 regional leaders who actively promote the destination to planners and even help in the pre-planning process.

Also included in the story is a sidebar exploring the preferences of three top medical meeting planners dealing with CVBs, and some general areas of improvement they would like to see from bureaus.

So head to the article for your medical meeting checkup, it could be just the prescription for meeting success.

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