Florida Governor Rick Scott announced the commitment of an additional $3 million to battle Florida's red tide mitigation efforts.

ASAE, the “association of associations,” provides a learning laboratory for association planners and others at its annual events. Join Meetings Today and ASAE’s Amy Ledoux, SVP, Meetings and Expositions, to discover how ASAE manages its big annual meeting and expo and cutting-edge XDP event, including more details on a new risky and revolutionary new pricing model for 2019!

Meetings Today Podcast host Tyler Davidson checks in from ASAE's Annual Meeting & Exposition in Chicago and investigates the meeting and association strategies of some of the most intelligent people on Earth—Mensa. From game shows to code-crunching robots, Meetings Today and Association Chat’s KiKi L’Italien sit down with Mensa CEO Trevor S. Mitchell to get the skinny!

ASAE’s Annual Meeting & Exposition, held August 18-21 at Chicago’s McCormick Convention Center, set an attendance record for the association of associations as well as featured the unveiling of a bold pricing strategy for its experimental XDP event held in the Washington, D.C., area each April. Perhaps the biggest news item was the radical “pricing strategy” of offering free admission for association professionals to ASAE’s XDP, or Xperience Design Project, held April 11-12 next year at the Washington, D.C., area’s Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center.

Omni Hotels & Resorts launched a new meeting planner loyalty program modeled after its Omni Select Guest program, which awards amenities and tier levels for free stays for planner activity. The program was announced August 20, 2018 at ASAE’s Annual Meeting & Exposition in Chicago.

799 killed and 1,418 wounded in 250 incidents. These are the sobering statistics for multiple casualty events in the U.S. between 2000 and 2017, occurring at schools, workplaces, medical institutions, houses of worship and most certainly events, among other locations, according to data presented during the “A First Responders Guide to Handling Active Shooter and Terrorism Threats” educational session at ASAE’s Annual Meeting & Exposition.

Association management and services company SmithBucklin launched SmithBucklin AXP, a methodology and range of tools that aids its association clients’ conversations about priorities, progress and opportunities for improvement, according to the Chicago-based firm.

Travelers at Washington, D.C.’s Reagan National Airport were plunged into darkness Wednesday, August 15, 2018, around 10 p.m., a situation that provides an opportunity for meeting planners to think about and assess their own risk management strategies for power outages. The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority said a Dominion Energy issue caused the outage, according to a report from Washington, D.C.’s NBC4.