Already a haven for cultural and film pursuits, Los Angeles is adding sports mecca to its list of top-shelf specialties.

There’s more to Los Angeles’ star status than its resident lineup of celebrities. The Downtown, Mid-City and Miracle Mile areas, along with nearby West Hollywood, boast an ever expanding list of arts and culture off-site venues that prove the depth of talent endemic to this SoCal centerpiece.

The Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) acquired WINiT for Women, a career development network aimed at increasing visibility, mobility and development for women in the travel, meetings, events and exhibition industries. The acquisition will increase services for both organizations.

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.

Diane Hamilton is president/founder of Releve Unlimited in Santa Barbara, California, which produced a single-evening event for 21 Pan China California Advisory Board members, members of Visit California, Visit Santa Barbara and several community dignitaries.

Santa Barbara was selected as the host destination for Visit California’s Pan-China California Advisory Board (CAB) meeting. This prestigious group represents the executive leadership of China’s top tour operators, travel agencies and airlines, including dominant brands like Tuniu, C-trip and United Airlines. Every other year, Visit California brings this CAB group to the Golden State for a VIP familiarization tour in addition to the annual business meeting to discuss strategies, market insights and other timely topics impacting tourism business between California and China.

Approximately 1,400 attendees from over 70 countries convened in Rapid City, S.D., at the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center May 20-25 for the 2017 World Finals of the ACM (Association of Computing Machinery) International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) sponsored by IBM.