Plan Your Meetings

What a difference grassroots mobilization makes. This past week, the number of signatories on the Keep America Meeting petition reached 17,000; members of the travel industry met with President Obama and got his endorsement; and media coverage started getting positive.

Check it out:

• Fortune – “Not Every Corporate Trip is a Boondoggle” March 11, 2009
• Associated Press – “White House says it encourages business travel”  March 12, 2009
• Reuters – “Hotel, travel executives press Obama on downturn” March 11, 2009
• Politico – “Obama reassures travel execs” March 11, 2009
• Washington Post op-ed by J.W. Marriott Jr. – “Memo to Business: Let’s Meet”

“This was a good week, but we are not out of the woods,” U.S. Travel Association’s Geoff Freeman said in briefing distributed to Keep America Meeting supporters. “The twin threats of over-regulation and media sensationalism still hang over our industry, and it will take a lengthy and sustained effort to mitigate both. We have gotten to this point, thanks to your involvement and your financial support. We will need more of both in order to maintain our grassroots, communications and advocacy activities in the months ahead.”

For more on the turnaround, go to Bruce MacMillan’s MPI blog, which includes some “eyewitness” observations of the politico meetings.