As the industry's news changes constantly on a daily basis, the most significant event that has taken place recently was the introduction of "APEX"   into the meeting and event planning world. Here's how it can help you.

APEX is... The Accepted Practices Exchange. APEX is an initiative of the Convention Industry Council (CIC) that brings together all stakeholders in the development and implementation of industry-wide accepted practices to create and enhance efficiencies throughout the meetings, conventions and exhibitions industry. In essence, a set of best practices that will serve a guidelines for professional in the industry.

Over 2,500 people in the meeting and event and hotel industry have been involved in APEX since August of 2000. APEX is a standardization process; thereby accepted practices will make the industry more efficient, freeing up valuable time to devote collaborative energies to broader, more pressing industry issues. Can you imagine what you would do with more time to think creatively, less repetitive work to complete, and better relationships with your customers and suppliers?

If you aren't in the meeting/event/conference industry, you might think that this standardization process doesn't involve you but it will. For any meeting that you attend in the future, APEX will surely make your program run more smoothly as an attendee. Imagine, at the same venue or resort, a law conferences being hosted at the same time as a large-scale fundraiser, or a sales meeting for 500 and a small boardroom meeting all being given the same level of attention and service. APEX will allow all different programs to share the same templates given to hotels including best practices and procedures. This is a revolutionary yet long overdue way to handle meetings and conferences, unlike the industry has ever seen.

Through APEX, there's an opportunity to create a common 'language' and set of expectations that will be widely recognized within the industry. Technology will be better used to develop methods to successfully capture, store, transmit and share data over a wide array of topics.

Some of the results of accepted practices implementation includes:

• Time & cost savings
• Better communication and sharing of data
• Enhanced customer service
• Streamlined systems and processes
• Increased operational efficiencies
• Better educated professional employees

APEX software, the APEX OfficeReady for Meeting and Event Planning, has more than 200 templates for managing meetings. This software streamlines efficiency for meetings and conferences. It ensures the same information appears on common industry forms. Hotels are jumping on the bandwagon such as the Hyatt chain. Others considering the software include; Disney, Hilton, Marriott and Starwood. The hope is for hotels to be on a single platform with planners in the not too distant future.  

APEX streamlines all the processes down to formats that are easy to use. It includes seven categories:   terminology, history/post events reports, resumes and work orders, housing and registration, requests for proposals (RFP's) meeting and site profiles, and contracts.   Works on the first four areas are already completed with the other three completed first quarter of this year. To learn more about APEX visit: www.conventionindustry.org