Briefing catches up with Roger Dow, President and CEO of the U.S. Travel Association, the national umbrella organisation representing all segments of the $770 billion US travel and tourism industry.

Briefing: Your leadership achievements have been widely recognised and celebrated through many industry awards. What is the secret of good leadership?

Roger: Good leadership requires a clear vision, enthusiasm and energy, and a willingness to allow your team to have input into the process.

Applications will open in December for the prestigious IMEX Green Awards, jointly run with GMIC (Green Meeting Industry Council). Developed to recognise organisations within the meetings and incentive travel industry that are making an effort to minimise their environmental and social impacts, the Green Awards have become some of the industry’s most significant and sought after accolades.

The next IMEX-MPI Future Leaders Forum at BTC on 6 November 2009 in Rome follows a series of successful Forums over the last four months in the USA, Iceland, Serbia and Thailand. Iceland and Serbia are both new to the programme which has taken in 17 countries and over 3,000 students since its launch in 2003.

The Convention Industry Council (CIC) has announced additional Certified Meeting Professional (CMP) exam dates and locations in 2010 outside North America. They will also take place as part of a Global CMP Exam Day on Saturday, February 20, 2010. As a result, new exam locations will include Cancun, Mexico (in conjunction with MPI’s Meet Different), South Korea, Singapore, South Africa, and Italy.

“Destination Expo! Expo!” is not only the theme for IAEE’s Annual Meeting & Exhibition 2009 but also the destination for cutting-edge learning and networking opportunities on behalf of IAEE. This year’s event will be held 8-10 December 2009 in Atlanta USA.

Travco is one of the world’s leading travel organisations, specialising in offering tourism products to the travel industry. The company has a truly global client base, including many of the industry’s best known and most successful tour operators, airlines and online companies.

In recent years Travco has grown dramatically, as operators from around the world have become aware that it offers a hotel product range and pricing structure that is unmatched.