People 11-1-1999

> Meetings & Conventions: People November 1999
November 1999
People

EDITED BY AMY DREW TEITLER

Ed Simeone, CMP, spent three years as manager of worldwide events for EMC Corp. in Hopkinton, Mass., after learning the meetings trade during 17 years at now-defunct Digital Equipment Corp. He started a new job in August, working out of his Nashua, N.H., home as executive producer of meetings and events for Webster, N.Y.-based Fusion Productions. Simeone also is chairman of the board for Dallas-based Meeting Professionals International.

What was your first job?
When I was 13, I was a janitor at a religious school for $1 an hour. Sometimes, when no one was looking, I'd let go of the floor polisher and let it run around the room.

How do you like to reward yourself for a job well done?
Banana splits for everyone, especially me! But the feeling of success can be so fleeting. This industry is so much like theater. You never know whether the next script is going to be any good. You have to prove yourself again and again.

If you could change professions, what would you be?
I would be an actor and director. My goal would be to find a little theater in Maine that I could run year-round. We would put on musical comedies, and I'd be the comic lead in every one.

What is your favorite part in a musical comedy?
Ko-Ko in The Mikado, because of the wonderful music. I did the show in the eighth grade, and I remember every line and every song.

What books are you reading?
I just finished The Big Picture and The Job, two novels by Doug Kennedy, who went to school with me. He used my last name for one of his characters; how many Simeones could he know in his career? I'm also reading Walden by Thoreau.

You have said you are looking for balance. Can you find it?
It plagues me constantly. What is the right balance of work, family and self? I try to schedule my work as efficiently as possible to get home for a game or to my family. At this point in my life, the self is short-changed. I need to start saying "no" more often.

SARAH J.F. BRALEY

PLANNERS

MEETINGMAKERS ANNOUNCES APPOINTMENTS
Woburn, Mass.-based MeetingMakers, a meeting planning and management company, named Chris MacDuff director, national sales, for the greater Los Angeles area. McDuff previously was sales manager at the Four Seasons Hotel in Newport Beach, Calif. Also, Brian Young is MeetingMakers' new director, national sales, for the New York/New Jersey area. He comes to the firm after 10 years in the insurance industry.

BENNETT NEW ON STAFF AT CONFERENCEDIRECT
Marian Bennett is the new national accounts manager at ConferenceDirect, a meeting planning firm in Phoenix. She had been national sales manager at The Ritz-Carlton Phoenix.

FOREHAND NAMED MEETINGS, EXHIBITS MANAGER
The Texas Bankers Association in Austin has named Mel Forehand, CMP, meetings and exhibits manager. Forehand previously served as director of expo operations at the Texas Restaurant Association, also in Austin.

SUMNER HEADS SALES AT BRAVO PRODUCTIONS
Bravo Productions, a Long Beach, Calif.-based event planning and production company, has appointed Jason Sumner director of sales. He formerly was sales manager at Hornblower Cruises & Events, in its Marina del Rey, Calif., office.

SUPPLIERS

If you would like notice of a career move considered for inclusion in this column, contact Amy Drew Teitler, Senior Editor, M&C, 500 Plaza Dr., Secaucus, N.J. 07094; fax: (201) 319-1796; e-mail: [email protected].