People 12-1-2002

Meetings & Conventions: People December 2002

People

By Terence Baker

Ann E. Singer, CMP, CAE, is meetings manager for the Washington, D.C.-based American Geophysical Union (www.agu.org). She has 20 years of experience in the meetings business.

What does the AGU do? It pulls together all the different sciences above, on and in the earth. Our big fall meeting in San Francisco attracts up to 10,000 scientists in different disciplines from all over the world. During the five days, they discuss scientific data and keep an eye on who is getting grant funding and for what projects.

Is it necessary for you to understand science? Thankfully, no. My background is in art history. Even when I ask for an explanation, the scientists rarely are able to get the gist of their ideas down to a layman’s level. A committee of scientists arranges the content side of my meetings I organize about 10 a year. The same people also act as a buffer against my members moaning to me about their noninclusion on any agenda.

You must meet some very bright people. Yes. The biggest agenda problem is getting so many submitted lectures and abstracts into just a few days. I also like the international nature of the job and the chance to travel. In April we were in New Zealand.

How do you relax? My husband and I have a tandem bike, and every year we bring it along for our three-week vacation. Last year we cycled in Ontario and Québec.

What do you see in your future? I just passed my CAE exam, which will allow me to perhaps one day become an executive director of an association. People are saying the exam is getting more difficult, so I am very proud of having passed it.

PLANNERS

Rodnick hired by Meetings Management Group
Stephanie Rodnick has joined Tyson’s Corner, Va.-based Meetings Management Group, a division of the Association Management Group, as meetings manager. Previously, Rodnick was with the Opal Financial Group in New York City.

Brannon establishes a new planning company
Sheryl Brannon, CMP, formed Washington, D.C.-based Strategic Partnerships International, a meeting and event planning company targeting minority groups, in September. She previously was director of meetings at Caribbean Latin American Action, an association promoting economic development in the Caribbean and Latin America.

Promotion, not detention, for Kappenhagen