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Sands Resorts, a premier meetings and vacation complex of six properties in Myrtle Beach, south Carolina is completing improvements and renovations to its Sands Resorts’ Conference Center. "We strive to provide the most up-to-date equipment and services for meetings and these changes will enhance the more than 20,000 square feet of function space," said Florence Collins, Vice President of Marketing at Sands Resorts.

Large food service companies with a national presence generally contract with convention centers or arenas. Conference centers either rely on onsite caterer—more than likely the food & beverage department of the hotel or resort component of the venue—or select from off-site caterers for meeting and events. These two general statements may no longer be true because in October, it was announced that Monterey Conference Center in Monterey, California will out-source its food & beverage department through a new, multi-year contract with Ovations Food Services.

The Summer of 2008 started with high gasoline prices and ended with headlines of an Economic Crisis, but for Palace Sports & Entertainment (PS&E), the live music scene in Michigan’s metro-Detroit area proved extraordinarily healthy. PS&E, which also owns The Palace arena, owns the DTE Energy Music Theatre, an outdoor amphitheater and manages the Meadow Brook Music Festival on the campus of Oakland University. The season the DTE Energy Music Theatre (15,274 capacity) and the Meadow Brook Music Festival (7,701 capacity), runs May through September.

Each year the Professional Convention Management Association (PCMA) honors outstanding members for their contributions to PCMA and the meetings and hospitality industry. The winners of the 2008 Achievement Awards, who will be recognized at the 53rd PCMA Annual Meeting, January 11-14, 2009, to be held at the New Orleans Morial Convention Center.