I've watched a lot of football in my life, and the one parallel between football and business keeps coming back to my mind – the importance of a strong team. Regardless of the franchise tags and celebrity labels our society places on some players, the truth is even the greatest quarterback must have line to protect them, running backs to loosen up the defense and receivers who can run the routes and catch the football.

2010 is looking to be a positive year for bringing back marketing and brand awareness. Looking back at 2009, companies had to re-evaluate what their key strategies and investments were in order to keep some sort of ROI, but there seems to be a dim light at the end of that bleak tunnel.

Going GREEN is all the rage, from an individual to the corporate level. As meeting professionals, we have to be on the edge of the trend whether it be mini-projectors, buzz marketing tools or creating a sustainable event.

Nowadays, everybody's personal life is crazy and work can be hectic. Keeping your work and your personal life balanced can be tough. Throw the added stress of traveling for work into the mix, and that balancing act can become quite complicated.

In a recent motorsports meeting, I was blindsided by the fact that one of our newest "business" partners was trying to go around us to the main client in a tacit, possibly deceptive way.

Talk of gaining and losing sponsorships runs throughout the motorsports circuit as each series ends around October and November.