I'd like to throw a big ole THANK YOU (read: sarcastic) to AIG for their role in vilifying the event industry. You may remember the story of the company who, despite asking the government for financial assistance, went ahead with high-dollar (and I mean HIGH) events for executives and independent financial planners. And while AIG can't be held solely responsible for the troubled event industry, they certainly brought events and event marketing to a new level of PR and scrutiny.

I recently explained to someone that as a meeting planner, I liken my job to someone working backstage at a show. There is bound to be chaos, but my duty is to make sure that the audience sees a wonderful show and knows nothing of the "drama" behind the scenes.

I was never much of a motorcycle fan – no one in my family rode, so I didn't have many occasions to consider it as an option. Frankly, I had many of the usual stereotypes of riders in my head, mainly a group of rough, tough and gruff men. I'm grateful for the opportunities to work on events in the riding community, where I've learned that my stereotypes were very, very wrong.

We event producers at Jackson Marketing Group are obsessed with meetings and events.

I was in a beautiful city ready to start an event we had been planning for months. The client was happy; I was happy.