Meeting News Special Section: 25 Most Influential People in the Meetings Industry

JULY 12, 2004 -- This is the 10th year MeetingNews has recognized the 25 people who have the greatest impact on the most people in the business. As always, some of the selections are fairly obvious, others less so. But each of the meeting professionals profiled on the next four pages has clearly influenced, in one way or another, the actions and perceptions of their peers across the industry. Our hats are off to them for showing us the way. Please join MeetingNews in congratulating them.

Bruce Harris, President, Conferon Global Services, Twinsburg, Ohio

MeetingNews editors were a tad surprised when we heard that Bruce Harris had been tapped for induction into the Convention Industry Council's Hall of Leaders this summer.

Not because he doesn't belong there. Rather, it's: What in the world took so long?

It is our belief that if this Most Influential People list were to include only two or three names rather than 25, Harris would still be a veritable lock to appear on it regularly.

He runs the company that probably is this country's biggest buyer of group hotel rooms, and accordingly wields great influence over the pricing and delivery of that product. He also has been outspoken on the matter of finding solutions to the attrition problems that have plagued the meetings business over the past couple of years.

In general, we don't know of anyone with a keener understanding of the intricate issues that entwine the meetings industry.

Harris' influence continues to widen. His chief activity today is integrating Conferon, the nation's largest meeting company, which he's headed since the 1970s, with ExpoExchange, the market leader in housing, registration and lead-retrieval services that Conferon's parent bought last year.