NOTE:   As you wander through these credence pieces, you’ll notice that some items are more than 45 years old. Surprise! So is Cavalier's background. His professional work preceded and aided the formation of all of the industry’s “user associations”; and he has probably the industry’s longest perspective on what went wrong, as measured currently
mm Although some contingents in the meetings industry would like to make an issue of Cavalier’s age, keep in mind that the human brain probably hasn’t changed much in the last few thousand years. Details transmitted in meetings do change, but the purposes for those meetings rarely change much within either the individual organizations or in business generally.
mmBy “manufacturing” current experts, the meetings/conventions industry is hoping to prove that 20 one-company planners have the same experience as does one twenty-client consultant. More likely, the manufactured experts will have much the same experience twenty times. Moreover their perspectives on variables cannot be the same, especially if those experts arrived much later in the marketing process that converted user-associations into marketing-associations. That fact helps to explain why those books that collect good segments by multiple, worthwhile working-writers don’t add up to a single working system. By contrast, the how-to books by Cavalier present proved, workable systems.
mmIn his MPI Tony-Award-winning address, at MPI’s Tenth Anniversary convention, in NYC in 1982, Cavalier made two points that rankled many: 1)  that the industry is in need of both performance and ethical standards; and 2)  that the association was most valuable to suppliers as a source of fish in a barrel. Suppliers stormed out of that address; user-members moved forward into the vacated seats. MPI records and sells all of its convention addresses, including Cavalier’s award winner. Why not order it through MPI? .. .  and discover what the industry still doesn’t want you to know!
mmPreceding and agreeing with Professor Merrill (check out  Merrill’s article, titled by his name, under the “Supporting Ideas” button), Cavalier notes that people today don’t learn differently but  that they are learning via media that are vastly different and more common than in the early years of the past century: highly-accessible motion film/video/CCTV; electronic games; e-courses; maybe the web; etc.
mmContinuing confusion among learning ability, styles-vs-media delivery systems, and setting is responsible for today’s mistaken impression that electronics or special formats per se can or will solve communications and training problems: ergo, more problems and abundant program failures.
mmAs we’ve stated before (both in Achieving Objectives in Meetings, 1973, and Sales Meetings That Work, 1983,  “The message is the message”. . .and don’t you forget it!
Re: National convention address
mm". . .we are awarding you the coveted MPI Tony Award. We appreciate the time, effort and talent put forth in the best interests of Meeting Planners International. Thank you for playing such an important integral part in shaping our educational goals. . . ." Meeting Planners International (now Meeting Professionals International), (Dec 82).
SPECIAL NOTE: Cavalier viewpoints on instructional methodology and content / format and values have been argued for decades by the meetings industry, including publishers and some associations. However those viewpoints have recently been proved valid by independent university studies. See Professor M. David Merrill ("Wake Up!. . .and Reclaim Instructional Development" in Training magazine for June, 1998).
mmThere is an additional "Recognition" button under Practical Word Power. Also see more Industry Recognition under the S&MM, Business Week, and NYU buttons below.