The APEX Initiative

What is APEX? Well, the dictionary defines apex as “the highest point”, which is appropriate for the Initiative but doesn’t really tell us anything about it. APEX, as an acronym, stands for the Accepted Practices Exchange and is an initiative spearheaded by the Convention Industry Council (CIC) to improve the performance of those in the meetings industry. It is meant to take us to "the highest point" of event planning.

For more information about the Initiative or the CIC, please use this link.

OK, so you have the link – but why should you go there? Here are just a few reasons why I keep their site bookmarked on my computer…

1. The APEX Initiative offers sample forms and tools that can be downloaded as PDFs or as Word documents. These can be very useful if you are new to meeting planning but can also help a more experienced planner to bring their own documents in line with industry standards (if they’re not already).

2. The Glossary. This is my favorite part of the web site – and not just because I’m a word geek. If you are a regular reader of RDL Talks!, you’ll know that there are a lot of terms and acronyms that we have to know and deal with in the course of planning meetings. However, even the most seasoned planner will occasionally come across a term that he or she does not know. I turn to the APEX glossary for the answer when I am unfamiliar with a term.

3. As a Certified Meeting Planner (CMP), I also have access to member-specific sections of the web site (not all of which require certification to access). Though I don’t use this section often, it is the section I direct folks to if they are interested in earning their CMP designation.

~ Karl Baur, CMP • Project Director, RDL enterprises