But the meeting planners reply that the President wants participants to be free to express themselves candidly.

Now a 30-year-old meeting planner who recently married, Mr. Smith recalls that he was determined to beat his problem and "come out 100 percent."

She is also working on completing professional certificates as a meeting planner and a trade show marketer.

As an entrepreneur, she is not only training employees for clients, but has become a meeting planner as well.

Dr. Sanders pointed to a 1997 survey in which meeting planners ranked cities' appeal to conventioneers, assuming comparable facilities existed everywhere.

"This is going to be an action-oriented conference," said a meeting planner, Don Feder.

One of the site's features is a "meeting planner" for scheduling international conference calls.

So I brought along my sister, Peggy, a tall, blond meeting planner who travels to hotels for a living.

But a hurricane forced a cancellation of the event and his meeting planners proposed a five-day Caribbean cruise to take its place.

In interviews, corporate meeting planners said companies have long been aware of the risks inherent in alcohol consumption linked to the job.