The Meeting Professional

t the opening of the Airports Council International - North America (ACI-NA)/World Annual Conference and World Annual General Assembly held this September in Montréal, Kevin Burke, ACI-NA president and CEO, reminded the more than 2,300 airport industry attendees from more than 60 countries that “ 15 years ago— when ACI-NA held this same meeting in this same city—the world changed forever.” Burke was referring to the

9/11 attacks.

With security a top challenge, ACI this year snagged Peter Bergen, CNN’s national security analyst, who interviewed Osama bin Laden face-to-face and has written three New

ism, to be the keynote speaker. “On
9/11, there were only 16 people on
the No-Fly List. Now, there are thou-
sands,” Bergen said. “Those numbers
speak volumes about how serious
the terrorist threat danger is at air-
ports and how seriously the United
States federal government’s Terrorist
Screening Center is addressing the
threat.”
Bergen added that airports re-
main in the top echelon of targets and
terrorists are going to try to attack
them. On a positive note, Bergen com-
mended the crowd: “The fact is, the
U.S. government has done a good job
of keeping us safe, as have the peo-
ple in this room. Will there be more
attacks? Yes. But, we have made it
much, much harder for terrorists to
attack the United States.”
Running an airport today is anal-
ogous to running a city within a city,
and airport executives can sometimes
feel like plate spinners at a circus. Be-
sides terrorism, airport executives
deal with diverse real-time challeng-
es such as preventing the spread of
health epidemics, servicing passen-
gers when an airline software glitch
causes thousands of bags to pile up,
navigating the politics of screening
passengers and more routine con-
cerns such as making sure there is a
Cinnabon in the food court or ;inding
creative spots to breastfeed an infant
in public.

“That’s why we meet—to put our best minds to solving problems,” says Deirdre Clemmons, CMP, vice president of meetings, education and partnerships for ACI-NA. “Every four

A

Travel is Essential

Airport leaders gather in Montréal to discuss terrorism, preventing the spread of health epidemics and servicing passengers during a software glitch.