Whether you’ve made up your mind about the usefulness of social media or not, the numbers are staggering. In January 2009, there were 42 million Facebook users in the United States. By January 2010, there were 103 million. And while the growth of Twitter users is slowing, there are still 64 million tweets every day. But the real cutting edge is Foursquare. We got the whole story at the Financial & Insurance Conference Planners Education Forum. And we’ve also got a slideshow from the event, held in June in St. Louis.

In the latest of our off-the-cuff interviews, we catch up with James Wolfe, director, administrative services, at NCCI Holdings in Boca Raton, Fla., who advises us on the best place to people-watch and what to read this summer.

All sponsorships are sold, the educational agenda includes top-notch speakers and innovative topics, and there’s a whole new Marketplace—now called The Network—for attendees to experience when Financial & Insurance Conference Planners holds its 2010 Annual Conference November 17–20. Plus, it’s at the fabulously renovated Fontainebleau Miami Beach, where longtime FICP hospitality partners Scott Flexman, vice president, sales & marketing, and Anne Erickson, director of national accounts, insurance, are sure to take excellent care of you. Read more details and get a link to the FICP registration page.

At its annual meeting June 28, the New England Chapter of Meeting Professionals International named Betsy Gonzalez, CMP, supervisor, conference & meeting management, at Liberty Mutual in Boston as the chapter’s 2010 Meeting Professional of the Year. Gonzalez also will serve on the chapter’s 2010–11 board of directors as director, education. See who else was honored at the meeting.

Jennifer Glynn has joined Toronto-based site-selection company Meeting Encore as regional director. Based in Waterloo, Ontario, she will work with corporate clients on selecting sites for their meetings. During her seven years as global account executive with Marriott International, working with financial and insurance clients in Canada, Glynn became well known as a presenter and active member of the hospitality partner community of Financial & Insurance Conference Planners.