A new survey shows a dramatic rise in the number of disengaged employees in the financial services industry. What’s needed, say experts, is a return to “high-touch” management. That means everything from a sustained focus on helping new employees through their first year, to creating local events that boost teamwork, to ensuring that senior executives are seen and heard at meetings explaining their goals for the company’s future. Here’s where you fit in.

It’s almost Q4 2010: Do you know where your strategic meetings management program is? Maybe you’re just learning about SMMPs. Maybe you’re creating your business case for SMMP implementation. Or maybe you’re wondering how you’ll ever put all the pieces together to make an SMMP fly.

Following the path of another financial services company could be invaluable. That’s the gist of a new tool from StarCite, a company that provides the technological backbone for corporate SMMPs. Read how StarCite has taken its experience with financial services companies and turned it into a road map for your SMMP.

The latest in our off-the-cuff interviews with financial services planners and suppliers takes us to the Green Mountain State to catch up with Lynn Averill. You won't find her with an iPod dangling from her ears but you might catch her rocking out to a few blues guitarists.

Pam Ferguson of The Ritz-Carlton (at left) greets Jill Conrad, CMP, of Fireman’s Fund Insurance Company, who was one of 31 senior-level planners—a record number—gathered at The Ritz-Carlton, Half Moon Bay, in Half Moon Bay, Calif., for the luxury brand’s annual Insurance Advisory Council event. The planners brought good news with them: In an on-site poll, all of them reported the same or more meetings planned for 2011 as for 2010. Read more about the education and brand updates at the meeting—and check out our exclusive photo gallery.

Have you ever planned a meeting activity so popular it went two hours past its designated time? That’s what Darlene Catan reports about her “Martinis, Makeup, and Maui” event earlier this summer at the Four Seasons St. Louis. Catan, director of insurance and incentive sales at Ovation Global DMC, invited 30 incentive buyers to the hotel’s Presidential Suite for 15-minute makeovers plus beauty tips and products, martinis, and a pair of Maui Jim sunglasses. New York–based makeup artist Kathy Pomerantz has created the theme—and can customize for different audiences (“Makeup and Milkshakes” works for the under-21 crowd). Check out the fun and glamour in the slide show created by photographer Pam Bredenkamp of Signature Studio.