With improving employment news in the U.S. overall, and signs of job growth in the meetings industry in particular, 2012 may be the best time in a long time to make a career move. But be prepared for the journey. Finding a meetings job means working your network, being persistent, and figuring out how to stand out from the crowd. Stories and advice from the job-hunting road.

Every other year since 1983, RRC Associates has surveyed meeting professionals about site attributes and potential site deterrents in order to find out about their site-selection process. Here’s a surprise from the 2011 results just out: Meeting decision-makers are less concerned about food and lodging costs and getting value for their money than they were two years ago. More from the survey.

At the Eighth Annual Pharmaceutical Meeting Management Forum taking place later this month in Orlando, attendee volunteers will spend half a day at the Clean the World Recycling Operations Center, home to an innovative program to improve sanitation in developing countries and divert tons of waste from U.S. landfills. The meeting’s corporate social responsibility event will have attendees boxing and bottling soap and other leftover amenities gathered from hotels around the country. Here’s more on the Clean the World CRS event and the Pharmaceutical Meeting Management Forum.

I’d been wondering how Aulani, the stand-alone resort Disney opened in Hawaii last fall, is managing to balance its appeal as a meeting property and as a family resort. Just back from a trip to the leeward side of Oahu, and here’s my report.

When Tower of Power asked that question in the 1970s-era song, they warned that what was hip today might become passé (as has, now that I think about it, the word “hip”). They were talking about dress and hairstyles, but cities too seem to wax and wane in their hipness. According to Lauren Modery, some hipster cities such as Austin, Brooklyn, and Portland have been replaced in the coolest-of-the-cool realm.

So where is a meeting planner to take her cool customers now? Find out on face2face, the MeetingsNet blog.

As an avid participant in meetings industry conferences, I’ve heard all the arguments for booking within the block. Until recently, I’ve heeded the call.

But when I booked lodging for the recent Professional Convention Management Association conference in San Diego, the room block prices were far higher than published rates for the same hotels. In the end, Hotwire found our team a lovely property that was a quick walk from the convention center and even had its LEED certification.

I can’t say I regret the choice, and I’m sure I’m not alone. So if a mix of guilt, residual loyalty, and old habits is the main thing keeping the room block alive, how long can we expect the practice to continue?