After reading your article titled "Virtual Show Aimed At Show Pros Shows How It Should Be Done," in the June 18 [2001] Meeting News, I started to wonder if the Internet didn't have its own CVB. After all, someone seems to be successfully promoting and selling cyberspace as the most attractive destination imaginable.

More disconcerting to me is the fact that we as an industry seem to have accepted reality and simulation as quite comparable alternatives, side-by-side. Or perhaps it's worse than that. I fear that maybe the CVBs with genuine substance are not even being asked what we might be missing out on by passing their worldly venues by.

As a meeting planner with target audiences in mind and management objectives to be met, how do you think you'd react to a visit by the fictional sales manager from the West Undershirt CVB who pitches first on the "affordability" of his destination? What questions would you ask? Should your RFP for virtual venues be any different? Now then, what boxes do they truly check as "best"?

Do you really think people really rather go nowhere?