As with its previous guidelines panels, the Convention Industry Council has made available on its website the preliminary best-practices findings of its APEX Contracts Panel, for industry review and comment through February 17.As part of the CIC’s Accepted Practices Exchange, or APEX -- developing industry-wide accepted practices for better efficiencies in the meetings, conventions and exhibitions industry -- the Contracts Panel is developing key contract clauses and definitions, in addition to guidelines to consider when preparing and reviewing contracts. The panel also will develop a standard format for industry contracts.The preliminary report, available at www.conventionindustry.org, outlines the work to date of the APEX Contracts Panel and describes the process by which members of the meetings, conventions, and exhibitions industry can provide input on the panel's recommendations.The final Contracts Panel report is intended to be an educational document, providing an informative approach to housing and facility contracts, and not a legal document.Last September, following a similar process of research and discussion, CIC adopted best practices for event housing and registration. That marked the fourth meeting-planning area to complete the APEX process, with final-report approval already granted for terminology, history/post-event reporting, and event specifications. All of these are available at www.conventionindustry.org, by clicking on the APEX link.In addition to contracts, the remaining areas of best-practice recommendations awaiting final approval are requests for proposals, and meeting and site profiles.