While the Motown era of the 1960s is still embraced by the Detroit community as an energized and influential time, outsiders shouldn’t consider it the city’s heyday, according to folks at the Detroit Metro CVB, including Director of Sales Carla Conner-Penzabene.
“Detroit isn’t just about the Motown era, which wasn’t as pretty a time here,” she says. “We’ve moved on musically—Madonna grew up here, the White Stripes are from here, Eminem and Kid Rock live here, plus the whole city has transformed and has become much more vibrant since then.”
Similar to its shifting musical contributions—Motown, garage and electronic music were born here—the once steely city has blossomed into a handsome hub of activity. Simply put, Detroit has changed greatly and city officials want to spread the word, particularly to meeting planners.
With an array of meetings-equipped venues, Detroit is poised to compete with the Midwest’s top meetings magnets. Highlights include five hotels set to join the city’s inventory within the next couple of years; myriad attractions, among them an incredible music scene as well as gaming action and exciting museum exhibits; and an overall facelift thanks to downtown beautification projects, namely a happening riverfront.
Rock (and Roll) City
Considering its affiliation with the auto and music industries, a recently opened traveling exhibit at the Henry Ford Museum, entitled Rock Stars’ Cars & Guitars, probably won’t find a more appropriate home on its tour than Detroit. Running through Sept. 30, the exhibit displays cars and guitars once belonging to rock greats ranging from Elvis Presley to Eddie Van Halen.
“Those are always themes of the city, especially during the summer,” Conner-Penzabene says. “Detroit and music is huge, plus we’re a car-making town.”
Though its eclectic calendar of music performances is jam-packed year-round, the city’s most popular music season starts in the spring with Movement: Detroit’s Electronic Music Festival, rolls through the summer and ends over Labor Day weekend with the Detroit International Jazz Festival.
“There wasn’t a hotel room available in town during the electronic music festival,” Conner-Penzabene says, explaining that 75 of world’s most famed techno artists were in town. “While techno was born here in the U.S., it’s not as big here as it is in Europe, so many Europeans were here for the festival.”
She adds that there are two free stages downtown outside on the riverfront, where free concerts occur all summer, including acts such as Grand Funk Railroad, .38 Special, Mitch Ryder, The Romantics, and Marshall Crenshaw.
“One is right outside the Detroit Marriott [at the Renaissance Center], so groups staying there have free entertainment to look forward to,” Conner-Penzabene says, adding that by the end of mid-June the Detroit Metro CVB website will have a new music section icon on its front page for visitors to easily find out who’s performing on what stage.
“We’re also adding gaming, cars and sports sections to the site,” she says.
Mingling cars and sport is the popular Detroit Indy Grand Prix, which takes place at Belle Isle between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario.
“It used to run on the streets in Detroit and it was a disruption to downtown, but now it’s back and should be here forever,” Conner-Penzabene says, explaining that an agreement has been inked for five years and the likelihood of the race relocating again is small.
Similar to furniture week in High Point, N.C., and restaurant week in Chicago, according to Conner-Penzabene, in May Detroit became the permanent home of National Transportation Week (NTW). Makes sense for a town nicknamed “Motor City.”
“Our first year is 2007, and we had amazing success,” she says. “We’re looking forward to convincing other organizations and associations, including airline pilot and mariner groups, to book during that time. They’ll have a lot of reasons to meet here in the third week in May when all this is going on.”
One such event was the May 14 Media Ride and Drive, where Detroit-based journalists were invited to get behind the wheel of 15 new alternative vehicles from 10 auto manufacturers.
“The companies introduced these vehicles at the same time as their competitors,” Conner-Penzabene says. “They usually do that alone, but they rolled out the cars together in a non-competitive atmosphere.”
Programming is already underway for NTW in 2008.
“We’re hoping to grow this every year; already the entire community here has embraced the event,” Conner-Penzabene says, adding that the choice to base NTW in Detroit makes perfect sense since “all aspects of transportation are present here: cars, rail, a huge shipping industry, and we’re breaking ground on the first phase of an aerotropolis [a logistics center for shipping] this summer. There are only six in the world.”
Detroit’s Digs
Along with the Detroit Marriott at the Renaissance Center, which is located on the riverfront with nearly 1,300 guest rooms and 100,000 square feet of meeting space, Detroit has a number of meetings-capable hotels for planners to choose from.
“Five hotels are under construction to help us put a room block together that’s more compatible with the space we have at the convention center,” she says, explaining that the 2.4 million-square-foot Cobo Conference and Exhibition Center offers 700,000 square feet of function space. “The addition of these hotels will improve our room package extensively and offer price points from grande dame to limited service.”
Plus, three of the five major developments coming together are Las Vegas-style, land-based casinos, according to Conner-Penzabene.
“We’re not considered a gaming destination, but we definitely have world-class gaming here and it’s as flashy as those in Vegas,” she says.
The new and expanded Greektown Casino and Hotel, scheduled to open in 2008, will include a 400-room hotel, 10 function rooms, 100,000 square feet of gaming space, and a 1,100-seat theater. The MotorCity Casino Hotel and the MGM Grand Detroit Casino are on track to open in September and October this year, respectively.
The next two developments are also unique, as they’re both historic.
The former Pick-Fort Shelby Hotel is undergoing a multimillion-dollar renovation and is expected to reopen either by the end of this year or in the first part of 2008 as a Doubletree property. The hotel will feature 204 guest rooms and about 30,000 square feet of convention space. Additionally, the historic Book Cadillac in downtown Detroit will operate under the Westin flag in 2008 after undergoing a massive $180 million renovation.
“Its main public areas will be restored to their original stature,” Conner-Penzabene says, adding that back in the day, Frank Sinatra checked into the Book Cadillac when he visited town.
Meeting space also abounds outside of Detroit proper. Its suburbs, including Dearborn, Romulus, Troy, Novi, Southfield, Plymouth, and Bloomfield, have group-friendly hotels as well.
Among the options are the Westin Detroit Metropolitan Airport and the Doubletree Hotel Detroit Metropolitan Airport; Novi’s Rock Financial Showplace and the Sheraton Detroit Novi Hotel; the Hyatt Regency Dearborn and The Ritz-Carlton, Dearborn; the Hilton Detroit/Troy and the Detroit Marriott Troy; the Westin Southfield and the Embassy Suites Detroit Southfield; and the Radisson Detroit–Bloomfield Hills.
Good Neighbor
Detroit, according to Conner-Penzabene, enjoys the largest and busiest U.S.-Canada border connection. There is a huge population, especially in southern Ontario, which is adjacent to Detroit.
“We work closely with Windsor and bid for groups together because many groups have a big Canadian contingency,” she says. “The Windsor side has a convention center [Cleary International Centre] that it’s not using as much because its major hotel, the Casino Windsor Hotel, went through a huge expansion and upgrades, and will be branded a Caesars soon.”
Situated an easy drive south—that’s right, not north like the rest of Canada—over the Ambassador Bridge, Windsor also features the Hilton Windsor and the Radisson Riverfront Hotel Windsor, both equipped with function space.
“A lot of people don’t visualize Detroit being less than a mile from Canada, so for national groups with Canadian affiliates, we’re a choice in that market,” Conner-Penzabene says.
For More Info
Detroit Metro CVB 313.202.1800
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