International time and date differences can add a significant challenge to overseas conference planning, but jumping over such hurdles is just part of the job for staff at the St. Louis CVB.
When an international group in Australia was organizing its St. Louis conference, they asked that a bureau staffer be available for a Monday conference call. That the Monday was a Sunday night in St. Louis mattered not. A bureau person filled the client’s request.
When another group came to town with their horses for an event that included a parade, the St. Louis CVB arranged to stable over 300 equestrian guests.
Such tasks are all in a day’s work, according to Kathy Steffen, the bureau’s director of convention services.
“We often tell planners we keep the promises that were made to them at booking time, even if the original sales person has left the bureau,” she says.
Horse boarding and after-hours services aren’t all of what the St. Louis CVB—and many other bureaus—offer their meetings clients. Aside from expected assistance with attendance-building, welcome ceremonies and location of off-site venues, many bureaus perform like seasoned hotel concierges when it comes to delivering the difficult and making the impossible happen.
Arranging Access
David Kliman, CMP, CMM, president of The Kliman Group, a Sausalito, Calif.,-based consultancy specializing in creating, facilitating and managing customer advisory boards, focus groups and strategic planning meetings, says CVBs can be valuable strategic partners.
“Bureaus are tasked to deliver visitor and convention event services because they are charged with enhancing the visitor experience whether that visitor be on vacation or business. But they often do so much more,” Kliman says. “They can give groups access to local intellectual capital at medical centers, universities and corporations for speakers and other content,” he says. “And yes, bureaus can sometimes get you a better room rate, and they might even be able to affect air- lift issues into their area. They have the advocacy juice to help you on the ground, so I advise people to include the CVB even on an RFP that’s published through a national hotel sales office. Their advocacy can be a great help.”
Many bureau people encourage planners to regard them as destination specialists—not just as informants about attractions, events and restaurants—but also as conduits to local leaders within various business and professional sectors.
Reaching out at home and abroad is a specialty for Tourism Toronto, according to Tara Gordon, vice president meetings and convention sales.
To wit: through its connections with local movers and shakers in the architectural world, the bureau landed its largest professional convention ever, the American Institute of Architects’ annual meeting in 2017, expected to bring at least 25,000 international delegates to Toronto.
“When groups are planning a major event or citywide convention in Toronto, we can tap into relationships we’ve developed with over 1,200 partners,” Gordon says.
“This can be anything from welcome letters from high-ranking government officials to getting streets closed for an event. The Toronto Leaders Circle is composed of industry and professional leaders who have stories to tell about what’s being accomplished in Toronto, and this can be a valuable resource to attract attendees and build meeting content,” she adds. “Delegates don’t necessarily go to a city because it has a nice convention center. There has to be an emotional connection, and we provide that.”
Barrier Busting
Visit Pittsburgh’s convention services department recently helped a group of engineers secure permitting and emergency services to shoot off model rockets in a local park. The unusual request involved dealing with the state governor’s office, as well as numerous safety agencies.
“There are not a lot of rocket launches in downtown Pittsburgh,” says Dennis Burrell, executive director of convention services, “so this was a really unusual request.”
The bureau made a 5K run possible in July, by coordinating with local agencies to barricade streets on behalf of the National Kidney Foundation’s 2008 Transplant Games.
Lack of destination knowledge can be a barrier to having a top-shelf group experience, says Robin McKee-Kant, meetings sales and services manager of Northern California’s Sonoma County Tourism Bureau. While the region is well known for wineries, she emphasizes that the bureau can put planners in touch with a whole lot more.
“We function like a cross between a convention services group and a DMC,” McKee-Kant says. “Sonoma is so vast there is no way a planner can know all that’s out there besides wineries. On the coast, for instance, we do certified leadership training with horses that has been very effective as team-building exercises because horses reflect the honesty you might not get from a human facilitator.”
Groups in search of volunteer projects while on-site also can get good assistance from the Sonoma bureau, she adds.
Recent projects have included trail cleanup and invasive plant species removal among the redwoods in Armstrong Redwoods State Natural Reserve. The bureau also arranged for one group to combine a biking team-building exercise with assembly of bikes for needy children.
VIP Treatment
Bureaus large and small welcome attendees and pamper VIPs with all manner of bands and banners at airports, hotels and elsewhere. Some are finding ways to raise the bar in creative ways, aimed to turn heads of those who’ve seen and done it all.
In Austin, Minn., spam meat by Hormel is everywhere you go, because Austin is where George Hormel founded Hormel Foods in 1891. Costumed characters like Spammy, the Spam Princess or others welcome groups to that town of 25,000, where Americana reigns in stops like the SPAM Museum.
Spam tastings are a good way to get attendees in the local mood, says Beth Altergott, marketing and sales coordinator for the Austin CVB.
“Spam tastings are a hit, because there are 10 varieties, and most people haven’t tasted hot ‘n spicy, light and turkey, barbecue and jalapeno Spam,” she says.
Need to find a tiara for a board member while you’re down south, in Dallas? No problem, as long as you’re carrying a Big D VIP concierge card.
“Convention services managers are assigned to each group, and we are giving concierge cards to planners who have booked through our bureau while they are here, so they will have that 24/7 service via an 800 number,” says Cassandra Matej, senior vice president of sales and services at the Dallas CVB. “The great thing about this card is that they can leave Dallas but still use it. Clients can also offer this card to their VIPs and board members, too, and we may expand it to some attendees in the future.”
