If someone were to tell you that you don’t need a coat to walk around Indianapolis, Des Moines or Minneapolis during winter, you might be skeptical.
Another possible surprise: finding that available winter dates and space on your favored Midwestern city’s calendar can be more difficult than you might imagine. That’s because business doesn’t slow down much in the region when the thermometer dips.
While misperceptions abound about winter in Midwestern cities, those who live there say groups can do well by looking beyond concerns about access, slushy sidewalks and windy avenues. Many cities on the region’s meetings circuit don’t experience as much frigid weather as popular perceptions would suggest, and when the white stuff does hit, locals have all the expertise and equipment they need to mitigate the effects.
Because business keeps humming along in the first quarter, many destination managers say they don’t do shotgun discounting on group rates for colder months, but there can be some affordable deals to be had in cities that are as well equipped with facilities and leisure options as they are for whatever weather blows their way.
Minneapolis
“We turn business away in winter,” says Kevin Lewis, vice president of convention sales, for Meet Minneapolis, the Minneapolis CVB. “A lot of state associations and corporations meet here in January and February. Target Corporation is headquartered here, and they have many meetings in our convention center. Also, we expect to get some bounce this coming season from showing off the city during the Republican National Convention.”
Great air access in any season is one of Minneapolis’ strong points, according to Lewis. The Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport is only 10 miles from downtown. It’s a Northwest Airlines hub, and has lots of airlift.
“We lose less time to airport closures due to weather than any other northern-tier city,” Lewis continues, “and we have every imaginable piece of equipment to handle snow and ice—not to mention the people who know how.”
And there’s that downtown skyway, a sort of climate-controlled “cocoon” that protects users from cold and inclemency should it occur, and carries them among hotels, convention centers, restaurants, shopping stops and more.
“Unless you’ve experienced our skyway system, you can’t understand how elaborate and spread out it is,” Lewis says. “It connects all our downtown hotels, the convention center, retail sites and restaurants, so you can literally walk out of your hotel room to the convention center, have lunch at a restaurant, shop at Macy’s after your meeting, then attend a basketball game at Target Center—via the skyway.”
Lewis also points to several downtown areas, including the Nicollet Mall, where sidewalks are heated so pedestrians don’t have to contend with icy streets.
Attendees who want to embrace winter have plenty of outdoor options in and around Minneapolis. Besides the annual February winter carnival in neighboring St. Paul, there are cross-country ski trails, outdoor hockey and ice-skating rinks, and snowmobiling.
And there is also that peculiarly Midwestern sport of ice fishing on a lake. According to Lewis, you can have many of the comforts of home inside your lake shack—satellite TV, bunkbeds and some decent grub—whether the fish are biting or not.
Meeting attendees in Minneapolis will also find an increasing hotel room inventory to choose from, including some 1,000 rooms and six hotels coming online by the end of the year.
Des Moines
There are over four miles of skywalks in downtown Des Moines, Iowa, and they are acclimatized year-round to keep walkers comfy at 72 degrees, according to Vicki Comegys, vice president sales and services for the Greater Des Moines CVB.
“Our skywalks are open 24 hours, and they connect parking garages, hotels, restaurants, retail and the Iowa Events Center,” she says. “In all, they connect people to 900 hotel rooms downtown—properties like the Marriott-Des Moines Downtown and the Renaissance Des Moines Savery.”
The skywalks are central to the city’s meetings marketing strategies, and they bring in an array of SMERF buyers, as well as regional meetings for national associations. Agricultural groups are also among winter groups who book Des Moines, she adds, because it’s their quiet season.
“A lot of state associations also meet during winter months in the capital,” Comegys says. “It’s a time when lobbying activity is strong, especially for all the financial and insurance corporate organizations in Des Moines.”
Room rates fluctuate, she adds, depending on whether it’s high season for lobbying or sports.
Sports interests are likely to be high for the coming season with two new teams in town. The Iowa Chops (formerly the Iowa Stars, affiliated with the Dallas Stars) are the new American Hockey League affiliate for the Anaheim Ducks.
The Iowa Energy is a National Basketball Association Development League team affiliated with the Phoenix Suns and Chicago Bulls. Both teams play at Wells Fargo Arena.
“Winter sporting events draw in a lot of people,” Comegys continues, “both during the week and weekend. So winter for us is a really busy time.”
Groups who do get to Des Moines for winter meetings enjoy more than spectator sports. There is a variety of active pursuits that can surround a business agenda.
Besides cross-country skiing, and running or walking an extensive four-season trail system, there are casinos and retail stores at the new Jordan Creek Town Center shopping mall, where national brands like Coldwater Creek and Barnes & Noble bring in the shoppers.
At the same time, Des Moines continues to augment its lineup of meetings-friendly hotels, including a Drury Inn and a Courtyard by Marriott that both recently opened.
Plans are also under way for a new arena at the Iowa State Fairgrounds that will boast a retractable floor for concerts and large meetings.
Kansas City
Groups who don’t know about Kansas City’s moderate winter weather miss out on great rates and all the city’s year-round features and amenities, says Alton Hagen, CMP, and general manager of Agenda: KC, a destination management company.
“Winter here is not like most people think,” he says. “We do have snow, but we have many days in the 50s and 60s, so Kansas City is a great place to have meetings in any season. Everything stays open, so we market the same all year.”
This heartland region has a prime location that makes it easily accessible from either coast via major air carriers. So even with prevailing flight cutbacks, there are about 200 non-stop and direct flights into the city.
Along with ease of access, Kansas City offers hotel and food and beverage rates that are very affordable in comparison to those in most first-tier cities, Hagen adds.
“Once you are here, you have all the first-class amenities,” he says. “Unique venues, entertainment, restaurants, theaters and performing arts.”
And that array of downtown features includes the new $850 million Power & Light District, nine blocks of restaurants, shopping, entertainment venues, residences and an outdoor concert and multi-use pavilion called Kansas City Live!
In addition, last year saw the openings of the Sprint Center, an 18,500-seat arena for major entertainment and sports events, and the adjacent College Basketball Experience, which offers interactive exhibits and the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame.
According to Hagen, associations in particular seem to pass over Kansas City during winter in favor of more southerly climes. So corporations take advantage of the city’s good room rates—about $130 on average—and move in for winter training meetings.
Although most first quarter seasons are meetings-active, the one coming up could be really affordable, Hagen predicts, because a major convention with 5,000 rooms on peak night that was scheduled to meet in Kansas City has moved south to get more space.
“We do need more hotel rooms here, and we’re looking to get a new 1,000-room downtown hotel to complement the 1,000-room Kansas City Marriott Downtown,” he says. “Usually, Kansas City doesn’t have an offpeak season, but I think winter 2009 will be.”
Indianapolis
Indy is another city with skywalk connections that mitigate the effects of winter weather on meetings. And winter there really isn’t as harsh as some imagine, according to Doug Bennett, vice president of sales for the Indianapolis CVB.
“We aren’t exposed to the elements as much as lakeside cities like Chicago and Milwaukee,” Bennett says. “We have less than 20 inches of snow a year in Indianapolis, and we know how to handle what inclement weather we get and keep the streets snow-free. People really should take weather out of the equation when they consider us.”
February, he says, is one of Indianapolis’ strongest meetings months. Some of the demand comes from rates that are lower than in the peak spring and fall seasons, but not all.
December and January are the months for deepest discounts on rooms and other meetings components, Bennett advises. But he blames the slowdown on “holiday hangovers” rather than winter weather.
Despite this, he says the city doesn’t do shotgun discounting by season. It’s a matter of case-by-case negotiation.
“January through March is very popular for state association meetings business,” says Bennett. “In the first quarter of 2009 we will do seven trade shows and four special events in our city—and that is a pretty typical roster. This includes sporting events, especially volleyball and basketball in March. And beyond that, it’s productdriven trade shows for the building, cycle and auto industries.
“There is such a tendency to overreach the effects of winter weather on meetings in this area,” he adds.
“When planners see how sheltered the group can be in our climate-controlled skywalks that connect them with everything they need, they know they won’t give up anything to meet here in colder months. We have this nice cover, and we do know how to keep streets clear of snow when it arrives.”
Coming hotel additions are joining the connectivity in the downtown district, and will make the city an even more attractive buy in any season.
There are currently 3,100 guest rooms in eight properties connected to the Indiana Convention Center, and by January, 2011, that will grow to 4,700 rooms in 12 hotels that will be connected to each other and to the convention center, Bennett says.
Skywalks also connect existing hotels to Circle Centre mall, a four-story shopping and entertainment complex.
Over 200 restaurants, including Indy originals and national brands, are in proximity to downtown hotels and meeting facilities, and many are connected by the skywalks.
The convention center is also expanding—to 745,000 square feet when completed in 2010—and the new adjacent 63,000-seat Lucas Oil Stadium accounts for 179,000 square feet of that exhibition space. The stadium, which features 12 meeting rooms, is equipped for any weather via a retractable roof.
Connected to the center/stadium complex will be a new headquarters hotel, the 1,000-room JW Marriott Hotel, set for completion in March 2010. The hotel, which will be part of a complex that also includes three smaller Marriott-brand properties, will offer a 45,000-square-foot ballroom, the largest in the state.
Beyond a stronger hotel and convention center package, Indianapolis has been busy unveiling a host of new downtown attractions.
Work is currently under way on the Indianapolis Cultural Trail, a 7.5-mile bike and pedestrian path linking the city’s prime sightseeing areas, with completion expected in 2009.
For More Info
DES MOINES
Greater Des Moines CVB 515.286.4960 www.seedesmoines.com
INDIANAPOLIS
Indianapolis Convention and Visitors Association 317.639.4282 www.indy.org
KANSAS CITY
Kansas City Convention and Visitors Association 816.221.5242 www.visitkc.com
Kansas City Kansas/Wyandotte County CVB 913.321.5800 www.visitthedot.com
MINNEAPOLIS
Meet Minneapolis 612.767.8000 www.minneapolis.org
Visit Minneapolis North 763.566.7722 www.visitminneapolisnorth.com
