When convention attendance grows larger every year, it can be cause for trepidation as well as celebration. There’s an ever-increasing need for space—at hotels as well as the convention center. Suddenly, the
meeting has become a citywide, which can seem like a daunting prospect for those unused to working on a large scale.
Seasoned planners say those faced with this situation have a recourse of action: partnering with experts who can help with everything from site selection to post-meeting reports. Planning a citywide conference is not the time to go it alone, they say, or to limit your sphere to only a few close associates.
City Assistants
So where to go? The most frequent response among veteran planners is the CVB at the city of choice or at cities on the site short list. They point out that even third-party site selection companies use bureaus much of the time to process bids, an option available to planners who don’t use a site agent.
“Bureaus that are well run really have the pulse of the city,” says Kent Allaway, CMP, CEM, director, meetings and trade shows for the Produce Marketing Association in Newark, Del. “They are the most informed people about the city and they often give over the top services. Houston, for instance, worked with local police to get our shuttles in and out of the convention center faster. And bureaus can be great with off-site venue selection for receptions and parties as well.”
Melissa Cummiskey, CMP, senior director for meetings and events at Geological Society of America (GSA) in Boulder, Colo., agrees.
“Regardless of the city, I always utilize the CVB because they are most often a fantastic resource,” she says. “Many of the services they provide are complimentary, and they typically go the extra mile with advice.”
Citywide assistance doesn’t have to be limited to CVBs, however. Ellen Shortill, account executive with Courtesy Associates in Washington, D.C., is a practiced planner of citywides who usually relies on a combination of help, from a city bureau and a hotel company’s national sales office (NSO).
“We often start from either a personal relationship we have with a major city bureau or a single property rep,” she says. “More often than not, however, we begin with the rep and they bring in the entire CVB.”
But how can you know a bureau is effective? Experts say peer intelligence is a good resource, and you can also shop bureaus to find out how they will perform.
“A good bureau should be your city representative,” says Patrick Guidote, assistant director for international media relations at Tourism Montreal. “They should look after your interests from budget on through all the experiences, everything to make that convention a huge success. This is because your experience impacts potential business for the future—yours and theirs. Find out where the bureau’s funding comes from; some rely on memberships, others on taxes,” he advises. “You have a right to know why they might be pushing specific hotels, for instance. A well-run bureau will know all the nuances that exist among hotels in their city—service levels, whether they are unionized, and so on. What you want is candor from that bureau salesperson.”
Don Welsh, president and CEO for the Indianapolis CVB, also believes a city bureau should be a one-stop provider for planners and their citywide groups. The bureau should not only be experts in their marketplace and provide lots of useful data, but they should also make recommendations once planners provide their space, dates and rates needs.
“You can find out pretty easily if sales and services teams know their city,” Welsh says. “They should provide a one-stop shopping approach, help the planner with channeling leads to the right parties based on space, budget and dates, rather than randomly blasting leads. We are in a buyer’s market now, and a bureau should be able to negotiate things for customers that will be win-wins for everyone. When planners are willing to work with CVBs and NSOs, they should be able to get very attractive rates if they are flexible. Also, the shorter the term, the greater leverage they now have.”
Houston CVB President and CEO Greg Ortale says planners should question bureaus as they would a job applicant.
“Find out what they are willing to do for you,” he says, “because they should be selling the planner on the services they offer, like what they do to promote attendance.”
Cummiskey says the really professional bureaus will respond to a planner’s complete information and specs in kind.
“Getting your proposal back in timely fashion is the first step in knowing how the bureau is likely to operate. Are they following your instructions, and so on. This is usually a good indicator of whether they will be good with your citywide event.”
Services Routine and Rare
Putting together housing blocks and providing transportation liaison bids are fairly common services that high-functioning CVB will provide for citywide conferences.
Many, like Orlando, have a preferred company that provides housing and registration services to bureau clients, says Tammi Runzler, vice president of convention sales and services for the Orlando CVB. Marketing and attendance-building help is another valuable service the with-it CVB offers too, she adds.
“Most planners of citywides and smaller meetings want to use our complimentary website conference design service that provides destination information,” she says. “It is customized for attachment to their main website. It helps attendees know about the destination prior to the event. We also do advance promotions for next year’s conference at this year’s site to help generate excitement.”
These days, going through the CVB can mean money in your pocket, according to Guidote.
“Depending on the time of year, size of the group and space competition we have on the books, we will put money on the table, such as an amount per room night toward offsetting costs of meeting in Montreal,” he says. “We are not expecting a strong year in 2009, so we are offering financial incentives to U.S. associations to meet outside the country—especially if they are catering to an international clientele. Our ability to handle international groups is well known.”
The best bureaus are also experienced in giving meetings clients, especially citywides, the unique concierge services.
“Bureaus can help you with the specials,” Shortill says. “The goods ones are very creative, so when you say you need a special event for people who are inquiring scientists who like to be explorers, they will listen to you and work with you on doing a custom event. New Orleans comes to mind as one bureau that knows how to do the ‘wow.’ They have those Mardi Gras warehouses with costumes, floats and other paraphernalia, so you can have something inside a space that doesn’t look like the ballroom. They’ll get a Dixieland band to march you in and so on.”
When problems arise, your friendly CVB may be the one to push the magic button.
GSA’s annual 2008 conference in Houston occurred only about two weeks after September’s Hurricane Ike slammed the Gulf Coast.
“The CVB was absolutely incredible,” Cummiskey says. “We had joined with a related association this year and had about 10,000 attendees for a four-day meeting, plus pre and post field trips. The housing was very complex, especially because there was a room shortage caused by storm damage. Rose Moreno in the housing department worked miracles. I just don’t know how she did it. In the end, we used 16 hotels, with 3,400 rooms on peak.”
Planner Manners
Planners behind the most successful citywide events don’t abdicate responsibilities to their partners, however. They assume a big load of the weight themselves, beginning with destination education—information they can glean from peer networking, industry publications and site visits.
Current knowledge about destinations can adjust perceptions that may be outdated or entirely wrong. For example, Runzler says some people assume their groups are too small to interest Orlando.
“Many think we wouldn’t be interested in their group when they are just getting to the point of outgrowing one hotel,” she says. “I tell them not to make that assumption, but to give us the chance to help them with what might be a painful transition into two hotels and convention center space.”
Emerging meetings destinations sometimes get lost in destination complacency, according to Welsh.
“Sometimes planners have pre-conceived ideas about a city, especially emerging meetings destinations,” he says. “If they aren’t up to speed about local developments in facilities and evolving culture, they can miss some great opportunities.”
Planners who communicate their space and service needs to the savvy CVB will be ahead of the citywide game, according to Guidote.
“Every supplier has a general feel for what is good business for them, and having knowledge from the planner about their meeting space and guest rooms needs lets everyone cut to the chase,” he says. “If they have need for more rooms than space, for example, we’ll know which hotels will best serve them and how alternative sites to the convention center can be best.”
Good communication also turns the negotiations process.
“We are not in the business of providing clients with bad experiences,” Ortale says, “and we want their repeat business. So we encourage them to share their guidelines and needs right up front. It is not the time to be adversarial but to understand that everyone has a stake in making a project work.”
And there are also those times when nasty attrition fees stare you in the face, he adds.
“A recent citywide group had over-blocked their hotel space and the bureau stepped in,” he says. “We were able to work a deal to minimize their attrition. We can do things like this because we have the relationships around the city—smart planners take advantage of that!”
