Need concert tickets for 3,000, a customized telemarketing campaign to promote an event or an instant way to communicate with attendees on the trade show floor? Just ask the CVB.
Far more than clearing houses for hotel rooms and venue space, innovative CVBs are playing an expanded role these days, providing everything from customized tech tools for building attendance to one-stop-shop services for event planning.
"You have to go to the next level by being a strategic partner," says Daniel Fenton, president and CEO of Team San Jose, the CVB for San Jose, Calif., and the chairman of Destination Marketing Association International (DMAI). "Our responsibility is not just rates and dates—it’s to sit down with planners and look at what will make the meeting successful. What are they trying to do for their attendees?"
Stacy Bartlett, vice president of services for the Kansas City [Mo.] Convention & Visitors Association, says that planners expect a lot more from CVBs these days, particularly when it comes to marketing the annual convention.
"Associations are relying on us to sell the destination to their people," she says.
"Fortunately, new technology allows us to communicate in a way that is targeted and informative, but not overwhelming."
Holly Clapham-Rosenow, vice president of marketing for the Greater Houston CVB, adds that is not uncommon for meeting planners to sit down with the bureau’s marketing team to map out a strategy for a well-attended meeting that will enable delegates to make the most of their time in the city.
"We talk about their objectives, their goals—things that reach into the core of their planning," she says. "It’s not just about logistics and it’s not pre-packaged. Services are much more tailored to the individual convention now. Customers do not want generic content. It’s all about streamlining communication and making it work for the person receiving it."
Custom Marketing
While CVBs have long provided promotional materials to help drive attendance, bureaus are now able to reach attendees, both potential and those already registered, in far more targeted and effective ways.
Instead of giving planners a generic video promoting the city, the Regional Spokane [Wash.] CVB is starting to take a more customized approach, according to president and CEO Harry Sladich.
"We’re investing a lot in innovative marketing, part of which includes a video component with a message tailored to the individual association," he says, adding that the goal is to produce videos and other marketing materials that not only showcase Spokane, but promote the importance of the meeting itself.
"We have to make sure that our message makes things look fun and appealing while also addressing the accountability issue," he says. "People need to justify their attendance at meetings these days—how will this meeting making me a better employee, a better manager? So we’re working with planners, asking them what it is they need to accomplish."
Customized convention websites, often called microsites, that provide attendees with meetings-specific information have emerged as a popular marketing tool offered by CVBs. While the microsites often provide general useful information about the destination, they usually go a step further in making the information relevant to the dates of the convention or the special interests of the group.
"If the group is meeting in October, than the site is targeted to things they can do during those dates," Bartlett says.
At the Greater Houston CVB, Clapham-Rosenow says microsites can serve a myriad of functions that go beyond showcasing the city.
"We address the specific needs, based on what the meeting professional wants to emphasize, whether it’s programming or communicating transportation options," she says. "We also use the sites for specialized communication, such as the status of Houston after Hurricane Ike. We wanted to show people attending upcoming conventions that downtown Houston was pretty much untouched. We were able to post pictures on the sites."
Attendance-Building
When it comes to increasing attendance, just how big a difference can a pro-active marketing approach from a CVB make?
According to Fenton, a promotional strategy that Team San Jose undertook for a recent Optical Society of America (OSA) trade show was credited by OSA as doubling attendance at the event, much of it coming from the Silicon Valley region itself. Team San Jose hired a part-time staffer to make a contact list of local organizations that would be interested in the event and also worked with OSA to develop a script and execute a telemarketing campaign.
"OSA wanted to work on the regional market in terms of people coming in for the show," he says. "So we worked directly with targeted attendees in the optical engineering world to get them onto the show floor."
Community Partners
When it comes to both building attendance and providing planners with an expanded menu of meetings services, Fenton says the key is for CVBs to form partnerships in the community, particularly with arts, labor and hotel organizations. In his new role as DMAI chair, Fenton says he plans to help the organization form such partnerships on a national level.
Community partnerships, particularly with local arts groups, have been a key focus of Team San Jose, which not only functions as a CVB but manages the convention center and the city’s major performing arts venues. According to Fenton, Team San Jose’s close relationship with the local arts community and the fact that it has seven venues in its fold is a benefit for planners.
"It makes it much easier for attendees to take advantage of the performing arts here," he says. "Because we have 4,000 seats in seven theaters, we can really customize the approach to what groups need, including bringing in an artist to one of the venues and making the performance part of the program. You have the option of just taking some of the seats, with the rest open to the public. You can have private parties before or after the performance."
For many CVBs, local partnerships are proving to be an effective way to prompt meetings registration. In Baltimore, the CVB works with local restaurants as well as with cruise lines that are homeported in the city.
"We’ve done things like working with the local cruise lines to secure a cruise for two where the dates match up with the convention," says Tom Noonan, president and CEO of the Baltimore CVB. "If people register by a certain date, they have a chance to win a cruise. Similarly, we’ve had restaurants offer free meals, attractions offering free admission. It’s an encouragement for people who are sitting on the fence."
In Kansas City, the CVA worked with Harley-Davidson, which operates a manufacturing facility in the city, to obtain a motorcycle at a reduced price that served as the grand prize in a drawing to encourage registration.
"It was for the International Association of Fire Chiefs. They wanted to drive local attendance to a trade show," Bartlett says. "It really built a lot of excitement, and proved to be a creative way to assist with their goal."
On-site Communication
Among the newest services that CVBs are providing to organizations is on-site text-message communication between attendees and event organizers.
The Greater Houston CVB recently partnered with GuestAssist-Conference to offer a service in which attendees can provide their cell phone numbers upon registration if they want to receive updates and other information from the conference organizers. Conversely, attendees can use the service to address any questions or concerns they might have during the conference.
"You can instantly communicate a change in the program to the group, without having to wait for the daily to come out or leave a message on everyone’s phone," Clapham-Rosenow says, adding that the service is free of charge to groups holding citywide conventions through 2012.
Similarly, Kansas City has launched a new text messaging service with Moblico in which the CVA can communicate with attendees (who opt for the service) prior to the convention and also ask for their feedback once the meeting is over. The service also enables communication between attendees and organizers during the meeting.
