Boston Is Slow Getting to the Show

With so many show organizers based in the immediate vicinity, you'd think Boston would be something of a tradeshow hub.

Not so. Although the city has plenty to attract visitors — prominent universities, great restaurants, fascinating historical sites and a scenic harbor — for years it has lacked something standard in much smaller cities: a convention center large enough to hold a national tradeshow.

That is about to change. Next June, the municipal Boston Convention and Exhibition Center is scheduled to celebrate its grand opening, adding 516,000 square feet of exhibit space and 84 meeting rooms to the Northeastern venue landscape.

In March, the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority — which oversees both the BCEC and the city's smaller John B. Hynes Veterans Memorial Convention Center — joined with the Greater Boston Convention and Visitors Bureau to bring in tradeshow veteran Milton Herbert Jr. to jumpstart bookings at both publicly owned facilities.

Three months later, the entities launched "Advantage Boston," a national marketing campaign to spread the word about BCEC to convention and meeting planners, associations and corporations with a new Web site, ads and sales materials. Among the things the campaign points out is that the BCEC is only an 8-minute ride from the airport.

Herbert, named executive director of a new entity called the Convention Marketing Center, was COO of Ziff Davis's events division when it owned COMDEX.

The $800-million BCEC had 100 tentative and 24 definite bookings under its belt when Herbert was brought in to reenergize sales and marketing efforts. By comparison, Pittsburgh's David L. Lawrence Convention Center, which celebrated its grand opening last month, has booked 103 tradeshows over the next eight years, including 30 this year and 25 next year. That doesn't include consumer or regional events.

BCEC's first event is IDG World Expo's Macworld, scheduled July 12–14, barely two weeks after the new center's grand opening. Another feather in its cap is a $1-million agreement to host the spring and fall Boston Gift Show trade events in 2005, 2006 and 2007.

But some observers worry about the scant time between the center's anticipated completion date and Macworld's start date. The gift shows, meanwhile, raised eyebrows because they were lured from the privately held Bayside Expo and Conference Center across town.

The 20-year-old Bayside, with 240,000 square feet of exhibit space, nearly 2,000 parking spots and a location right off the expressway, is better suited for consumer shows and regional tradeshows. And the Hynes and privately held Seaport Hotel and World Trade Center Boston — both with adjoining hotels but less than 200,000 square feet of exhibit space — are suitable for smaller events and meetings.

Robert J. Sullivan, Bayside's new general manager, believes there's enough business for all four venues. Nonetheless, he'd like to see the facilities agree on what type of events each should hold. Such an agreement was stipulated in the legislation mandating BCEC's construction, as was a prohibition against consumer shows being held at the new facility.

"With the BCEC coming on line, it gives Boston a wide variety of event venues to house any size event that's out there," Sullivan said. "We all have our niches. We see great success for the BCEC in the niche it was designed for — conventions and conferences that have always bypassed Boston because it lacked a facility of appropriate size," Sullivan said.

Sullivan said Bayside can handle the competition, since it's gone head to head with Boston's two other venues for years. He even sympathizes with the BCEC sales staff, knowing show managers and meeting planners are sometimes reluctant to sign contracts until a facility is completed. However, he doesn't want to see his customers flock to the new venue on the block. "What we don't want is for them to take events from all the other facilities," Sullivan said.

Because the World Trade Center is next door to the new convention center, it expects to pick up some convention overflow. The Seaport Hotel's 426 rooms might come in handy, too, said John Drew, president and CEO of the Seaport World Trade Center.

Drew isn't worried about the new facility stealing business. But, like Sullivan, he'd like to see all the local venues cooperating to make Boston a more popular events destination. "There are indications of a sincere effort to work with us and look at business that hasn't been in Boston but should be in Boston," he said. "The facility gives us something new to sell."

The BCEC isn't alone in its struggles. With U.S. exhibit space square footage exploding, competition for tradeshows is stiff. "It's been a bit of a struggle, but the other convention centers are having the same trouble," observed Stephen Schuldenfrei, CEO of Boston-based Signature Trade Shows and former executive director of the Society of Independent Show Organizers. Schuldenfrei, like others, believes the new convention center, envisioned as the lynchpin of South Boston redevelopment, is "desperately needed."

Other local show managers also have high hopes for the new facility, but say its sales staff has done little to market the new venue so far. "They really haven't gotten out there face to face with many of the show producers," said Jason Chudnofsky, the former COMDEX COO who recently started his own company, Next Step Media, based in Needham, Mass. "It's a well-kept secret."

Chudnofsky doesn't blame Herbert — who he knows from COMDEX — for the lack of booking momentum. Herbert, he said, "has basically inherited a very challenging situation."

Chudnofsky sees the new venue as a vast improvement over the Hynes, which he terms an uninviting mausoleum that is difficult to work in and expensive — even though he plans to launch a new show there.

Charlie Greco, the former IDG World Expo head who recently started Universal Event Management in Boston, blames an "identity crisis" for the city's lack of success in attracting tradeshows over the years. Greco said he'll also be trying to land events in his hometown, which he views as "a sleeping giant" and a potential hub for health care and biotech shows.

Like Chudnofsky, he believes the facility could be doing more to reach out to show managers. More tradeshow professionals on the convention center authority board would also help, Greco maintains. "I'm concerned about the lack of effort I see," he said, noting it was he who approached the BCEC about holding Macworld in Boston, rather than the other way around.