Southern Charm: Hospitality Proves Strong Lure
By Rachelle Crum -- Tradeshow Week, 3/7/2005
It's easy for show managers to see the benefit of mounting their shows in Southeastern cities like Orlando, Atlanta or New Orleans, with their massive convention centers and countless hotel rooms. But the region's smaller cities have a few weapons as well when it comes to landing their share of meeting business. Among them is the promise of a little old-fashioned, small-town Southern hospitality.
The Old World charm of coastal cities like Savannah, Ga., and Charleston, S.C., is helping to lure smaller-scale tradeshows with participants looking for some country-style enchantment. Meanwhile, many say the cities have more to offer than the South's traditional sweet tea, grits and biscuits.
For instance, Charleston was recently ranked as the most mannerly U.S. city for the 11th time in 28 years by author and etiquette expert Marjabelle Young Stewart.
"The people who are there have such an affection for their city," said Stewart. "It's the soft, gentle way of behaving, and they do it with such ease. You just can't make that up."
Plus, both cities have relatively new convention centers. The 365,000 square foot Savannah Intl. Trade & Convention Center (with 100,000 sq. ft. of exhibit space) and the Charleston Area Convention Center Complex (135,000 sq. ft. of exhibit space) both opened in 1999. At the same time in Savannah, the Westin Savannah Harbor Golf Resort & Spa opened next to the convention center with 25,000 sq. ft. of combined exhibit and meeting space.
Southern hospitality among Charlestonians isn't just talk, said Ed Riggs, director of sales for the Charleston center. "The history charm has always been a great draw for Charleston. It's not just verbiage on ads somewhere."
The Natl. Ski Areas Assn. has held its NSAA Natl. Convention & Tradeshow in both cities at some point over the past 10 spring seasons. Tom Moore, director of conventions and meetings for the association, said Charleston stole the hearts of the meeting's 1,000 attendees with its "non-touristy feel, steeped in Southern traditions and history."
Although the NSAA show also recently took place in New Orleans and will return there in 2006, Charleston was a great fit for the smaller show, which typically spans 10,000 net sq. ft.
"You don't get lost in a city like Charleston," Moore said. "It's easy to get your arms around because it's small enough. The city has a quainter feel and is something you can grasp a little easier than New Orleans."
Kathy Smith, director of meetings for the American Assn. of Neuromuscular & Electrodiagnostic Medicine, said her members were enthusiastic about attending the AANEM Annual Scientific Meeting at the Westin in Savannah for the first time in 2004. And since the event, which rotates around the country, drew its third-highest attendance (964) in over 50 years there, Smith said she would be returning to Savannah.
Plus, she added, many AANEM members said they had wanted to visit Savannah, but never had the opportunity.
"It gave them a good excuse to go there," Collins said. The same was true for the 1992 meeting in Charleston, she added.
Robin Splittstoesser, AANEM's finance director, said the association's members prefer smaller cities like Savannah and Charleston, since they frequently visit first-tier cities for larger meetings. "They really like the small towns," she said.
The Savannah convention center also served as the media center for 3,000 journalists during the 2004 G-8 Summit gathering of the leaders of the world's major industrial democracies held on nearby Sea Island, Ga.
Although they are accessible via ferry and bridge, the location of the SITCC and the Westin on Hutchinson Island across the Savannah River may appear problematic to some show managers, said Sharon Collins, director of meetings for the Atlanta-based Kellen. However, for the 2004 Research Chefs Assn. Annual Conference & Tradeshow at both venues, advance planning, including additional ferries, and the city's hospitality, helped transportation run smoothly, Collins said.
"Since our members are in the service industry, service is incredibly important to them," she said. "And they (Savannah businesspeople) know how to cater to groups."
The city was an ideal setting for the rotating RCA show, Collins added, in great part because of its culinary diversity. "It's a blend of old and new," she said. The contrast is also evident in the city's architecture and surroundings, with several cobblestone streets and the convention center's modern design.
Savannah's old-time streets and plantation town mystique were nostalgia triggers for some members of the Refrigerated Foods Assn. when the group returned to the city March 2–5 for the first time since its initial annual meeting 25 years ago, said Terry Dougherty, the association's executive director.
It took so many years for the RFA Conference & Exhibition to return to Savannah because, until the new convention center and hotel came online in 1999, there was a dearth of adequate exhibit and meeting space, Dougherty said. After that, however, the Atlanta-based association took another look at the city.
The March 2–5 RFA meeting showcased 51 booths to about 225 attendees, half of whom traveled from the Northeastern United States.
Three additional convention district hotels are currently under construction in Savannah: the Mansion at Forsyth and Garden Inn will open this spring, and Staybridge Suites is projected to open in early 2007.
While the RFA incorporated Southern motifs into its meeting, complete with a traditional tea and a buffet with fried chicken and pecan pie, one Savannah group is planning just the opposite for its annual fundraising event: a Las Vegas-style city gathering.
The SITCC will be transformed into a Sin City casino on April 9 for the fourth annual Viva Las Vegas, a signature event to benefit the Curtis & Elizabeth Anderson Cancer Institute at Memorial Health University Medical Center in Savannah.
