Public Venues: Dual-facility Cities Have Leg Up
By Heidi Genoist -- Tradeshow Week, 6/12/2006
The bane of every consumer show producer's existence is the tradeshow producer, who greedily hogs choice dates at convention centers and persuades convention bureaus to kick out public shows if there's a conflict.
That is, unless the producers in question happen to live in one of a handful of cities with facilities dedicated to consumer shows.
Cities like Boston, Las Vegas and Salt Lake City, with separate facilities for trade and consumer shows, might face unique challenges. But, they agree, it's still better than fighting to fit everything into one place.
Even in Boston, where competition between consumer and trade facilities looks bitter from the outside, facility operators find they're at an advantage over one-facility towns, because they have four times the chance of luring show producers to the city with their four products: the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center, John B. Hynes Veterans Memorial Convention Center, Bayside Expo Center and Seaport World Trade Center.
At the moment, state law restricts the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority from booking so-called gate events (those that sell tickets for entry) at the BCEC. Some Boston public show producers that have outgrown Bayside and the World Trade Center lobbied state politicians to introduce a bill revising the law in order to allow public events that require more than 250,000 gross square feet at the BCEC.
When the BCEC was in its booking ramp-up period last year after opening in June 2004, some observers wondered whether the MCCA wanted the law changed so that it could snatch public shows from its competitors. Both sides say that's not the case.
"When people are thinking about attending a home show, RV show or boat show, they know it's going to be here," said Chris Donovan, director of sales and marketing for Bayside, owned by real estate developer Corcoran Jennison. "We've got our own niche. We don't see not having the city's support as a problem."
Jim Rooney, MCCA executive director, said that if the BCEC were allowed to book gate events, he would take them, but "it's not our primary target in terms of what we're marketing to. As you know, for big convention centers, consumer shows provide date-filling business in that they take less desirable dates. On the other hand, we don't want to take business away from other venues."
Rooney also pointed out that consumer shows, which typically don't use catering and other services, pay full price for space rental and draw large local crowds, making them better business than they're sometimes given credit for.
The MCCA earlier this year reported that it set a record in 2005, booking 108 future conventions and tradeshows worth nearly 1.2 million room nights.
Likewise, Donovan said that Bayside was booked every weekend for the first six months of this year. "We always have something going on."
Although the MCCA doesn't have a public-use facility per se (the Hynes, with its three-floor exhibit hall, is more conducive to conventions), Rooney said his team is lucky to have a two-facility portfolio, giving it an edge over other cities.
The MCCA staff is not divided by facility. Rather, the business tends to self-select. Some clients want to be in Boston's Back Bay area (home to the Hynes). Others are too big for the Hynes or too small for the BCEC.
The situation is more clear-cut in Las Vegas.
Although the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority's convention sales and marketing team is responsible for both Cashman Center and the Las Vegas Convention Center, one saleswoman is dedicated to Cashman (where her office is located), and very few consumer shows take place at the heavily trade-booked LVCC.
On the other hand, tradeshows do sometimes take place at Cashman; for instance, the World Market Center is holding space for temporary exhibits for a future Las Vegas Market there, and food manufacturer Sysco recently used it for a large corporate event.
Chris Meyer, LVCVA senior director of convention center sales, said it's a huge plus to have a separate facility for public shows. "Cashman serves a community need," he added, noting that the multiuse complex with meeting space, a theater and baseball stadium runs at an occupancy of 55 to 60 percent.
One drawback is Cashman's location, he acknowledged. Most clients want to be on the Strip, and don't realize that Cashman is on Las Vegas Boulevard, just a couple minutes north of downtown.
Although Meyer pointed out that the area is improving, Cashman is not in the best neighborhood either. In 2004, a shooting took place in a nearby parking lot following a public car show.
In fact, most public-show facilities look like ugly ducklings next to their tradeshow counterparts.
The LVCC, with an annual operations budget of $28.7 million, is currently undergoing a $737 million upgrade. The 22-year-old Cashman, with a $5.2 million annual budget, gets "a lot of capital improvements," Meyer said — xeriscaping, painting, theatrical and electrical upgrades — but no renovation.
Likewise, Bayside Expo's Donovan said Corcoran invests in "ongoing improvements" to the 25-year-old facility, like last year's lighting system upgrade.
Not so in Salt Lake County — but perhaps not necessary either. Public show organizers are not likely to benefit from the $52 million expansion underway at Salt Lake City's Salt Palace Convention Center, but they can take comfort in the 5-year-old South Towne Exposition Center about 20 minutes away in Sandy, Utah.
A county commissioner in the late '80s pushed to get South Towne built in order to get consumer shows out of Salt Palace, but it's no ugly duckling. It was designed with public shows in mind: free parking, cavernous exhibit halls, numerous concession stands. Yet it also has all the same amenities found at Salt Palace: high-speed Internet, wireless access and fiber optic cable.
Salt Lake County's situation is also unique in that both the public and trade facilities are run by SMG. The Salt Lake Convention & Visitors Bureau markets and sells Salt Palace, while SMG handles operations. SMG does marketing, sales and operations at South Towne.
SMG General Manager Allyson Jackson said that 29 of her 129 full-time staff are devoted strictly to South Towne. Every event, no matter how small, has its own manager.
"It works out terrific," she said. "Very seldom does Salt Lake lose a piece of business because nothing is available. Between the two facilities, we're able to maximize the space and meet show producers' needs."
Still, no place is perfect. Because South Towne is funded by the same county bed taxes that pay for Salt Palace, there was some political friction when public officials were able to come up with funding for the Salt Palace renovation, yet Sandy couldn't get a piece of the pie for a much-wanted soccer stadium.
Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon is trying to pass a $35 million bond or find some alternative funding for the stadium.
| DESTINATION | TRADE FACILITY | SQ. FT. OF EXHIBIT SPACE | PUBLIC FACILITY | SQ. FT. OF EXHIBIT SPACE |
| Boston | Boston Convention & Exhibition Center | 516,000 | Bayside Expo Center | 261,000 |
| John B. Hynes Veterans Memorial CC | 193,000 | Seaport World Trade Center | 250,000 | |
| Las Vegas | Las Vegas CC | 1,984,755 | Cashman Center | 98,100 |
| Salt Lake County | Salt Palace CC (Salt Lake City) | 515,000 (August '06) | South Towne Exposition Center (Sandy, Utah) | 243,000 |
| Source: 2005 TSW Major Exhibit Hall Directory CC=convention center | ||||
