Religious Meetings: Cities Are Lovin' the Baptists

By Rachel Wimberly -- Tradeshow Week, 1/29/2007

For the second time in a decade, Philadelphia will play host to the massive Natl. Baptist Convention, USA Annual Session scheduled Sept. 3¨C7. With nearly 35,000 attendees, 25,000 room nights and an estimated $35 million in economic impact, it's the city's largest convention, according to Yolanda Bullock-Cooper, vice president of short-term and multi-cultural sales at the Philadelphia Convention & Visitors Bureau.

"It has huge economic value," she said.

San Antonio will also host a big religious event, the Southern Baptist Convention Annual Meeting June 10¨C13, and is expecting 16,000 attendees, more than 20,000 hotel rooms and an estimated economic impact of $20 million, according to Felicia Madison, associate director of sales at the San Antonio Convention & Visitors Bureau.

"It's a huge meeting, and June is a great time in our city," Madison said. "It's a win-win."

Both conventions also have exhibits, though they are mainly geared toward education, literary materials and other church information. Four hundred vendors in 10¡ä¡Á10¡ä booths will be at the Pennsylvania Convention Center for the NBCUSA, and the SBC is expected to fill approximately 120,000 square feet of exhibit space at the Henry B. Gonzales Convention Center in San Antonio.

Bullock-Cooper and Madison were both thrilled that the Baptists picked their cities as hosts for this year's meetings.

The NBCUSA took place in Philadelphia in 2002, and the attendees made a lasting impression on Bullock-Cooper. "While they're here they paint the streets with beauty, because they're a very well-dressed group," she said.

The bureau made a number of attempts to woo the group back to the city, according to Bullock-Cooper, but this year was the charm.

Philadelphia was a natural fit for the meeting, because NBCUSA President William J. Shaw lives in the city. Romona Riscoe, head of Riscoe and Associates, the convention management firm handling the event, also lives there.

"Dr. Shaw was interested in holding a meeting here in his hometown," said Yvonne Drayton, Riscoe and Associates executive vice president.

"Having the meeting here is made easier in some aspects, because we are familiar with the people we need to work with," Drayton added. "But it's also harder because there are higher expectations."

Bullock-Cooper said one of the reasons Philadelphia was a good choice for the Natl. Baptist Convention was that the section of the bureau she worked in, multi-cultural sales, was uniquely geared toward working with groups such as African Americans, Asians, Native Americans and Hispanics.

"They feel welcome, and there are people here that understand their needs," Bullock-Cooper added.

The NBCUSA, founded in 1886, is the nation's largest African-American religious convention with a total membership of 7.5 million. The annual session's purpose is to address convention business and perform community outreach, according to Drayton.

In the past, attendees have done prison and AIDS ministries in Philadelphia. "There's tremendous value that they bring to the city with the whole community service piece," Bullock-Cooper said. "They really connect with the city. You see how they can descend on a city and spiritually make a difference."

Southern Baptist Convention attendees also do community service, according to Jack Wilkerson, vice president of business and finance for the group's executive committee.

"The Friday and Saturday preceding the convention there's a major evangelistic outreach planned to share the gospel," Wilkerson said.

The SBC first met in Augusta, Ga., in 1845 and is "a pretty high-profile convention with a high-profile voice in the country," Wilkerson said. Last year, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was the event's keynote speaker. No keynote speaker has been named yet for this year's event.

Attendees, also called messengers, are typically pastors, their families and church staff, and the main purpose of the meeting is to conduct convention business.

"It's the largest meeting that's still run from the floor," Wilkerson said. That means, at any given time on any issue, an attendee from the floor can put forward a recommendation for a vote.

The president of this year's SBC, Frank Page, pastor of Taylors First Baptist Church in Taylors, S.C., will moderate the meeting. "Someone could recommend from the convention floor a vote on a future site," Wilkerson added.

One of the biggest challenges for Wilkerson is getting to know a new city every year. "We don't do repeats," he said. In recent years the SBC has been to Orlando, New Orleans, Phoenix and Indianapolis, to name a few.

And if you assume the Southern Baptists would never set foot in Sin City ¡ª think again. "In 1989, 20,400 messengers went to Las Vegas," Wilkerson said. He added that it was the perfect place to share the gospel.

Wilkerson expects this year's meeting to span more than 30 properties across San Antonio.

Brenda Square, associate director of sales for San Antonio's CVB, said the city has hosted a number of religious conventions over the years. "Our city is very in tune to working with religious groups," she added.

Last year, 40,000 attendees flocked to the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America event and, in 2015, 70,000 Seventh-Day Adventists are expected in the city for their event.

Square said that working with religious groups was basically the same as other nonprofit groups in terms of meeting space and hotel needs, but there were also some special considerations.

"We do work with hotels and restaurants in town and let them know they will probably see less in alcohol sales," she said. Also, sessions tend to run later, so bureau staff lets hotels know there might be a higher demand for room service in the evening, Square added.

Madison said she closely communicated with Wilkerson about other events being booked in town at the same time SBC would be there. "We had to let him know who was on the books and keep him updated," she added.

The NBCUSA also had some special requests before settling on Philadelphia for its meeting. Late last year two companies were awarded contracts to open slot-machine parlors in the city, Bullock-Cooper said, and the NBCUSA wanted to make sure none of the machines would be in the convention center. They aren't.

Also, the National Baptists don't drink alcohol, but Bullock-Cooper said the volume of people eating meals around the city more than makes up for the zero bar tab.

She added that, as a whole, the group is very organized and consistent in its arrangements. It makes hotel room reservations and contracts for future space early.

"They've started to book further out and they're more forward-thinking. Because it's such a big group, there are fewer cities they can choose from," she added.

For Philadelphia and San Antonio, the conventions also draw a lot of national media attention.

"The amount of residual business we get afterward is huge," Bullock-Cooper said.