Booking Business: CVBs and Centers

In most cities, the relationship between the convention center and the convention & visitors bureau is complicated. Each offers a different product or service; they often have quite different short-term goals; and yet each is there to drive visitors and their dollars to town. The template for some time has been for two distinct entities to divide their sales efforts up by how far in advance a group is interested in booking an event. Most often, the CVB is responsible for any business booked more than a year and a half in the future and the convention center for anything booked sooner.

However, that is not the only model available. Some cities have had other ways of doing business for some time, and others are just now beginning to try out new models. This week, Tradeshow Week editors take a brief look at several cities whose CVBs and convention centers have developed new and different ways of sharing the responsibility for landing event business.

Almost every salesperson at either a convention and visitors bureau or a convention center can recount some tale of jurisdictional woe. That won't be the case any more in Baltimore.

Effective July 1, the staffs of the Baltimore Area Convention & Visitors Assn. and the Baltimore Convention Center will begin reporting to the same board. BACVA CEO Tom Noonan and Baltimore Convention Center Executive Director Peggy Daidakis will continue to run their organizations, and their respective staffs will continue to report to them but, according to Noonan, they will begin to work together more.

“It's not a merger. We're not taking over the center. They're not taking over us,” he said, “but we're trying to find a way to tweak things.”

As it is – and as is the case in many cities – the CVB's No. 1 priority is to produce room nights at local hotels, and the convention center's priority is to generate revenue at the venue. Now, however, the two organizations will be able to focus on the overall goal of drawing visitors to Baltimore, Noonan said.

The expected benefit is that “everybody's going to be able to keep their eyes on the prize,” he added.

Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon said it was especially important to take the initiative in attracting more tradeshows and conventions because of the impending opening of a new 757-room, city-owned hotel next to the convention center. The $300 million hotel that will be managed by Hilton Hotels opens in August.

The change, although somewhat unusual, took place without the political maneuverings that typically characterize such circumstances. Currently, Daidakis reports to one of the mayor's deputies, and the mayor appoints all the members of the BACVA board. Consequently, all it took was a decision by Dixon to make the change.

–Michael Hart

When the city fathers of country music mecca Branson, Mo., decided their city needed a convention center, they thought big. As part of the $420 million Branson Landing waterfront redevelopment project, HCW Development built the Branson Convention Center. It has a 47,000 square foot exhibit hall connected to a 23,000 sq. ft. ballroom that can double as exhibit space. The waterfront project will also eventually include two Hilton-managed and HCW Development-owned hotels.

The city-owned convention center is physically connected to the 292-room Hilton Branson Convention Center Hotel, with no skywalks or other features to even indicate they are two different structures. The 243-room Hilton Promenade is across the street.

So, when HCW and Branson City Administrator Frank Schoneboom went looking for somebody to manage the new convention center, the answer was simple, if somewhat unconventional: They picked well-known hotel operator Hilton, because it seemed like the best way to attract more business to the convention center, the hotels and to Branson in general. Plus, the combination management contract would create economies of scale that wouldn't exist if the properties were managed separately.

Under the arrangement, Hilton works closely with the Branson Convention & Visitors Bureau.

“The CVB is often the sales arm, but very few CVBs actually manage convention centers,” said Bill Tirone, director of sales and marketing for all three entities.

Although Hilton manages several hotels that offer significant meeting and exhibit space within their walls, notably the Hilton Chicago and the Hilton San Francisco, Branson's is the company's first separate, and publicly owned, convention center. Clients deal with one salesperson for the hotels and convention center.

Schoneboom said the convention center is drawing business to Branson. Events booked there include the Branson Collectible Car Auction, the Outdoor Adventure Show and the Log Home and Timber Frame Expo, said Tirone, who's looking for tradeshows to add to the consumer shows already on the calendar.

–Gary Tufel

Tradeshow organizers considering moving a show to the Hawai`i Convention Center in Honolulu would usually call the Hawaii Visitors & Convention Bureau first. If they did, they'd politely be told to call the convention center itself and speak to somebody associated with SMG, the private-sector firm that runs the center.

Ever since the facility with 200,000 square feet of exhibit space opened in 1998, SMG has managed it – and the firm has acted as its sole sales and marketing arm since 2003.

At first, that wasn't by choice.

In 2003, the Hawaii State Legislature passed a law requiring the operator of any state-owned convention centers to also take responsibility for its sales and marketing efforts. In practice, the new law applied only to the Hawai`i Convention Center, because it was the only state-owned facility.

“The fundamental driver was a state senator who had studied the facility's profitability and occupancy and thought it would be more efficient to make the property manager responsible,” said Joe Davis, the center's general manager. “The goal was to attract more meetings to the center.”

At the time, SMG wasn't particularly interested in taking that on but, once a law was passed, it had little choice.

Today SMG markets the convention center with three continental U.S. offices and contractual arrangements with agencies in Tokyo and Beijing. The convention and visitors bureau continues to have responsibility for marketing all leisure travel.

In the end, Davis said, everything has worked out. For one thing, it's easier to guarantee customers that what they're promised at the beginning of the sales process is what they get when the show or meeting eventually takes place.

“There are no surprises,” he said.

Still, the transition to a marketing organization was a big change for SMG, Davis recalled.

“We tried to make it as seamless as possible,” he said. “There was a ramp-up period, during which those staffers who chose to leave had to be replaced, but many from the HVCB staff stayed on, allowing us to maintain existing relationships with clients.”

As a result, in the five years the new arrangement has been in place, the convention center has attracted some of its biggest groups in history, including the American Dental Assn. Annual Session & Exposition, its largest event ever. The American Bar Assn. also held a major event recently, and Sun Microsystems and Wells Fargo have brought thousands of attendees to corporate events.

Davis acknowledged the arrangement is unusual. Nevertheless, it has since been emulated at venues SMG operates in other cities like Ontario, Calif.; Albuquerque, N.M.; and El Paso, Texas.

“It's not for everybody,” he said. “One size doesn't fit all. It depends on the location.”

–Gary Tufel

San Diego was one of the first cities whose leaders turned to a non-traditional way of running its convention center. In 2004, following a scandal in which the convention and visitors bureau staff was caught spending thousands of dollars on questionable trips and bar tabs, the city manager recommended - and the city council voted to approve - putting the San Diego Convention Center Corp., headed by President and CEO Carol Wallace, in charge of its own sales and marketing. At the same time, the city slashed the CVB's budget to barely one-fifth its original $12.5 million. The following year, 15-year SDCVB President Reint Reinders stepped down. It took the city nearly a year to find his replacement, David Peckinpaugh, the former chief marketing officer of Conferon Global Services.

So where does this leave San Diego's convention business today? Thriving, according to Steven Johnson, vice president of corporate communications for the San Diego Convention Center Corp. “We're maxed out, and we had a record 1 million future room nights sold in 2007,” he said.

Johnson believes having a convention center run its own sales and marketing, in addition to all operations, is better than the traditional model because it offers clients all services in one place.

The only challenge, he added, is spreading the word. “A traditional model is how many meeting planners think about it,” he said. “So, they will seek out the CVB for an event we have in the building for services we provide. We do all the things that CVBs normally provide. We're constantly putting together marketing materials to let people know we're a one-stop shop.”

Johnson said that being a self-contained operation also allows the SDCC to avoid the conflicts he said he's heard can sometimes happen between CVBs and convention centers in other cities. And, “there's full accountability.” But, he added, “we also have to work hard to make sure we partner with our CVB to make sure we're clear about what their role is and what our role is.”

So, is there any chance that San Diego would go back to the traditional model? Not according to Johnson. “We've been very successful,” he added.

–Heidi Genoist

In 2004, GL Events and Global Spectrum were managers of the San Jose (Calif.) McEnery Convention Center. As in many cities, the San Jose Convention & Visitors Bureau marketed the facility and booked space.

But the city was looking for a new approach – plus more bookings and more efficiency.

Enter Team San Jose, a nonprofit public-private partnership proposed by the San Jose CVB after city officials put out a request for proposals to manage the city-owned facilities, including the city's civic auditorium and four cultural facilities.

“The model leading up to (Team San Jose) was problematic to customers,” said Dan Fenton, CEO of the CVB and now also CEO of Team San Jose. “We (the CVB) were strong advocates for taking a look at the model.”

The different staffs who previously worked on selling space at the multiple venues made the course customers had to take difficult to navigate, he added. Now, with Team San Jose and the CVB, the staff is the same, so customers don't have a disconnect.

“We wanted to create this seamless environment,” Fenton said.

For almost four years, Team San Jose has managed – and booked – the facilities, with the help of a board made up of representatives from organized labor, the hotel and arts communities, and CVB staff.

The CVB handles marketing, negotiating contracts, pricing and booking space, while Team San Jose is responsible for building operations and client experiences once they're in the building. The two entities are housed in the same building.

“Functionally, we're one,” Fenton added. “There is one ... senior management team.”

It hasn't always gone smoothly though.

There have been various controversies, even as Team San Jose and city officials have touted the strides made in bookings and revenue.

Fenton said Team San Jose has “translated into significant increase in revenue, sales and activity.” The evidence, according to him: When Team San Jose took over facilities management in 2004, revenue from the venues was about $6 million per year. Last year's revenue was $11 million.

Customers seem to be satisfied too. Fenton said 97 percent of surveyed customers would return to San Jose. “We know that has dramatically increased from where that was before,” he said.

And the city's going to keep Team San Jose around. Although its current contract runs through mid-2009, the city has already approved a five-year extension.

–Stephanie Corbin