Surprisingly, the technology that has changed meetings for planners and attendees over the past decade often presents challenges for large city-wide meetings. HFTP expects to set a new visitor record. And a big part of that important step, Stout says, will be international participation. “It really helped build our show,” he says. “And it also helped make our exhibition space more international, which makes the meeting much more interesting for people.” AC&F “We love city-wide meetings because our city is so well prepared to host them, and because attendees have such a good idea of Portland and who we are,” says James Jessie, vice president of convention sales for Travel Portland in Oregon. “We work throughout the year to maintain close working relationships with hotels and our manufacturing community – with restaurants, breweries, wineries and distilleries. We keep abreast of the latest news so that planners can use our knowledge. Jonathan T. Howe, Esq., is a senior partner at the law firm Of Howe & Hutton Ltd., in Chicago, St. Louis and Washington, D.C., specializing in meetings, travel and hospitality law.
Legal questions can be emailed to [email protected]. As a result, many meeting planners, including Stout, now view coffee costs first as a predictive metric for other hotel costs for the meeting. “We`ve even now put the cost of coffee on our tenders,” Stout says. As an example of how a city can fit into the local community, Anthrocon, a gathering of more than 5,000 “furs” (people dressed in animal costumes) has been held annually in Pittsburgh for more than a decade. A highlight of the event is the fur parade, where participants parade (in costumes, of course) through the streets of the city to the David L. Lawrence Convention Center. “The public is invited to come and cheer them on and take pictures,” says Pietrzak. Another general tip for planners who hold city-wide meetings is to use their destination`s convention and visitor office to generate excitement for their event.
More recently, Persinger negotiated venue contracts behind the Strata Data Conference, which brings together thousands of innovators, executives and practitioners to share best practices and learn how technology is evolving to meet new challenges. This city is held annually in September at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. The group stays at hilton Midtown and Marriott Marquis with a peak night of 590, for a total of at least 2,200 nights. O`Reilly has been bringing Strata to New York since 2011. If your meeting takes control of the city, make sure all parties involved agree: “The city has 150,000 hotel rooms; and our city-wide congress attracts 180,000 people,” Chupka said, citing one of the many annual challenges. “We need to secure space blockages year after year.” Every convention requires a comprehensive checklist to keep things organized. however, a city-wide city requires something of an Olympic standard. The concept is essentially literal: a city takes control of your city.
One of the great benefits of city-wide meetings, where the size of the event – and the potential impact on the local community – can be so huge, is that planners can invent ideas on a large scale. The trick is to work with local partners to create a unique experience that leverages the efficiency that comes from getting thousands of participants to a single destination. Budget pressures led Rhoderick to consider second-tier targets. In 2016, it will hold its annual meeting in Salt Lake City. “And that`s a goal we probably wouldn`t have considered before,” Rhoderick says. “But in terms of everything we were looking for — with the exception of the airlift, which is usually the challenge with secondary cities — Salt Lake City has everything we were looking for.” In general, he says, convention centers have kept the price line. “But F&B prices in hotels have skyrocketed.” And the main culprit is the increase in service fees, which have reached unprecedented levels of more than 20% in some high-demand conference hotels in leading destinations. All members of the Board of Education must commit to attending each meeting of their Board. Three or more unexcused absences (as defined in Chancellor`s Decree D-140) are grounds for dismissal: due to the increase in meeting costs, sponsorship revenues have become more important than ever. And fortunately, corporate budgets have largely normalized, meaning the money is available again.
The term “city-wide” is a bit misleading, as most planners of large gatherings still prefer to group their activities as much as possible, usually in and around a city`s downtown. But no matter how big your event is (or where you`re going), some aspects of city-wide planning never change. Smart Meetings reached out to tourism officials and planners in a number of cities for advice on how planners can get the most out of their larger gatherings. Do you have smart advice? Join the conversation on #MeetSmart. Combining the outdoor vibe of the Pacific Northwest with “green” progressivism and urban sophistication, Portland is an attractive option for city-wide meetings. It has an excellent public transportation system (with a tram that makes the city center small and accessible), and as an added benefit, there is no sales tax. Portland convention planners envision a “city” with 1,000 nights at peak times — though that number will increase to 1,400 rooms during peak hours thanks to a new Hyatt Convention Center hotel slated to open by the end of 2019. At the same time, however, the rules have changed in such a way that planning a city-wide event can be made more difficult for planners.
Although the association meeting market has largely returned to its pre-recession health and well-being, budgets remain unchanged for many of them. This means that, in many cases, they will have to increase filing or issuance fees to cover the increased costs. Given that New York is a world-class city, it stands to reason that it would also have a world-class CVB. “The NYC & Company team has set up real-time response grids that are very intuitive and take into account all the components I need,” says Persinger. “They work with me to tailor these responses to the unique needs of each event or challenge, regardless of size. There is a level of responsibility that corresponds to the feeling that the city is actually working as an extension of our team, which is priceless,” she adds. Persinger has been planning city-wide events for over 20 years and has seen how his events can transform cities. O`Reilly Media`s first major event of its kind was held in Portland, Oregon, in the late 1990s with the Open Source Convention, which is still strong.
When it comes to scheduling a city-wide meeting, Slack recommends starting early and building strong relationships with a number of partners. For example, the Do it Best team has close ties with the visit indy team and also works with the Convention Strategy Group, an attendance management company, to get additional support in negotiating appointments and rates. She also notes that some large meeting hotels now show a preference for meeting shops that stay in-house rather than using the local convention center. Once a planner expresses their intention to hold meeting sessions at the convention center, it complicates negotiations with the hotel as they try to get all the dollars they can on room rates, a continental breakfast, event space, etc. Oakland is a booming city in the thriving San Francisco Bay Area, but as a meeting destination, it`s smaller than most people might think: a “city-scale” city exists with 650 rooms above. “It can be huge,” says Rhanee Palma, vice president of sales and services at Visit Oakland. “You can take control of a big city in Northern California for a smaller number of people. The advantage is that our entire city is themed for your event. An important key to successful city-wide meeting planning is to create opportunities for smaller communities to come together as part of the larger event.
At city-wide events, accommodation and impact are always among the main goals. A better forecast for both brought the 2019 United Football Coaches Convention – the world`s largest annual gathering of football coaches and administrators – to Chicago in January. There were 14,070 attendees, more than 900 booths, three demonstration football fields and 10,111 hotel nights, which had an economic impact of $21.3 million on Chicago.
