ConVis Counsels Readiness to Cash In : Convention-Related Businesses Get Pep Talk
Among the hundreds of people packed into the ballroom of the San Diego Marriott Hotel--next to the looming, soon-to-be-completed San Diego Convention Center--were James Unger of Hornblower Dining Yachts, Charles H. Scott of Big Deal Productions and Paul Pabelico of Budget Rent A Car.
Although their businesses could not have been more diverse, they and the 700 others who gathered at the hotel Thursday shared one desire: to make a bundle of money from the convention center. What attracted them to the hotel was the first of three seminars sponsored by San Diego Convention & Visitors Bureau, designed to help local businesses attain that goal by instructing them how to cater to conventioneers’ needs.
Judging from the comments of those who attended, money-making expectations are running high.
‘Twice as Much Business’
“Whenever the center is in use, we’re expecting twice as much business as normal,” said Pabelico, Budget’s customer service manager. The rental car service is planning to expand and will set aside more than 25% of its existing 1,200-car fleet just to cater to conventioneers, he said.
Unger said his dinner-cruise operation plans to expand its three-yacht San Diego fleet within 18 months. “The convention center is absolutely going to bring us more business. When (conventioneers) come to San Diego they’re going to be looking for unique things to do, and they’ll want to take advantage of our greatest natural assest--the ocean. We can offer both.”
And Scott, president of West Hollywood-based Big Deal Productions, which provides live comedy shows for conventions and similar events, also plans to cash in.
“After going through 12-hour meetings, (conventioneers) are going to want ‘feel-good type’ of entertainment,” said Scott, who recently launched a local comedy act provider called San Diego Laughs. “With the convention center opening, we thought it was the right time to come down here.”
Pabelico, Unger and Scott obviously are fervent believers in the local orthodoxy that the $165-million convention center will be an economic boon. And no one is preaching it harder than ConVis, the Convention & Visitors Bureau, which is responsible for marketing and booking business for the 760,000-square-foot center.
But industry officials warn that, unless the host city can consistently provide first-class service, convention centers can quickly turn into empty halls.
“Just because you build a building doesn’t mean you’re going to make money,” said Carroll Armstrong, the San Diego Convention Center’s marketing director. “You have to have the support network, the hotels, the entertainment, the transportation--all within close proximity to your center.
“Take my word for it,” Armstrong added, “there are plenty of white elephants out there.”
Although the hotel and restaurant industries are almost sure to benefit from the arrival of conventioneers, other businesses get a much smaller slice of the money pie.
According to the International Assn. of Convention & Visitor Bureaus, a Champaign, Ill.-based trade group, this is how conventioneers spend their money: 50.8% for hotel rooms; 11% at hotel restaurants; 11.4% at other eateries; 5.2% for hospitality suites; 5.2% for entertainment; 8.2% at retail stores; 4.3% for transportation and 3.9% for other expenses.
But even a small slice of the huge economic pie that the convention center will represent once it is open and jammed with delegates could prove to be significant indeed.
According to Sandra Butler, ConVis’ vice president of sales, the center has already booked enough conventions through the year 2006 to bring in more than $705 million worth of economic benefits and is working on potential deals worth another $852 million.
These bookings include more than 200,000 trade show delegates or conventioneers to San Diego during the center’s first year of business, ConVis officials say. Of even greater interest to local commerce is the fact that a typical trade show delegate spends an average of $866.49 during a four-day stay, according to an IACVB survey taken last year.
Doing business with convention exhibitors is far more lucrative than with tourists, adds IACVB president Richard J. Newman. “It’s fair to say that the leisure traveler spends less than half the amount of money spent by a trade show delegate.”
These kinds of benefits, however, have not been lost on other cities looking for an economic shot in the arm. In fact, San Diego’s convention center can expect competition from a host of new or soon-to-be completed facilities.
Indeed, 115 new major convention centers and similar complexes will be built by 1995--a 36% increase over the 320 existing facilities, industry officials say. Such activity is bound to create intense competition for the $60-billion annual convention and trade show market. Not all centers will prosper in the tougher environment, Armstrong says.
“I call the 1990s the decade of convention center proliferation,” Armstrong said.
To help ensure that the San Diego Convention Center doesn’t flop, ConVis is hosting the three seminars to make sure San Diego is capable of providing all the services needed to please conventioneers.
‘First Impressions Critical’
“We’re trying to get everybody to recognize the level of service that will be required,” said ConVis spokesman Al Reese. “We can’t afford to have (conventioneers) leave disgruntled. First impressions are critical in this business . . . because, if we screw up, they won’t be coming back.”
Thursday’s seminar featured Doug Ducate, founder of the National Trade Show Bureau and an authority on conventions, and motivational speaker Dennis Waitley. Ducate and Waitley discussed the potential of the trade show and convention business, stressing, among other things, the importance of “restaining greed.”
“Just because you know (conventioneers) will be coming, you can’t jack up prices,” said Armstrong, the center’s marketing director, who echoed the speakers’ themes. “You don’t want to go too far with trying to make money. It’s one thing to seize an economic opportunity and another to try to gouge the conventioneer.”
Ducate also said it is important that local businesses show flexibility. For example, restaurants could stay open longer to accommodate a convention crowd.
Seminar called pep rally
Many who attended the seminar praised the presentation, but said it was more a pep rally for the center than a how-to session on winning new business.
According to ConVis spokeswoman Butler, specific strategies on how to gather in convention-related business will be discussed at the next two seminars, scheduled Oct. 6 and Oct. 19. “The first one was intended to be general,” Butler said. “Just to get people more service-oriented, to show them what delegates and conventioneers expect, to explain what is a trade show.”
The Oct. 6 workshop will focus on how industries--transportation, restaurant/retail, special event planning and hotels--can contact conventioneers. The Oct. 19 workshop will address how employees should treat delegates.
On Nov. 16, ConVis will sponsor its annual Mixer-Plus trade show, an exposition for businesses involved in tourism-related industries. Often convention planners attend the trade show seeking services or products for their meetings.
As long as local businesses learn how to reach delegates and upgrade services before--not after--the convention traffic arrives, ConVis officials say, everyone will benefit from the new center.
“The dollars are definitely going to be here,” Armstrong said. “Whether (the dollars) are going to show up at everybody’s doorstep is the question. . . . If you’re one of those people who want to wait and see how things go, or who will clean up his act only after you see the crowds--well then, you’re going to lose.”
HOW CONVENTIONEERS SPEND THEIR MONEY
Hotel rooms: 50.8% Hotel restaurants: 11.0% Other restaurants: 11.4% Hospitality suites: 5.2% Entertainment: 5.2% Purchases at retail stores: 8.2% Transportation: 4.3% Other expenses: 3.9%
