Learning to Roll Out the Red Carpet

To entice two international linguists societies to hold their 1999 conventions in Los Angeles, city officials put on an exquisite evening of fine food and a literary program, featuring Ray Bradbury at the Central Library.

Illinois professor Allan A. Metcalf, who had flown in from the American Council of Learned Societies to inspect Los Angeles as a possible venue for the joint meetings of the Linguistic Society of America and American Dialect Society, was impressed.

There was a time, Metcalf recalled, when academic societies convening on the West Coast would have snubbed Los Angeles for San Francisco. But this time, the evening at the library won the city the nod--an example of how municipal inducements sometimes carry the day.

City officials drew considerable attention last week for offering $35.3 million in cash and services to attract the next Democratic National Convention in 2000.

In fact, the city often offers favors to attract lesser-known groups.

*

City officials have, variously, altered fire regulations, enlisted chef Wolfgang Puck to cook up a meal and arranged tours of private homes to give visitors a more enthusiastic feel for life in Los Angeles.

Mayor Richard Riordan even invited the president of the National Education Assn. to breakfast at his Original Pantry to entice the group to hold their convention in Los Angeles.

These efforts are among the reasons that, after many bad seasons, Los Angeles is becoming significantly more desirable as a convention site.

Not since 1979 has the convention business been this good, said George Kirkland, president of the Los Angeles Convention and Visitors Bureau, whose office will spend $8.2 million this year to woo visitors. The low booking year was 1992, the year of the riots, when only five conventions made reservations at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

Organizations and individuals booked 1 million “room nights” here in 1997, a 37% increase over the previous year. This year, 33 conventions are scheduled at the Convention Center.

The total economic impact from visitors last year was $26 billion--$5.5 billion from conventioneers alone, said Skip Hull, vice president of CIC, a San Diego-based research group, whose clients include Los Angeles, Detroit and Seattle.

Efforts to entice convention business are significant not only because of the desire to wipe away the city’s image problems, but because Los Angeles ranks only 10th in the country in convention space.

*

Among Los Angeles’ satisfied customers are NAMM, the International Music Products Assn. (formerly called the National Assn. of Music Merchants), which drew more than 60,000 attendees from around the world to the Convention Center this year.

“From the moment we indicated that we had an interest, the visitors bureau, the facility [Convention Center] and even the mayor’s office opened a line of communication that was extraordinary,” said Kevin Johnstone, a NAMM official.

To accommodate the show, which entailed the display of countless musical instruments and audio systems, city officials modified a fire regulation that required groups to install sprinklers for every 300 square feet of covered exhibit space.

After a quick meeting between officials from the Convention Center, the Fire Department, mayor’s office and NAMM, Fire Department research found that Los Angeles’ regulation was more stringent than others. The rule was waived and subsequently a permanent regulation requiring smoke detectors for 700 square feet of covered space was adopted, visitors bureau officials said.

“I can’t imagine they could have done anything more to make us happier,” he said. His group has booked its 1999 and 2000 conventions in Los Angeles. The only reason to go elsewhere would be if the gathering outgrew the space, he said.

Jack K. Greenberg of Pittsburgh, who has attended the 76-year-old organization’s conventions since 1945, said he liked the way his people were treated by Los Angeles last month.

“I was just plain impressed with the service we got,” said Greenberg.

*

In addition to its regional offices in Chicago, New York and Washington, which Kirkland opened four years ago, the visitors bureau this year opened a Tokyo office and will start a London office next year. Japan is Los Angeles’ top visitor country, followed by the United Kingdom and Germany.

Last year the visitors bureau created a trademark for Los Angeles: an evocatively elegant angel with palm wings. The trademark will appear in promotional materials to attract conventioneers and leisure travelers.

“We wanted to be forward-thinking, but also at the same time reflect that Los Angeles has a history, that it’s part of Hollywood,” said Gailmarie Fort, vice president for marketing and communications at the bureau. A composite, the angel is intended to reflect the “compassion and personal integrity” of residents of the City of the Angels, she said.

City officials regularly enlist chef Puck and entertainers to present a taste of Los Angeles to groups near and far. Puck has traveled with visitors bureau sales people to cook up California cuisine for prospective conventioneers. Sometimes, they invite site scouters to visit private homes here.

Riordan has been among the most forceful and effective players in the campaign.

A year ago, when the National Education Assn. was choosing between Los Angeles and San Diego as a possible venue for its 2001 convention, Riordan invited the president of the NEA for breakfast and engaged him in a passionate discussion about the state of education in the nation before making his pitch for the convention, according to those close to the negotiations.

NEA, which previously had booked the 2005 convention in Los Angeles, agreed to come in 2001.