Convention Insider (Conventions.net)

It is something I have found in speaking with convention planners and event planners that seems to be a hard problem to juggle, having a facility and also having places for people to stay. I mentioned this problem the folks are having at Comic-Con International when they have a great conference at a great facility but no where for the people to stay.

The folks at Gaylord Hotels have come up with a great plan to combat that very problem, combine a hotel with a convention center! It may sound simple but the people at Gaylord Hotels have taken the idea to a whole new level. I had a chance to sit down and talk with Tina Sampson, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Gaylord (pictured left) to get her take on this idea and to discuss the newly opened facility in Washington DC called the Gaylord National.

The company is owned and operated by Gaylord Entertainment (NYSE: GET). Tina was able to get her inside joke in about her company that Gaylord is a company that “GETs it”, referring to their stock ticker. Gaylord is headed by Colin Reed and they are headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee. Their first property Gaylord Opryland was the inspiration for their business model that Sampson calls the “Vegas model without gaming” and what she indicated to me was “the best of all worlds”. They put it better than I can:

Gaylord Hotels are designed with the needs of our customer in mind. Conference facilities are in close proximity to exhibit hall space; separate loading docks simplify group move-in and departure. Meeting planners don’t have to worry about distractions, and enjoy simplified logistics because everything they need is all in one place.

Another distinguishing factor that makes Gaylord’s resorts stand above the crowd was their people. Sampson was very specific about this requirement at Gaylord. “Everyone loves working here from the top down,” she said. They call their people STARS, and part of that is that they treat every customer or attendee as a rocks star! I’ll be traveling this Sunday myself to the Gaylord Palms for an event and I am up to the challenge to see if I am treated as Sampson indicated. Hopefully, I will get a chance to meet and interview one the managers of that facility in Orlando. They do make a very bold statement at Gaylord Hotels:

“Gaylord enjoys the lowest staff turnover of any hotel company and very high repeat factors among our key customer segment – meeting planners.”

Gaylord recently opened their latest “convention resort” in Washington DC in April 2008. The atrium is pictured above right. Their press release gives the staggering figures:

Set along the banks of the Potomac River, the massive $865 million facility is the largest combined hotel and convention center on the Eastern Seaboard. It boasts 2,000 luxurious guest rooms, including 110 lavish suites, and 470,000 square feet of meeting, convention and exhibit space.

A few of the fun facts about the Gaylord National convention resort:

• The width of the atrium is 240 feet, and the highest point of the atrium is 230 feet high. This means the 150-foot-tall Space Shuttle could easily be parked under it.
• In need of a cup of java? We’ve got you covered! The banquet kitchen boasts a brewing station that can brew up to 1,186 gallons of coffee per hour. It also features enough coffee urns to serve 552 gallons of coffee at a single sitting…or pouring that is. That’s 7,728 cups of coffee!
• More than 240,000 cubic yards or 16,000 dump trucks full of dirt were moved during the construction of the resort. If you stacked each cubic yard of dirt on top of one another, you would have a pile of dirt more than 115 miles tall.

I was nice to get a chance to meet up with Tina and get and inside look at Gaylord National and find out about the behind the scenes realities of a company that truly does “GET it!” All of their faciltiies are breathtaking, and Gaylord National is their latest gem in the Gaylord’s crown jewels. Congratulations to Mr. Reed, Tina Sampson and all the rest of their STARS.

I talk about my kids often and they recently have been having bouts of nightmares and have been scared of ghosts.  I think it is a result of their sister instilling the horror in them.  I think I will wake her up each time they wake me up because their is a ghost in the closet.  If I was really sinister I would hide in her closet and scare the you know what out of her!  This made me think of the people out there that really do like the idea of ghosts and other things paranormal.  I search out where I could find a paranormal convention and ran across “Scarefest” in Lexington, Kentucky.  Scarefest is brought to us by Ghost Chasers International and their principals, Patti Starr and Jeff Waldridge of the Ghost Hunter Shop.

This event will be held at the Lexington Convention Center.  According to the Scarefest site the convention center is right in the middle of everything!

The Lexington Convention Center is located in the center of the city, in the center of Kentucky and the center of 75% of the population of the United States, at the intersection of I-64 and I-75. In fact, Lexington is no more than a 5 hour drive from the most distant reaches of this massive market.

The Lexington Convention Center is a faciltiy of nearly 130,000 square feet, but only 18,000 square feet will be used for the Scarefest.  The convention center is owned and operated by the Lexington Center Corporation and they also operate the Rupp Arena, the Lexington Opera House, the Shops at Lexington Center and Triangle Park.  If interested in booking an event at the Lexington Convention Center they have an information page.  For now I have to run and check the closet again for that scary monster that is hiding inside.

A unique opportunity was presented to me as a result of a guest visiting here at the Convention Insider. Don Riccardi a commenter knew the Executive Director at the Oregon Convention Center and knowing I was attending a conference at the center was able to get me an interview with Jeffrey Blosser. It was great to get a chance to sit with Jeff as I was already here in the area speaking at a conference at his facility.

The Oregon Convention Center as I have written about before was a nice place for the event where I was speaking. As I sat across from Jeff Blosser, I knew I was speaking to someone that really liked being a part of the convention center, and also someone that was steeped in the history of the facility as well. He has been apart of the center for nearly 20 years when Jeff began his job in 1989 when the convention center was still under construction. He has been through another expansion at the center in April of 2003. Jeff has 110 full time employees working at the convention center, and their facility handles about 600 events throughout the year with approximately 40 of those being large national conventions or trade shows. One of the largest shows that takes place in the center is the Farwest Nursery Show.

I was very impressed by the OCC’s commitment to “going green”. According to their site:

The Oregon Convention Center is the first convention center to receive certification under the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Existing Buildings’ (EB) rating system. The center has been upgrading fixtures and equipment in pursuit of LEED certification for the entire million square foot facility, which the center hopes to attain by Fall 2007.

From my conversation with Jeff it appears they are looking for that certification very soon in aproximately June of this year, and to insure that the facility continues with that tradition, he indicated to me that they are hiring a “Green Coordinator” to be the director of that charge In July of this year. Some of the things that really stood out to me was the fact that they are composting their food, using wind power, and making sure all of their purchasing is green certified products. They are looking into more green things like solar power now as well.

The Oregon Convention Center brings in $400 Million to the local economy with 5,000-6,000 jobs and $12Million in tax revenues. This is not the only facility owned but they also have The Expo Center and the Performing Arts Center in their lineup. Wanting to get some idea of what they have coming up that we could talk about here, Jeff indicated that they are working or getting a headquarters hotel facility to add to the center. If that comes to fruition, they will be able to house people attending the convention center.

I had a great time speaking with Jeff and I can say first hand that they have a very professional staff and made my work here easy. Thanks goes to them and the rest of their staff.

I think I spoke before about making a trip to Oregon to a conference in Portland at the Oregon Convention Center, and that time has come as I sit here in my hotel room working on my presentation for a web conference. That is part of the reason for my lack of posting here this week, I have been putting my presentation together and doing some other things including an interview of a new kid on the block that opened its doors last month. I won’t spoil the surprise but I was very excited to do this interview and can’t wait to get the post written up for our Friday Feature this week. Tune back in on Friday for the next Friday Feature.

I hope to see if I can get some pictures of the Oregon Convention Center and get those posted up here on the blog for people to see their facility in action. I might even try to get in an interview of someone at the facility. No promises but stay tuned for some pictures for sure. Now back to preparing for that presentation!

A friend of mine in the trade show industry helps manage the AWFS or better known as the Association of Woodworking & Furnishings Suppliers and their trade show that is scheduled to take place July 15-18, 2009 at the Las Vegas Convention Center.  I went over to see their web site, and noticed something I had never seen before, Belt Sander Racing.

Yes BSRA, the NASCAR of woodworking apparently and according to the information given on the site:

AWFS^®Fair, Accuride and the Belt Sander Racing Association present “BSRA’s Big Event.” Racing enthusiasts compete on a 75-foot long wooden track with their “customized belt sander racing machines.” All AWFS^® Vegas participants will receive complimentary tickets, but SEATING IS LIMITED, and this exciting event promises to draw a crowd, so you’ll want to get to the track early!

Now that is a trade show I could get into attending.  Nothing like a room full of power tools and some sawdust to get your machismo rate up.  They even had Richard Karns who played Al Borland the sidekick to Tim “The Toolman” Taylor as a host last year. The show took place last year for the first time in Las Vegas, which is another feather in the cap of the LVCVA.  The show only takes place every other year but I wonder if they will have the Belt Sander races again? 

In keeping up with discussing other venues besides those located in the United States to hold your trade show or conference I headed across the Atlantic to London, England.  One the convention centers I found in my search note was ExCeL London.  This facility has won many awards and is recognized as one of the best conference or meeting venues in the world.  It is obvious as they state:

9 of London’s top ten trade shows are held at ExCeL London – World Travel market, Professional Beauty, Salon International, IFE, Hotelympia, London International Wine & Spirits Fair, London Book fair.

That’s pretty impressive to say the least.  One of the more impressive things in my eyes and as a way to use a social media tool that I haven’t seen yet in my travels around the Internet looking at convention centers is their use of Facebook.  As a part of their Facebook page they have a contest to win tickets to the upcoming British International Motor Show.  This is a great example of a company that is taking advantage of a very explosive tool in the online world.  Great job for the folks at ExCeL London!

I was thinking the other day about how event planners and convention planners choose the locations of their trade shows or events.  The title of this post is not intended to be an endorsement of Chicago as a place to choose for your next event but merely the name of the official site of the City of Chicago and the Chicago Conventions and Tourism Bureau.  The site talks about planning your next event:

Chicago offers an incredible range of venues for events as small as corporate board meetings to the largest trade shows and convention in the world. The one thing that every Chicago meeting has in common is the assurance that the city’s hospitality community is fully committed to its success.

The City of Chicago has McCormick Place located along Lake Michigan, Navy Pier, and the Arie Crown Theater.   If you think they can’t handle a large event I guess we could always wait and see how a show with 74,000 attendees does in the next few days.  The National Restaurant Association is holding an event at McCormick Place.

I really like the layout of their site and the ease of use it provides for Meeting Planners.  They have a great resource guide for the people in the industry and list them all out so they are easy to find.  With hundreds of businesses listed they also have them broken down into categories for a quick look at what you might need.  They make it nice to actually “Choose Chicago”.  Job well done for the people at CCTB.

Companies are using technology in ways that are innovative and beneficial for catering to the online world.  Trade shows and conventions must begin to search for ways to make technology work for them and allow them to also get into the online world.  One of the ways to accomplish this is to look for companies that are thinking ahead of the curve and making it possible to change the way business is conducted.  One such company that is out ahead and innovative is Trade Show News Television.

I had a chance to sit down and speak to the CEO of Trade Show News Television, Mr. Bob Lipp.  Bob has a very good understanding of creating exposure for your company, as he comes from an advertising agency background.  Bob opened his first ad agency long ago before anything digital was ever imagined.

“It seems like a former lifetime,” said Bob, when asked to remember the way it was. “Today, everything is digital, and with streaming video capabilities expanding on the web, more businesses, business magazine publishers, and trade show managers, are looking to video to deliver the message.”

This is a unique opportunity for trade shows and conventions and others in the industry.  Event planners and convention planners must take a look at the service provided by Lipp and his company. 

“More than ever, business customers and prospects access their information online through streaming video,” stated Lipp. “Our concept gives trade show exhibitors a unique sales tool that continues to support sales long after the trade show has ended.”

As a person that is hooked up in the use of new media for advertising, marketing and PR, I must say that I am very impressed with the company and their message.  I’m contacted daily by companies looking for ways to get into the new media space using sites like You Tube, FaceBook and Myspace.  They see the power behind the use of those new forms of media and are trying to find ways to get into the space.  The possibilities for the use of this company’s services are limitless.  I can see that exhibitors, and show managers can use this service to enhance the reach they have and to allow them to show many other people that otherwise are not able to get the experience of their trade show or convention.  It allows people the opportunity to get a feel for the excitement. 

Look into this company and their affordable services.  Trade Show News Television offers three streaming video packages: focus, reach and custom, each based on the need for content, distribution and additional marketing support.  Some of their samples are an excellent look into what they provide as well as the video above. 

I’m suddenly faced with making a number of travel arrangements as a result of speaking gigs, consulting trips, and attending events, and it made me think about travel conventions.  What are the top travel conventions or trade shows?  I decided to hop over to Google and find out.  Turns out there is a travel convention and it has actually named itself “The Travel Convention” as if to say there are no other conventions out there but theirs.  I like the boldness of that statement.  Who makes the bold statement?  Why of course none other than THE Travel Association.

The Travel Association is a UK based association:

Formed in 1950 by 22 leading travel companies, ABTA – The Travel Association – now represents over 5,500 travel agencies and 900 tour operations, throughout the British Isles. Our Members range from small, specialist tour operators and independent travel agencies through to publicly-listed companies and household names; from call centres to internet booking services to high street shops. All of them carry the ABTA logo, which means choice, value, and high levels of service.

The Travel Convention is set to be held on October 6-8, 2008 and is taking place at Gran Canaria.

Of note is Mark Tanzer, Executive Director of ABTA’s behind the scenes blog.  Although this is more like an online newsletter than a blog, I see that they are trying to move into the social media marketing arena of using a blog to communicate.  Tanzer states:

“The Maspalomas Conference Centre provides us with another stunning business setting which is perfect for the UK’s premier travel event of the year,” said Mark Tanzer, ABTA’s Chief Executive.

The Maspalomas Conference Center is described in its site as a very beautiful facility and I think its in a beautiful part of the world.  I would be interested in attending just for the scenery and the fun on the beach.

All over Mexico and North America, people are celebrating Cinco De Mayo or the celebration of the victory at the Battle of Puebla.  Many believe it to be the celebration of Mexico’s independence but although not, it is a highly celebrated day in Mexican history.  I thought that in honor of the holiday, and staying with the idea of talking about convention centers outside the U.S., I would  head down to Cancun and check out the convention center there.

The Cancun Center is located in the heart of the hotel district of Cancun and has 152,852 square feet of exhibition space.    The Yucatan Peninsula is a gorgeous setting for a convention or trade show.  The Cancun Convention and Visitors Bureau describes the faciltiy:

An extraordinary setting with a panoramic view of the Caribbean Sea combines with state-of-the-art technology and personal attention from a team of professionals.
The result is a full range of support services, from audiovisual and security to booth decor and food and beverage.
Everything you need to guarantee an event’s success is yours at Cancun Center.

I checked out their facility with their virtual tour and it looks like a wonderful place to have a convention or trade show. 

This past weekend The Professional Convention Management Association (PCMA) Education Foundation held its first international Partnership Summit at the Cancun Center.  It was a chance to really showcase the convention center to industry leaders.  Arturo Escaip, President of the CCVB said just this:

“We couldn’t be more pleased to be hosting the Foundation’s Annual Partnership Summit,” said Arturo Escaip, President and CEO of the Cancun Convention and Visitors Bureau. “This is an unprecedented opportunity to ‘show-off’ all that Cancun has to offer to this group of highly-respected meetings industry executives. Additionally, the focus group and town hall meetings will provide us with some candid insight into the needs of meetings professionals, while also giving us a unique opportunity to demonstrate the many advantages of planning a meeting in Cancun.”

A great opportunity for the Cancun Center and I hope they took advantage of the chance to shine.  If you are an event or convention planner check out what Cancun has to offer.