Promoting Your Locale as a Meeting Site: Being the Right Meeting Site
September 2003
Each year an ever-growing number of executives are faced with the dilemma of choosing a site for their annual meeting or convention. From the meeting planner’s perspective selecting a site for a business meeting or convention is no easy matter. From the perspective of the locale competing for the meeting or convention, the job of winning the convention may be even more difficult. Most meeting planners or site selectors want to know if the locale offers not only the basic amenities needed for a specific meeting, but also the “extras” that turn a good convention into a great one. When competing for a meeting or convention consider some of the following:
- Create a complete inventory of your locale’s offerings for a successful meeting. Your locale cannot be picked as the right site for a meeting if your locale does not know what the planner is seeking and what are his/her specific needs. Ask the planner to list these needs, then help him/her to prioritize those factors which are most important and demonstrate how your locale can meet these needs.
- Remember that meeting planners are highly successful professionals. Do not “oversell” a meeting planner. Always be truthful and do not promise what you cannot deliver. Not all conventions are the same: Different types of conventions require different facilities. Remember that not every city is right for every type of meeting. Go after the site that is right for your locale’s particular capabilities.
- Make sure that you know what your city/site has to offer to that specific group: Do not forget that in an age of less than pleasant travel, advantages can be the little things such as distance, travel time, available communication facilities, and types of attractions.
- Know what your competitors do not offer: Analyze the reasons you would not want to meet in that particular place. What drawbacks do the other proposed meeting sites include? _ Work with your hoteliers and restaurant owners. Nothing upsets convention attendees as much as the extra little costs. For example, if hotels charge to access a toll free number, try to have the hotel drop this charge. Provide menus that are sensitive to different cultural and dietary needs.
- Offer an historical review of past conventions: Show how your community/locale has been accommodating to other’s needs and is sensitive to the particulars of each convention or meeting.
- Get the community involved. All too often, locals who could care less about the success of a program ruin a convention. Develop host programs, write articles in the local media, teach the community that each convention or meeting held in your community means not only precious revenue and jobs, but also offers an opportunity to meet new people and develop new friendships.
- Provide a safe and secure environment. In the future, security will be a big selling point as to where conventions are held. If your police and security officials are not well trained in TOPs (tourism oriented policing), you are risking the viability of this part of your tourism industry. Realize that most police officers have never been trained in TOPs and they do not often understand its ramifications. Make sure that all facilities meet code standards and that there is a workable evacuation plan.
- The success of a convention is often determined by the quality of service that your community can provide. People attend conventions but go to/visit communities. There is a major linkage between the success of a convention and the quality of the host community. Remind people that no one ever needs to come back to a locale, and that “good service makes good cents.” In other words, good service is a major addition to a community’s earning potential.
- Do not go after only the large groups/conventions. Be careful not to develop a reputation that says, “If you are not a certain size, we really do not care about you.” People who attend smaller conventions may well be the people who sit on boards that determine the location of the large and glamorous conventions.
- Stay in contact with organizations that have held previous meetings or conventions in your location. Developing relationships may not bring the same group back each year, but will provide positive publicity for other groups and show that you care not only about filling a hotel room, but also about the organization. Never forget that meeting planners know each other and compare notes.
- Never forget that meeting and convention planners know that meetings can be a tremendous asset to a company and motivator for its employees. A well-run convention in the right site can translate into an increase in employee productivity that more than offsets the cost of the meeting. Help the meeting planner to be successful and your community will also be a success. Good partnerships and good communication are the keys to a highly successful meetings and convention industry.
