ATLANTA — Louisville offered bourbon shots.
St. Louis passed out teddy bears.
Baltimore served up crab cakes and New Orleans mixed mimosas.
When it came to wooing association meeting planners and executives during the American Society of Association Executives’ annual meetings and expo Monday at the Georgia World Congress Center, convention and visitors bureaus from across the United States and the world leveraged the things that make their destinations unique.
Savannah favored flavor to freebies. Old Savannah Tours' Forrest Gump sat on his Chippewa Square bench in Visit Savannah’s booth while Jeff Hewitt, the front man in drumming up Savannah convention business, and several other staffers pitched the Hostess City’s charms to the 5,000 or so conference attendees.
Many of those who stopped by Savannah’s spot were the “decision recommenders” or “decision makers” in choosing convention destinations for their associations, which ranged from small trade groups to national professional organizations.
Savannah’s efforts created quite a buzz, even without free booze in the booth.
“All we heard as we were walking the floor was ‘Savannah? We love Savannah. We want to come to Savannah,’” Savannah Mayor Edna Jackson said.
Click here to read more about the various approaches convention destinations use to attract interest
Jackson was among a group of local elected officials, hotel operators and other tourism industry leaders who visited the ASAE trade show Monday at Visit Savannah’s invitation. The trip exposed Jackson and the rest to Visit Savannah’s approach in competing with other convention destinations for business.
The expo is considered the “Super Bowl” of convention industry shows because of the ASAE meetings’ reach. Almost three-quarters of the 225 U.S. markets actively involved in the meetings business plus several international destinations, including Singapore and Abu Dhabi, showcased at the trade show.
Domestic locales ranged from small towns like Athens and Hilton Head Island to convention behemoths Las Vegas and Orlando.
“It is the most high profile opportunity that we have during the year to showcase Savannah as a convention destination,” Visit Savannah President Joe Marinelli said. “As the awareness of Savannah as a visitor destination grows, the interest in national organizations bringing meetings and conventions to our city grows as well. This event gets us in front of the decision-recommenders and decision-makers.”
The ASAE visit also included a question-and-answer session with three leaders in the association meetings industry. The trio touted the continued interest in multi-day conventions and meetings, at least among associations. Corporate and government business remains weak, products of the recession and sequestration cuts, but attendance for membership organization conferences remains strong, they said.
“I am confident that face-to-face meetings are here to stay,” said Deborah Sexton, president and CEO of the Professional Convention Management Association, a trade group for meeting planning professionals. “You can do education and training online, but the networking is invaluable. That’s a big reason why face-to-face will never go away. Association meetings are all about relationship building.”
Sexton outlined several key factors to attracting meetings and conventions, including cleanliness and safety, an abundance of hotel options and good air service. She did note cost is a not a major issue with meeting planners. They look at the value a destination brings, or its ability to drive attendance.
Savannah is increasingly attractive in that regard. Approximately 18 percent of Savannah’s tourism business in 2012 was convention-related, a number that has remained static over the last several years, according to Visit Savannah’s Marinelli.
Yet the ASAE expo underscored just how competitive the market is, alderwoman Mary Ellen Sprague said.
“We can’t sit on our laurels,” she said. “We can’t just take the accolades we hear about all the time for granted and stop working. It’s great to see the effort Visit Savannah puts in at shows like this.”