No Hiccups
Even during the economic downturn, the new Phoenix Convention Center is outperforming its original attendance projections.
By Rowland Stiteler
Most organizers dream of planning events in brand new convention centers, especially if there’s a new, 1,000-room hotel a block away.
There is a qualifier: No planner would necessarily want to hold the first event in that new facility, as was the case with the American Meteorological Society, which held its annual convention in the new, 635,000-square-foot North Building of the Phoenix Convention Center.
“In our business, you really don’t like uncertainty,” said Marjorie Huntington, meetings and exhibits manager for the society. “On my first site visit, the convention center was just a big hole in the ground with some concrete and rebar in it. I met with the construction site manager, and he got out blueprints for me to look at. I really had to use my imagination to envision just how everything would come together to make our event a success.”
Claudia Gorski, director of meetings for the society, says the convention center in Phoenix had been booked for the January 2009 event some five years out, before she or Huntington were even on the organization’s staff.
“Without question, the concept of a new convention center with lots of attractive elements in the area around it, like a new hotel, is certainly appealing, but we had more than a little nervousness as our convention date approached,” Gorski said.
One hundred days out—virtually no time for a 3,000-attendee event that’s been on the books for five years or so—the convention center was not yet open. The hotel was not yet open, and a light rail system linking the convention center with the airport was not yet running. There were plenty of reasons for Gorski and Huntington to stay awake at night.
Ultimately, of course, the event proved a success.
“Our attendee surveys after the convention showed our delegates were happy with the convention center, they were happy with Phoenix as a destination and our society president was thrilled with the outcome,” Gorski said.
What transformed the event from a mountain of uncertainties into an unequivocal success was a lot of above-and-beyond-the-call-of-duty efforts on the part of the Greater Phoenix CVB staff.
Huntington says that during the year leading up to the center opening, she did so many site visits that she had no more budget for a return trip. Yet, on Huntington’s last visit in 2008, the elevators were still not working in the new building, and she had to use the fire exists and emergency stairwells to go between floors.
“I was not comfortable with that, and I still was not sure how traffic flow between the various parts of the building would work and how and where people would get together for networking—there were still too many uncertainties,” she said.
But 30 days from the convention date, the CVB flew Huntington to Phoenix at its expense and put her up in the then newly opened Sheraton Phoenix Downtown (a block from the convention center), and her worries faded. Everything that was supposed to be working was working just as she had been told it would.
When the event began, attendees found they could easily walk to the new Sheraton, which had been up and running for almost three months by then, and those staying in hotels that were further away found they could either ride shuttles set up for the convention or hop on the new Phoenix light-rail system, which runs 20 hours a day and arrives at every stop on its 20-mile route every 10 minutes.
Easy access to the hotels helped abate what could have been another problem—the society was not the only “first” convention in the center that week. Also booked was another big association convention, the Professional Photographers of America, with 5,000 attendees—giving Phoenix a total of 8,000 convention attendees in town, both using the same (albeit massively expanded) downtown Phoenix convention center.
Yet planners of both events praised the way the convention center opening came off.
“When I booked this facility, all I had seen were artist renderings and floor plans,” said Lenore Taffel, director of events and education for the photographers’ association. “I have to admit I was a little nervous that our meeting start date was only a week after the scheduled completion of the building. But I am very impressed with the hard work the team at the CVB and the convention center did to ensure everything would run smoothly, and I’m even more impressed with the final building product.”
The double convention situation came into play again with the third and fourth events in the center, when an 8,000-attendee Mary Kay Cosmetics show closed out on the day the 5,000-attendee National Cattlemen’s Beef Association began its annual convention in late January.
Debbie Kaylor, executive director of conventions and meetings for the beef association, says that not only did the logistics work well, the allure of Phoenix as a destination actually built attendance, even in a month when America woke up to realize that it was in recession.
“Given the economy, we felt very fortunate that our attendance actually grew from last year’s convention and also grew from the last time we were in Phoenix,” said Kaylor, whose association is on a five-year rotation with Phoenix as a destination. “There is a real renaissance going on in downtown Phoenix with new restaurants and new hotel accommodations. We were telling our attendees, ‘Even if you have been to Phoenix before, you really haven’t been to Phoenix.’ And clearly, they agreed with us, because the feedback from our attendees was that they love the new convention center and the new Phoenix experience.”
Kaylor says her group, which is made up of ranchers who are largely the heads of family-owned businesses, was attracted in part because of the range of economical accommodations available and also because the new light-rail system meant they could do without rental cars.
“This is an event where attendees are paying for this out of their own pockets—they treat this like a family vacation in some ways—and the economics of meeting in Phoenix and their ability to have a good time there made sense to them,” she said.
Kevin Kamenzind, senior vice president of the Greater Phoenix CVB, attributes the success of these early conventions to a lot of upfront planning efforts by both the CVB and convention center staffs.
“We have been working with a meeting planner advisory board for quite a few years now, and if they told us anything about opening a new convention center that takes you into the top tier, it was, ‘You better be ready to perform on opening day; you can’t afford any hiccups on your debut in the big leagues.’”
Consequently, every type of contingency was addressed and the logistics rehearsed and re-rehearsed by the staff before opening day.
“Having tripled the size of our convention center over the past five years, we now realize we are playing on the big stage and we knew we could not afford to have anything but a home run when we first stepped up to the plate,” Kamenzind said.
So far, even in the worst national economic times since the 1930s, the new center is out-performing its original attendance projections—which were drawn up years ago, when construction on the center began, long before the current recession loomed on the horizon.
“We are actually having a banner year for conventions. Our pro forma for 2009 was about 180,000 attendees coming to Phoenix to use our convention center, but with the business on the books right now, we are looking at about 243,000 attendees,” Kamenzind said. “This new center, along with the new light-rail system and the new Sheraton hotel, is our own local economic stimulus package.” One+
ROWLAND STITELER is a veteran meeting industry journalist.
Transportation Tip
- The new Phoenix METRO light-rail transportation system, which serves a 20-mile route that goes not only to Sky Harbor International Airport but links the city with neighbors Tempe and Scottsdale, has become the most economical way to get around the area. Fares are US$1.25 for a one-way trip and $2.50 for an all-day, unlimited ridership pass.
What’s New in Greater Phoenix and Arizona
- The Arizona Biltmore Resort & Spa celebrated its 80th anniversary in April with the opening of a new, three-story wing that adds 120 guest rooms.
- The Westin Kierland Resort & Spa recently unveiled two new outdoor function spaces: The Vista Morada and Drinkwater’s Park, which collectively add 8,000 square feet to the resort’s existing 175,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor meeting space.
- After three years of property renovations that updated both public and private spaces, Pointe Hilton Tapatio Cliffs Resort opened the doors to its Highland Center in mid-December. Featuring high ceilings, a spacious outdoor plaza and enhanced technology, the Highland Center offers greater options for meetings, trade shows and social events.
- The Wingate by Wyndham Hotel Oro Valley opened earlier this year north of Tucson. Designed for business and leisure travelers, the Wingate Oro Valley offers 104 guest rooms, meeting rooms, a private boardroom and business and fitness centers. Other guest amenities include a two-story breakfast area overlooking an outdoor pool patio with hot tub and free high-speed wireless Internet access.
- Talking Stick Resort will open in early 2010 in Scottsdale. The resort will offer 497 guest rooms, 50,000 square feet of meeting space, a spa and 240,000 square feet of gaming space.
Fun Facts
- The 900,000-square-foot (2.7 million gross-square-feet) Phoenix Convention Center complex follows a green operational plan, which includes recycling and use of locally grown foods in the kitchen. There is even a photovoltaic electrical generation system (solar panels) on the roof of the West Building in the three-building complex, which has been up and running for a couple of years. The West Building has the U.S. Green Building Council LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Silver rating.