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The Charity King

Price Chopper’s fall holiday show in Hartford is a welcomed gift for local charities across the region.

By Ilona Kauremszky

It wasn’t until it settled in the Greater Hartford (Conn.) area four years ago that the family-run discount grocery chain decided to call the area home to its annual three-day event.

Call it finding the bull’s eye.

“They needed a convenient, central location to gather managers from six New England states. We are located in the middle,” said Karen Staples, CMP, CASE, director of sales for the Greater Hartford CVB.

One of the big surprises in playing host to a food-oriented trade show is the food itself. Once the event closes what happens to all the food displays, many of which offer steak flanks, salmon and tropical fruit?

Ray Caouette, Price Chopper’s meeting planner since 1981, says the company is big on value and supporting local communities and that the potential problem became a welcomed gift as local charities across the region including Foodshare, the regional food bank for Hartford and Tolland Counties, the Albany (N.Y.) Damien Center for individuals and families living with HIV/AIDS and Schenectady’s Northeast Parent & Child Society received massive donations.

“We were ecstatic to receive this donation,” said Gloria McAdam, president and CEO for the local Foodshare, which received 36,000 pounds of nutritious produce and other food.

The process was seamless, because her nonprofit already works with food companies that pick up food.

“The products return back to Foodshare ready for pick up by the local shelters who schedule appointments,” McAdam said. “What’s really great is 10,000 pounds were fresh produce and 3,000 pounds were meats. We got the best quality of food.”

Still, Hartford’s concern was to woo returning guests, specifically the 1,400-plus Price Chopper Supermarkets managers.

“We knew going into this early that we wanted a hub that was in close proximity to our store managers and partners—to actually work in an area that is aligned with their normal responsibilities,” Caouette said. “Hartford is a world-class, architecturally stimulating environment. And, quite honestly, it lets us have that huge city feel of Philly, New York and Chicago close to home at an affordable non-metro price, which is very important to us.”

Hartford offers convenient access to more than 23.5 million people within a two-and-a-half-hour drive?] drive and is located at the crossroads of two major roadways, I-84 and I-91. Bradley International Airport is a 15-minute drive from downtown and the Connecticut Convention Center.

Staples says that early in the first three years a full bid book was done.

“But now that we understand the objectives and needs, we have streamlined our offer with perks for future year bookings,” she said. “For the rooms, in the spirit of Price Chopper’s cost-consciousness, they have gone to an online bidding method. The hotels can see what the lowest bid is. This helps the client to keep the room pricing competitive.”

Another perk to working with a client from the beginning is learning what the real needs are.

“Our CVB loves this event because they think outside the box when it comes to the room block. They are not driven to book the hotels on top of the center but rather the hotels that offer the best value,” Staples said. “They sell product themselves, that is about value. We are able to offer everyone an opportunity to work with Price Chopper rather than the typical citywide convention. Plus, their generous donation of food to area pantries makes a significant contribution to our area residents in need, and we truly appreciate it.”

For hotels such as the Crowne Plaze Hartford Downtown—one of the event’s hotels—Property Meetings Director Liz Piacentini, CMP, concurs that the big advantage for a returning client is familiarization through consistency.

“The Price Chopper hotel planner placed many of the same store employees in the same hotels,” Piacentini said. “I even experienced handing a bus driver (chartered company) his room key and asked if he was all set with parking his vehicle. As it turned out, he had driven the bus for the same store the prior year. He not only already knew where to park, but proceeded to help direct attendees to the elevators.”

As a representative for a longstanding host hotel, she feels the kinks have been ironed out, due in large part to a Daily Meeting Debrief taken from the previous year.

“This Crowne Plaza report is a tool that provides feedback for planners on in-house events. It allows them to keep tabs on their banquet budgets and room nights actualized and lists group observations,” Piacentini said. “For repeat groups, it becomes a great tool for the hotel and the planner. We use it to recall peak times, so we can be proactive and staff accordingly.”

Considered one of Connecticut Convention Center’s largest trade shows with 750 booths that fill the center’s 140,000-square-foot exhibit hall, the event team comes to town three days prior to opening, hauling in perishable and non-perishable food items to the Exhibition Hall, which transforms into a larger-than-life supermarket with rows of foods and products.

“The amount of freight involved surpasses most other shows. Taking into consideration their needs and the dynamics of their company, we realized that we were going to have to approach them a little differently than other clients,” said Jeanne O’Grady, director of sales and marketing for the Connecticut Convention Center. “We engaged with the business agent in charge of our collective bargaining agreement and began negotiations that would allow greater flexibility with our policies and procedures in order to offer Price Chopper the service they needed to ensure a well executed event.”

When the items on display involve produce and other grocery products, timing is essential, and so is the process for move-in and move-out schedules.

“Our greatest concern—and a concentrated effort—is to ensure that the equipment, product and people are all operating in an efficient and safe manner,” O’Grady said. “One of the challenges we encountered was maintaining a safe environment during the move-out process while quickly getting the non-perishable items in the trucks for the local food banks. This year a new plan was initiated. Representatives from the food banks, Price Chopper and the local union walked the floor together and determined which food bank would receive which items. When the show closed, it was pre-determined what to pack, and the laborers were able to do that quickly and get the items to the loading dock to be donated. This reduced the number of food bank volunteers on the floor during the move-out process. It was a more streamlined and safer solution.”

It showed. Hartford was hard hit with the economic downturn. Local food pantries grew by 30 percent over previous years. And Price Chopper made one of the largest single-day donations to the local Foodshare.

“It was a wonderful opportunity to do something for the local community,” Caouette said.

Company founders Ben and Bill Golub, who even in the 1930s were very community minded, would have certainly agreed.

ILONA KAUREMSZKY is the former editor of Corporate Meetings & Events and is a co-producer of mycompass.ca.

What’s New in Hartford
• Front Street is a retail, rental and entertainment area scheduled to open later this year across from the Connecticut Convention Center.
• The Sheraton Hartford Hotel recently completed a US$1.4 million renovation.
• Touted as the East Coast’s largest new attraction, the $164 million Connecticut Science Center opened last June.

Transportation Tips
• From the Bradley International Airport to downtown Hartford, a one-way cab ride is roughly US$42, and the Connecticut Transit runs buses between the Old State House in Hartford and the airport.
• Less than a two-hour drive from New York and Boston, Hartford is located at the intersection of I-91, I-84 and Route 2.
• Major bus lines and AMTRAK arrive and depart from the Union Station Transportation Center in downtown Hartford.

Fun Facts
• Hartford is ranked in the top 6 percent of North American metropolitan areas for art and culture.
• The Mark Twain House & Museum in Hartford is celebrating the Mark Twain Centennial Celebration this year, commemorating the 100th anniversary of the author’s passing, his 175th birthday and the 125th anniversary of the iconic The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which was written in Hartford, a place of which Twain remarked: “Of all the beautiful towns it has been my fortune to see, this is the chief.”
• The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art is the nation’s oldest public art museum, founded in 1844.