Detroit convention lineup not flashy, but it's a huge deal

By KATHLEEN GRAY
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

Getting a Super Bowl or Final Four basketball tournament to metro Detroit is a big boost to the local economy.

But the Detroit Metro Convention and Visitors Bureau thinks what it accomplished last year in signing less well-known trade groups and associations for their national confabs is an even bigger deal, signaling that the region has turned a corner in attracting business visitors.Among the biggest hooked last year is the American Society of Association Executives and a church group.

"Everybody gets excited about the sexy sporting events," said Larry Alexander, president and CEO of the bureau. "But these are the Super Bowls of the convention business."

It's been a tough few years for the people in the Detroit convention business, hampered by a lousy national economy, an ongoing political scandal in the city and an automotive industry wrestling with financial collapse before its recent recovery.

Are recent developments something to dance about?
Depends whether you'll be attending the National Square Dance Convention coming to Detroit in June. The partying dancers are expected to drop $8.5 million.


Detroit convention bureau celebrates nabbing big events

For Carla Conner-Penzabene, director of sales for the Detroit Metro Convention and Visitors Bureau, the end of 2010 heralded a very happy new year.

Her team had just signed a national religious organization's youth convention for 2015. The low-profile group, which won't publicly announce its meeting location until 2012, wouldn't seem to be a powerhouse in convention terms.

But Conner-Penzabene said it's one of the biggest conventions the bureau has signed in 50 years. The 40,000 attendees are expected to use 125 hotels in metro Detroit and -- in the parlance of convention planners -- pay for 70,000 hotel room nights. Their spending for food, lodging and other essentials is estimated at $28 million during the six-day convention.

For comparison, the Republican National Convention held in Detroit in 1980 required 8,000 hotel rooms for 20,000 attendees, most of whom stayed three nights.

Even bigger last year, in terms of influence, was the coup of signing the American Society of Association Executives to come to the city in 2015. The group is relatively small -- 6,000 attendees, who are expected to spend about $5.2 million -- but for convention planners, it's the holy grail.

The group represents the CEOs and presidents, as well as the meeting planners, of more than 11,000 trade, industry and charitable groups. Those coming are the same people who will decide where their next annual meeting, trade show or convention will be held.

"If it goes well, 20%-25% of those in attendance will bring a meeting back to your city," said Larry Alexander, president and CEO of the bureau. "The ripple effect is tremendous."

John Graham, president and CEO of ASAE, said Detroit's presentation, which included Motown music and a video from Edsel Ford Jr., whom Graham had worked with in the recent past, put it over the top.

"But the really big change for us was the commitment that the bureau made to refurbish Cobo and the development of several new hotels," Graham said.

Landing the ASAE convention was just one of many celebratory moments for the bureau in 2010. It was a welcome respite from several years of weak business, fueled by austerity measures adopted by business in the wake of a faltering economy, skepticism about the political scandals in Detroit and smaller travel budgets after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Alexander said: "2009 was the worst. But I'm seeing a lot of cautious optimism out there."

The convention business has been helped tremendously by the opening of several new hotels in Detroit, including the three casino hotels and the Westin Book Cadillac and Doubletree Fort Shelby. And the new North Terminal at Metro Airport in Romulus makes Detroit a much more inviting destination. But the change in governance at Cobo Center to a regional authority and the hiring of a new general manager to run the convention center is critical, Conner-Penzabene said.

"There's a buzz about what's happening at Cobo," she said. "The conversation is turning, and people are saying, 'It's time we think about Detroit again.' "

And it's clear now that one of the biggest economic engines, the North American International Auto Show, is staying in Detroit for the foreseeable future. David Sowerby, a portfolio manager for Loomis, Sayles in Bloomfield Hills who is hired by the Detroit Auto Dealers Association to gauge the impact of the show, estimates that the show generates up to $375 million in spending in the region.

That buzz about Cobo comes after years of contract kickback scandals at the venue and within the administration of former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, who is now in prison serving a probation violation sentence connected with the text-messaging scandal.

"That really hurt us," Alexander said. "No matter how much we wanted to talk about the good things going on in Detroit, that always came up."

But now, convention planners -- who a year ago capitalized on business from groups that wanted to lend struggling Detroit a hand -- are talking about more than automotive, engineering and labor unions, the three staples for Detroit.

A burgeoning defense industry is attracting shows, as are green energy, medical research, logistics and the state's film incentives. Consider: A military vehicle show has committed to three shows through 2013; 11 film productions are scheduled this year [[the bureau helps the industry find locations, vendors and housing); two logistics conventions are slated in 2011 and 2014, and two energy-related conferences are set for 2011.

"Conventions want to go where the experts are," Conner-Penzabene said.


Convention visitors

GROUP COMING TO DETROIT WHEN TOTAL PROJECTED
Military Vehicle Show 2011, 2012 and 2013 $4.5 million
National Society of Newspaper Columnists May 2011 unavailable
Hot Rod Power Tour June 2011 and 2012 $2.2 million
National Square Dance Convention June 2011 $8.5 million
Asian American Journalists Association August 2011 $1.6 million
National Truck Equipment Association Sept. 2011 and 2012 $2.2 million
Detroit Electrical City Conference October 2011 $127,000 U.S.
Department of Agriculture June 2012 $270,000
American Federation of Teachers July 2012 $6.4 million
National Baptist Convention June 2013 $29 million
Alcoholics Anonymous July 2020 $49 million

Source: http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/a...te=fullarticle

Getting these lesser known events is a good sign super bowls and final fours don't come often to really sustain local businesses.

That's good news. Hopefully, "the coup of signing the American Society of Association Executives to come to the city in 2015" will be made the most of. That sounds like one that Detroit's civic leaders should take care not to drop the ball on.

Detroit Lodge No. 7 of the International Shipmasters' Association is hosting their Grand Lodge convention in early February at the Fort Shelby Hotel. The last convention that was hosted took place in Novi. It's not a huge convention, but it's still one and it's rooted in tradition as well. The Detroit lodge met in rooms at the Fort Shelby for many years and held conventions there in the past. The Detroit Lodge has also been hosting balls every year since the late 1800's. While they are now just called "dinner dances" back in the early part of the century they were an important part of Detroit society. From what I understand, the Shipmasters' ball was where the Detroit society debutantes came out.

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Originally Posted by begingri

Are recent developments something to dance about?
Depends whether you'll be attending the National Square Dance Convention coming to Detroit in June. The partying dancers are expected to drop $8.5 million.

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I recall the square dancers were in town back in the 80s. I lived at Trolley Plaza at the time. It was a huge convention, and I'm guessing, the Book Cadillac was still open because I remember seeing them all up and down Washington Boulevard from my balcony at Trolley. From my 25th floor perch, the ladies' big hooped skirts looked like colorful little parasols moving about the boulevard.

I agree with MSUguy that these are the bread and butter conventions that we need more of. But it's also possible that the high profile events like the Super Bowl and Final Four did a lot to burnish our image as a convention destination.