News Hospitality Local champions key to securing national convention business
Local champions key to securing national convention business
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Experience Grand Rapids’ Bob Snyders and Kim Rangel work to attract conventions to Grand Rapids and assist the planners to ensure everything goes smoothly once the convention is going. Despite their best efforts, sometimes having a local champion within an organization is what it takes to secure new convention business for West Michigan. COURTESY PHOTOS |
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By Kym Reinstadler | M&C
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GRAND RAPIDS — The USA/Canada Lions Club Leadership Forum doesn’t hit Grand Rapids until September 2015, but planning for the convention began almost a year ago when Experience Grand Rapids submitted a proposal to lure the group.
The sales pitch was not light reading.
It contained 30 pages of answers to Lions Club questions about sizes of available meeting spaces, number of hotel rooms within walking distance of the convention center, length and cost of ground transportation from the airport to downtown, banquet costs for various menus, and cultural and recreational attractions.
The proposal did its job: A three-person Lions Club site-selection committee visited Grand Rapids, as well as Reno, Nev. and Omaha, Neb., last spring to scope out accommodations for the convention, which draws 2,500 to 3,000 members annually.
A committee visit is a sterling opportunity for the Experience Grand Rapids staff to wine and dine, or, as Sales and Services Manager Kim Rangel puts it, “showcase Grand Rapids’ culture of hospitality.”
It was a pleasant visit, but the committee’s first choice was another city.
But Grand Rapids won the convention, and its estimated $2.7 million economic impact, because one member of the Lions Club board considering the committee recommendation made an impassioned appeal for Grand Rapids and swayed the vote.
“Dr. Gary Anderson is our hero,” said Bob Snyders, Experience Grand Rapids’ national sales director. “Our staff can do everything we can do, but sometimes what it takes to be successful is having someone on the decision-making body who really knows and loves Grand Rapids.”
Anderson, a local optometrist, was also instrumental in the Fraternal Order of the Eagles choosing Grand Rapids for its July 2012 conference, Snyders said.
Eagles leadership requested references from other groups that had held conventions in Grand Rapids. Experience Grand Rapids connected them with Anderson, who had chaired the Lions Club’s 2007 convention in Grand Rapids.
Soon, the deal was sealed.
Anderson downplays his role, saying Grand Rapids is not a tough sell, especially to organizations with membership in the U.S. and Canada.
Two interstate highways make it convenient to reach for the half of the attendees that drive. There are 120 daily nonstop flights from major markets to Grand Rapids, including many by low-cost carriers, which pleases the half who fly to conventions, Anderson said.
Grand Rapids is an attractive destination, and Lions Club members who attended in 2007 wanted to come back in 2015, Anderson said.
“Lions Club members pay for the convention themselves, so they also want to have a good time,” Anderson said. “Many arrange to come early or stay late, so they want a destination with a variety of things to do.”
The 2015 convention is scheduled right before the start of ArtPrize. The Lions Club’s 2007 convention coincided with Celebration on the Grand.
In addition, many attendees and their spouses visit Grand Rapids’ five downtown museums and the Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park; attend a performance of the symphony, ballet or opera; and make the 30-minute drive to Lake Michigan.
Booking a venue is the most important step in planning a convention, said Anderson, who has been involved in several through years of Lions Club leadership.
Choose a location that suits the estimated group size and has clean, well-appointed facilities, he said. Meeting rooms available for keynote speeches and breakout groups will drive development of the agenda.
The Lions Club is choosy, considering only large locations with food service staff able to serve fresh, attractively prepared food to thousands of people within a narrow window of time.
Experience Grand Rapids offers resources to event planners, and that makes a long and complicated process less burdensome, Anderson said.
Snyders said his staff stand ready to collect competitive bids for shuttle transportation, flowers and print jobs. They’ll put organizers in touch with carpenters who can build custom stage decorations and they find you a band.
Snyders will even send a representative to the Lions Club’s 2014 convention to promote Grand Rapids as the 2015 destination.
While most convention needs are painstakingly anticipated, occasionally there are last-minute needs.
Anderson said he found out in 2007 that Experience Grand Rapids — then known as the Grand Rapids Visitors and Convention Bureau — doesn’t run away when the panic button is pushed.
“‘Get Hooked on Grand Rapids’ was the theme of that event, and I had this idea of casting out with a fishing rod from the stage into the crowd and reeling in 10-foot fish that would fly from the base of stage overhead,” Anderson said.
Anderson was almost forced to scratch the stunt because the extra-long, fish-shaped windsocks that he’d ordered from a catalog had not arrived the night before, but Rangel rushed to the rescue.
“I’m still amazed that she found someone who could print a 10-foot long fish graphic on a fabric banner overnight,” Anderson said. “You need someone working alongside you who cares about your event and who knows the city really well to be able to pull that off.”
