whatever group is coming in. The rise in convention centers that are modern and fairly large in size so that they can accommo- date mid- to large-size conventions has been impressive in these secondary markets. And they’re able to better compete because in some cases there are no unions involved—the cost of liv- ing in those second- or third-tiermarkets tends to bemuch lower. Associations are choosing these second- and third-tier cities
based on feedback they’re getting from their members, and they’re trying to offer a value package to their attendees and exhibitors. By going to some of these second- and third-tier cities, we’re able to do that—offer a great experience at lower cost. If there’s a perception that a second-tier city is a less excit-
ing destination for attendees, that falls on the part of aCVBand the people who have made the decision to bring their meeting to that city to promote and play up all the positives.Really, when you look at it, all those cities have their own unique set of offer- ings and attractions that some of the big cities just don’t have. It’s incumbent on the association to get the word out that this city may be considered in your eyes to be a secondary city, but it has many things to offer. I encourage people to explore secondary cities and not just
keep going back to the major first-tier cities. It’s nice to spread the wealth. Some of our smaller cities across the country need
—particularly now—for the hospitality tourism business to support them. I think it would be helpful, just from an information and
meeting planner’s perspective, if there could be a clear definition of what is considered to be a first-, second-, and third-tier city —and what goes into that criteria or defines them as such. I thinkit would be helpful for a meeting planner who is trying to figure out if a city is going to be a good fit for a particular group and convention, if there were a better description. If this was based on, say, 10 criteria, they could be listed as first-, sec- ond-, and third-tier cities. But that doesn’t mean planners should discount any of them. You need to continue to do your own research to see what’s going to match up best with your own specific needs. I think someone has to take the initiative and push for this
to happen. Maybe the Convention Industry Council can take the lead. Someone needs to step up to the plate and say that it would benefit a lot of our convention organizers if they had this kind of resource to access. I look at it as a CIC initiative rather than an individual organization, because it would benefit all the different levels of planners who belong to all these different organizations in the hospitality industry.
‘The Smaller-Tier Cities
Get It’ Carla Aho, Vice President of Global Accounts ConferenceDirect
I have one client — a multi- level marketing organization in the telecommunications indus-
try—that does four very large citywides annually, and the vari- ations between the cities and bids are significant. Typically, we base the 20 cities we bid out to on their flight accessibility, and
ROLLING OUT THE CARPET: For Carla Aho, the differ- ence between a first- and second-tier city is the
level of service the CVB provides. In her experi- ence, first-tier doesn’t come out on top.
then from there, we’ll go into the concession list.We compete with the NHL and the NBA [for dates], because we try to go into arenas rather than convention centers. The smaller-tier cities get it. When they know that they have
the potential to bring a 20,000-person citywide to their city— when they’ve got the room product and the arena—they will continued on page 44