A Subjective Matter
Over the past decade,Watkins Research Group (
www.watkinsresearchgroup.com) has conducted a biennial survey that has tracked the attitudes of more than 5,000 North American association, corporate, and independ- ent meeting planners.Watkins Research Group Principal Curt Watkins told Convene that respondents were in “reasonable agreement” about what differentiates a first- from a second- tier city when last asked this question in a 2002 Convention Bureau Marketing Opportunities Survey. “Over half indicated a first-tier city has better hotels,”
Watkins said, “and nearly half said they offered more attrac- tions and activities and a better draw.” Also on the list: con- vention center/meeting facilities, accessibility/transportation/ airport, size of the city, rates, and the CVB. More than half considered the following cities first-tier:
Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, LasVegas, LosAnge- les, Miami,NewOrleans,NewYork City, Orlando,Philadelphia,
San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Toronto, andWashington, D.C.
In their open-ended responses to the question “What dif-
ferentiates a first-tier from a second-tier city?,”some respon- dents acknowledged just how subjective those distinctions are: “The image that it portrays to the general public.” “Population and cultural influence, neither of which are important considerations for site selection.”
“A judgment call, taking into account the hotel package, convention-center size, special-events venues, entertain- ment, safety, and hospitality.”
“In examining these responses from 2002,”Watkins said,
“as well as thinking about general current comments,wethink cities providing a thorough top overall experience get labeled ‘first everything.’”
continued from page 42
roll out the red carpet. I really do feel that when we get to a tier- one city, the concessions are very limited. And it’s almost like [they say], “Well, we get these citywides all the time.” So when we go into the contracting phase, it’s difficult,
because from my client’s perspective, they want the same from every city. So when one city does it better [hosting the meet- ing], they want to add those concessions on to the next, and those may be difficult to get in tier-one cities. For example, our four cities in 2010 were San Jose, Char-
lotte, Cleveland, and San Diego. San Jose did an amazing job with signage—when our attendees got off the flight, the airport was lit up with welcome signs for our organization, every cab
driver had buttons welcoming our organization, every restau- rant had signs welcoming our group and offering discounts to our attendees throughout the weekend. Every hotelhad the same signage that the city had put together. And the city put signage everywhere—we were on billboards, street poles. From an attendee’s perspective—talk about feeling welcomed. I paid for that kind of signage in the next city that hosted our
meeting, because it became that important tomyclient. It raises the bar [for the next meeting], when an attendee gets used to that. Tier-two and tier-three cities? They’re really hungry [for our
“Tier-two and tier-three cities? They’re really hungry [for our business].They want to show- case their city, and the whole city pulls together to make this work.When we get to a tier- one city, the concessions are very limited.”
44 pcmaconvene February 2011
business]. They want to showcase their city, and the whole city pulls together to make this work. And when you’re looking at bringing a $12-million piece of business into a city over the course of a weekend, that’s significant revenue for a smaller city. And we’re “trackable” — we’re able to show the history of our pickups and the CVBs [I’ve worked with] are able to track our spend in their reporting. When we go to bid, because we have this history, the cities are very competitive in their bid process. But there are variations between tier one, two, and three, for
sure. It’s harder for the tier-three cities, because they don’t have the room product that we would need, but that’s really where they have a struggle in the marketplace. Whereas tier-two, they’re vying to be at that top level, and they tend to roll out the red car- pet to ensure that this group takes a serious look at their city from the first bid.
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