PLENARY Research: top meeting cities Q The Glasgow Model

(McCormick Place) continued from page 19

rules drastically limited what exhibitors and show managers could move in, unload, install, and move out on their own, without union labor, Patronski said, the new rules grant them greater free- dom to do their own work. “This really made a change,” Patronski said, “and made Chicago

RESEARCH Top Cities to Meet

About 700 meeting planners responded to a new survey conducted by Watkins Research Group in association with Flaspohler Research Group. Below is an alphabetical list of the North American cities that planners rated tops in eight categories. For more information, contact Watkins Research Group Principal Curt Watkins at Curt@WatkinsResearchGroup.com.

HOTELS WELL SUITED FOR MY LARGEST MEETINGS

Anaheim Denver

Indianapolis Minneapolis Orlando San Antonio San Diego San Francisco Seattle Toronto Vancouver

EASY ACCESSIBILITY WITHIN THE CITY

Baltimore Denver

Indianapolis Philadelphia San Antonio San Diego San Francisco Seattle Toronto Vancouver Washington, D.C.

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GREAT ALL- AROUND

CONVENTION CITY

Boston Chicago Denver Orlando San Antonio San Diego San Francisco Seattle Toronto Vancouver Washington, D.C.

SUPERIOR CONVENTION CENTER SERVICES

Indianapolis Minneapolis Orlando Phoenix Portland

Salt Lake City San Antonio San Diego Seattle Toronto Vancouver

Anaheim Austin

Indianapolis Minneapolis Montreal Orlando

Salt Lake City San Diego Seattle Toronto Vancouver

SUPERIOR CONVENTION CENTER FACILITIES

Denver

Indianapolis Minneapolis Orlando Phoenix Portland Salt Lake San Diego Seattle Toronto Vancouver

pcma convene October 2010

Atlanta Baltimore Boston Chicago Dallas Las Vegas New York City Orlando San Diego San Francisco Washington, D.C.

SUPERIOR CVB/DMO

SAFE AND SECURE

EASY TO GET TO

much more exhibitor-friendly and user-friendly and made it more competitive.”

Orgill doesn’t release figures for its shows, but Patronski said that the Fall Dealer Market used most of the 840,000 square feet of exhibit space in McCormick Place’s South Building. Patronski said: “Things went extremely well.” n — Christopher Durso

Risk-Sharing in Glasgow

L

AST MONTH, THE SCOTTISH EXHIBITION + Conference Centre (SECC) and Glasgow City Marketing Bureau announced a new joint initiative called the Glasgow Model — “an entrepreneurial approach to sharing the risk with those holding large-scale events.” Con- vene spoke with SECC Director of Sales Ben Goedegebuure about the program.

Austin Denver

Indianapolis Minneapolis Montreal Portland Salt Lake San Diego Seattle Toronto Vancouver

How did you come up with this initiative? We wanted to find a way to work with them. We thought of creating a model at the conven- tion center whereby we would be risk-sharing with our clients, with a per-delegate fee rather than a fee for the actual venue as a whole. So if the client were going for 1,000 delegates but only got 800, we would underwrite the 20 percent and charge them less. It’s a model that doesn’t happen in convention centers. The Glasgow City Marketing Bureau puts in an additional amount of marketing to get the event going or to get to the numbers that we need, by complementing what the client is doing, and in particular, tapping into the local community [for potential event sponsors]. With this model, if we go beyond the target that we set, we also share in the profits. So we become really business partners in the deal, and we think that’s totally new in the market. This is part of the way we do business: Once we’ve agreed on a price, we fix that price. So if it were a U.S. client, we would fix that price in U.S. dollars, and the SECC takes the risk on the exchange rate.

continued on page 26 www.pcma.org

PHOTO BY JOHN LINDIE