plenary THERE’S A MEETING FOR THAT? ABRAcadabra

Annual Rabbit Breeders Convention Each year, the American Rabbit Breeders Association (ABRA)’s National Convention showcases more than 21,000 breeds of rabbits and cavies (also known as guinea pigs). The 2012 event, held in Wichita, Kansas, was ABRA’s 89th annual meeting and saw more than 3,500 attendees.

1

Rabbit Breeders Convention + ‘There Has Been Very Little Ramp-Up Time’

WHAT’S YOUR STORY? Maura Gast A 2

1 There were 47 rabbit breeds and 12 cavie breeds at the 2012 convention.

2 Animals are judged by the ABRA Standards of Perfection.

3 Attendees donned rabbit ears for a screening of the documentary “Rabbit Fever.”

4 Young members could win the ABRA Youth Best in Show award.

3 4

s executive director of the Irving Convention & Visitors Bureau since 2003, Maura

Gast had direct oversight of the design, construction, marketing, sales — and now operation — of the award-winning Irving Convention Center at Las Colinas, which opened to the public, on time and under budget, two years ago this month. Gast, a past chair of Destination Marketing Association International, looks back over the last two years and reflects on the current state of destination marketing.

The biggest surprise about the new convention center has been how quickly it became very busy. There has been very little ramp-up time and therefore very little downtime, which is a great problem to have. The marketplace has embraced the building. We have had lots of repeat business already. In our second year, we did 300 events and welcomed a little bit over 200,000 people.

We had made a lot of assumptions in our own mind about how certain spaces would be used. We learn something every time another group comes in here about another way to use some of the space beyond the ways we had assumed. We have so much prefunction space. That was intentional. One of our most distinctive prefunction spaces is up on the fourth floor, outside of the Grand Ballroom. Groups that are around 300 or smaller are choosing to be in that prefunction space for their function — even a seated, plated dinner. There is a spectacular view there. The building is the height of a 14-story building. You are way up there. Then because of the structure, the literal structure of the building, when you are up on that floor you actually see the steel structure that supports the building that is part of what the copper is framed on; you see that jutting out at this apex. The steel is part of the art of the building. There is an elegant strength to this structure. That is the only way I can think of to describe it.

20 PCMA CONVENE JANUARY 2013 PCMA.ORG