Meetings & Conventions
Patrons at The Main gather at one of its bars, a structure set off by a curved book shelf above.
Association of Conference Centres) certification held by a minority of venues. The certification tells meeting planners that the property conforms to a set of quality standards in meeting room design and food and beverage service. The Main itself can handle as many
as 1,000 meeting-goers. Yet, by col- laborating with other venues, it, and the Hampton Roads region as a whole, is gunning for not only more conventions but larger ones. In August, for example, the Southern Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (SASHTO), which brought about 1,000 members to the Greenbrier in West Virginia in 2016, will occupy both The Main and the adjacent Norfolk Water- side Marriott. Although capacity is crucial, Virginia
and generate buzz, but they’re not the only reason meeting planners will con- sider an area they might have previously passed over. As meeting times gradually have been pared back — many to just one or two days — planners’ priorities include ease of access as well as leading edge technology. Hampton Roads is positioning itself to deliver all three. Although still in its early days, The
Main is attracting attention. “At least half my clients have already booked there,” says Rick Eisenman, president and CEO of Eisenman & Associates Inc., an asso- ciation management and meetings con- sulting company in Richmond. “That’s pretty amazing,” he explains, considering that they made their commitment before the hotel had even opened. A sampling of businesses and
organizations already booked includes Dollar Tree, a national discount retailer; Ferguson Enterprises, the country’s largest distributor of residential and commercial plumbing supplies; and the aforementioned World Congress on Electroporation and Pulsed Electric Fields in Biology, Medicine and Food & Environmental Technologies, the tongue- twisting name for a group that will bring in 300 to 500 participants in September. The Medical Society of Virginia and
36 MAY 2017
a contingent of the National Association of Black Accountants arrive in October. The Transportation Lawyers Association is booked for November, and the Inter- national Society for BioProcess Technol- ogy for December. The Association of Individual Hospitality Professionals, which met at The Queen Mary in Long Beach, Calif., this year, has booked The Main for its 2018 summit. Kurt J. Krause, the managing direc-
tor of the 500,000-square-foot complex located a block off Norfolk’s waterfront, says that 80 percent of these groups have never met in the area or haven’t visited Hampton Roads in at least five years. Not surprisingly, Krause shares in
the widespread excitement about the new facility. He has been in the hospital- ity business all his life. His father was a meeting planner, and his grandparents ran a hotel. Still, he has never worked in a prop-
erty as grand as The Main. It has three high-end restaurants, a dramatic glass atrium and “technology that any univer- sity would envy,” says Krause. The Exchange, the 50,000-square-
foot, city-owned conference center, is equipped with a 90-seat tiered meeting room and the latest in tech support. It enjoys an elite IACC (International
tourist officials say it a lone cannot move Virginia into the big leagues in terms of conventions. Conference destinations need to be readily accessible. Hampton Roads is within a day’s drive of two-thirds of all Americans, but it is known for con- gestion around its water crossing tunnels. Interstate 64 in Newport News is
in the midst of a road-widening project, and the area’s Midtown Tunnel recently added a new tube. The state also work- ing to secure federal permits required to expand the Hampton Roads Bridge- Tunnel. Norfolk’s international airport offers nearly 200 flights a day. However, as many local officials will point out, the airport needs more direct flights to reduce travel time. The region’s venues also compare
favorably on costs with other East Coast meeting sites. “The price is there,” says Eisenman. While a midweek night at The Main or the Marriott across the street might run $165 or $175, a stay in a comparable hotel in New York City might be more than $450, he says. A $60 gallon of coffee in Virginia might cost $200 in the Big Apple, while a deli lunch of about $30 could run $120. Hampton Roads’ cultural and rec-
reational opportunities are still another marketing point. SASHTO, for example, will take advantage of both by holding its CEO dinner at Norfolk’s Chrysler Museum of Art and its golf tournament at the Bay Creek Resort & Club in Cape Charles.
Photos by Mark Rhodes
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