Driving attendance at conventions: What makes members want to come?

By Jonathan Lerner

Attractive destinations or convenient access? Celebrity speakers or service projects? The chance to see old friends and make new ones? Affordability? Unusual or especially useful programs? What are the factors that encourage the members of service and fraternal organizations to attend conventions? When Connect spoke to meeting planners from a range of organizations, we found numerous points of agreement. But there were many exceptions, unique situations and especially creative approaches, too.

LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION

It’s the first rule of real estate and it’s often a key factor in convention attendance, as well. Sometimes, the advantage of a location is just a matter of proximity and not having to travel long distances. “Where our membership base is larger, we tend to have more attendees,” says Gary Morrissey, senior event and meeting coordinator for Knights of Columbus International. “In Florida, for example, where we had our convention in Orlando in 2006, it was very well attended,” because there are many members in that state. For the Lions Clubs International, which draws an average of 15,000 to its annual convention, according to spokesperson Dane LaJoye, attendance “fluctuates by one or two thousand every year. Last year we were in Bangkok and it just happens that we do have a relatively high number of members in that part of Asia. They came out in big numbers. In Minneapolis this year we’re figuring about 60 to 70 percent of our attendees will be from the U.S., and we won’t draw as well from Asia or Europe.” He explains, “It depends on location, but not because of that city, per se.”

But many groups’ planners believe that the special attributes of a destination do seem to attract people. For about 20 years, for example, the Indiana Elks held their annual convention at the French Lick Springs Resort. “That was a big drawing card because it was a nostalgic place, a historic place. People looked forward to going there because there was a lot to do. And we were all under one roof, which is important,” says Convention Committee Director Chuck Curtis. But now that the resort has undergone a renovation, it has become too expensive for the meeting. Ellie Brown, Grand Lodge Convention committee chairman of the Benevolent, Patriotic Order of Does, agrees that the distinctive appeal of a locale is important. “We chose Oklahoma City this
year because of the bombing memorial, and we’ve never been to Oklahoma.” The Does make a point of not returning to a location until at least eight or 10 years have passed, “because you’re not going to hold the people’s interest,” Brown says.

On the other hand, Chris Pugh, convention planner for Ruritan National, thinks the location choice doesn’t have so much effect. While some people may come a bit early to take advantage of local attractions, “once our convention actually starts rolling,” she says, “it’s so self-contained you could be anywhere. And our folks don’t like to leave. In fact they love it when it’s all under one roof, so they can go from their room to the events and back again, and never have to go outside.”

THE FAMILY FACTOR

Perhaps because most organizations’ major conventions are held in the summer, members often combine them with a family vacation. To capitalize on this trend as a way to grow attendance, planners look for destinations that offer sites and activities of broad interest. “It used to be the most popular destinations were places like New Orleans and Las Vegas,” says Shriners’ Executive Vice-President Mike Andrews. “Now it’s cities like St. Louis and San Antonio, where there are lots of things for [members] to do with their families. You wouldn’t think that of the Shriners, because we have this reputation as being big partiers. But we’ve become more of a family fraternity now.” Curtis, of the Elks, echoes the point. “You’ve got to look at what’s available
there, areas of interest. The ladies like to shop. There’ve got to be things for the kids to do, like zoos and museums.”

MONEY TALKS, TOO

The Shriners may have a unique challenge, in that “the majority of people who come to our conventions come for the Shriner Parade,” says Andrews. “These Shriners have to travel on their own nickel to these cities and take along, for example, a horse, if it’s a horse patrol [they’re part of], or a Harley-Davidson. So that becomes a little bit cost-prohibitive. It’s not just the cost of an airline ticket, it’s the cost of transporting the little car the Shriners drive.” The effect is that “when our conventions are held at extreme ends of the country, either in California or the East Coast, they’re lesser attended because of the expense involved.”

That would probably be a factor for the Shriners in good times as well as bad. Curtis, of the Indiana Elks, points to another pair of issues relating to cost that would be a factor in any economy. Attendees, he says, “want a nice place to stay, but room cost is a big factor. And food selection is an issue. If you’re going to keep people in a hotel, you’ve got to make the food attractive enough, and affordable enough, that they don’t go out.”

The recent economic downturn is taking its toll on many organizations’ conventions, for the short term at least. “Last year we were in Quebec City — not the easiest place to fly into,” recalls the Knights of Columbus’ Morrissey, “and gas prices were extremely high. So that affected the overall attendance.”

Pete Horton, executive director of the California/Nevada/Hawaii District of Kiwanis, says, “We saw about a 10 percent dip in our attendance at our mid-year conferences. A lot of Kiwanis members are self-employed and I’m sure that a lot of them opted to stay home that Saturday rather than have someone else run the shop. [But] it could have been worse. Being off 10 percent isn’t great, but it’s not going to break your budget.”

Speaking a few weeks before their Oklahoma City conclave, the Does’ Ellie Brown said, “We’re down at least a fourth. This is the smallest convention we’ve had. We’ve done everything we can to promote it, but there’s just so much you can do.”

REACHING BEYOND THE CORE

In many organizations, meeting planners can count on a core group of attendees every year; these are the officers and delegates and the most active members, who wouldn’t miss a convention unless they had no choice. But this can be reinforced. For example, the Does’ national president travels throughout the year, explains Brown, “to promote the conventions. She gives ‘Grand Lodge Appointments’ for people that have attained certain levels in our organization. And those people obviously are going to attend the convention because they’ve gotten this appointment, for a specific job at the convention, whether it be on the ritual floor, or a committee. That’s an honor. Those people are going to go, and take their husbands and maybe take their family.”

Still, to build numbers, many put effort into publicizing highlights of a convention program, such as celebrity keynoters, in advance. “We do try to bring in well-known international speakers. For example, this year we’re going to have Colin Powell,” says LaJoye, of the Lions. These appearances are publicized “as far in advance as we can. We promote that in our monthly magazine, which goes to all members around the world.”

In the current economic climate, promotion may be even more important than ever. “We’re doing a little more marketing for our annual convention,” says the Kiwanis’ Horton. “We’re going to be pushing a little harder via email messages and mailing pieces, and we’ve got some good speakers lined up, and we’re going to market that part of it harder.”

Rotary International Vice-President Monty Audenart, who leads a team that organizes the group’s annual Canada Institute, says “We also highlight the local sights, and encourage pre- and post-conference stays.” Speaking to the dimension of meetings that is about networking and renewing friendships, he says, “We use an ingenious online registration that allows everyone to see who else has registered. Attendance at our Rotary Institutes is very stable, but we work to make it so.”

WHAT GOES AROUND, COMES AROUND

Whether promoted in advance or not, the elements of a convention program, if they’re exciting and rewarding, can encourage people to return in following years.

For Shriners, one example is the competitions that occur at the annual gatherings. “Men are generally competitive, and they have an opportunity to compete against men with similar interests,” says Andrews. This year’s Lions convention is jazzed up with a “pep rally,” replete with marching bands and cheerleaders with pompoms. For entertainment, the Beach Boys will be performing, and that evening will have a “beach party” theme. And LaJoye adds, “We produce really compelling videos throughout the year about Lions’ service around the world, and we’ve got this huge Imax-type screen. The videos just pop.” The Kiwanis do something similar with videos, as Horton puts it, “to make sure that the focus of our convention is kept on the service that our clubs are actually doing.” They also use a projection system as a stage background. “When a speaker comes out, we can show a video or pictures that relate to what that speaker might be talking about.”

Horton’s Kiwanis district has instituted several other innovations in its convention programming. One general session has been dropped, making the overall schedule shorter so attendees can take in the whole convention with a smaller time investment. And general-interest seminars have been added, which help make the convention more attractive to spouses as well as members. For example, this year there is one on using the money-management program Quickbooks, aimed nominally at club treasurers but useful to anyone who handles money. One is on overcoming the fear of public speaking and another is on effective leadership, “which you can take into the corporate world or any kind of leadership position you might have.” And an specially timely offering is a seminar on using new online social networking tools like Facebook.

Many groups incorporate actual service projects — not just video documentation of them — into convention programs. Rotary’s Canada Institute always involves community service. “Recently we planted 1000 trees in Halifax as part of our conference,” Audenart says. “This builds the community and broadens our public image, and it warms the heart and promotes attendance.

“We always try to leave a venue in better shape than when we found it, and not just because we leave our dollars there,” says Pugh of Ruritan. There is always a drive to donate to the local food bank, and a “Rudy Bear drop” — the donation of replicas of the organization’s mascot to the local fire department, to keep for kids in a crisis situations. Beyond that, each year’s national president identifies another service effort for the organization. In 1999, thousands of winter coats were collected and donated to a clothing bank in Indianapolis, the convention venue. In Norfolk in 2004, a fund was established for the families of armed service members in combat. This year, it’s a blood drive. Several times, Ruritan members built Habitat for Humanity houses in the convention city. “That definitely increases [attendance],” she says. “We have people come the week before to do the actual building, so we can hand it over while we’re there in town. Those kinds of projects, that really require labor, definitely bring in more people than the ones that don’t. I don’t know frankly how many people say, ‘Yeah, I’m going to go because of the blood drive.”

Other planners echoed that uncertainty about whether service projects actually attract attendees. “But I do believe that it’s important to them,” Pugh asserts. “That’s what we do. We’re a service organization.”