The two organizations will remain independent with separate finances and boards of directors to govern the work of the respective organizations. But the joint leadership will enable them to work together to share resources in an effort to bring more groups to Northeast Ohio.

“Our two organizations share similar goals, but we have worked to achieve them in different ways,” said Fred DiSanto, chairman of the Greater Cleveland Sports Commission Board of Directors. “By establishing a single executive leader, we can foster synergistic and joint staff relationships and develop operating philosophies based on entrepreneurial spirit and community engagement. At the same time, maintaining separate staffs will allow us to retain individuals with a strong interest in each group’s mission and the expertise to meet or exceed goals.”

By Don Sadler

Remember the car slogan from a few years ago, “This is not your father’s Oldsmobile”? In 2010, it could be adapted for the meeting and convention business to “This is not your father’s convention and visitors bureau.”

There has been a marked shift by CVBs during the past few years to reposition themselves as hip, engaging and interactive. For many, it starts with dropping the traditional CVB moniker and replacing it with something that’s more visitor-friendly. The trend started after the International Association of Convention and Visitor Bureaus renamed itself the Destination Marketing Association International in 2005. Local destination management organizations soon followed suit; with name changes came new marketing campaigns.

PORTLAND: MORE THAN A NAME CHANGE

Two years ago, the Portland Oregon Visitors Association changed its name to Travel Portland. But according to Greg Newland, Travel Portland’s executive vice president of marketing and public relations, it takes more than a name change to attract meetings and events, especially in today’s competitive climate.

“We didn’t change our name just to be part of a trend — we did it for valid business reasons and because it made sense,” says Newland. “This is a relationship business, and the name of the bureau takes a back seat to the relationships our team builds with meeting and event planners. “At the end of the day, we’re selling a destination, not a bureau. Once planners get through the logistics of dates, rates and availability, they evaluate a destination based on its appeal to attendees.” For years, Portland has played itself up as a “green” city, but during conversations and focus groups, Newland says planners were crying uncle.

“They said, ‘we know you’re green, but what can you tell me about Portland that will get my attendees excited about coming there?’” explains Newland. “So we eliminated our green tagline and are now instead concentrating on headlines in our marketing, which can be adjusted depending on the audience segment.”

Travel Portland also created a marketing video that became a viral hit in the industry. Keith Johnston, group vice president for plannerwire.com and OnSite Events, recently posted it on his blog with the following comment: “This video is exactly what every CVB around the world should be doing — being different. Most destinations are remarkably similar in their category, so it pays to be different and grab attention. What Portland did in this video is not difficult to do; they used imagination to highlight their unique brand proposition.

“Does your video of your destination scream to be shared or is it like all of the others? If your video starts off with your CVB logo and then goes on to detail facts, figures and some pretty pictures, you may want to consider a different approach because in all honesty, that looks exactly like the video of the city a little farther up the coast.”

MORE AGGRESSIVE MARKETING

In addition to name changes and repositioning, many cities and municipalities are taking a much more aggressive stance when it comes to marketing themselves as destinations of choice for meeting and event planners. Early in 2009, Orlando implemented a hyper-targeted marketing effort it dubbed “Operation Connect.” In this effort, representatives from the Orlando/Orange County CVB, the Orange County Convention Center, area hotels and public figures (including the mayor) made in-person sales calls to more than 1,000 meeting and event planners around the country, encouraging them to bring their events to the city.

“This was a massive marketing effort,” says Kathie Canning, the deputy general manager of the OCCC, and the program continues this year. “In the face of a down economy, we haven’t cut our marketing budget — we’ve increased it. This significant investment by visionary leaders here in Orlando has paid off tremendously.”

In January, Orlando hosts the National Automobile Dealers Association conference. “We had many meetings with them in Washington, D.C., to make sure we knew how to help them make the conference a success,” says Canning. Another big win is the International Plastics Showcase, the third-largest trade show in the country, which will be in Orlando in 2012.

PULLING OUT THE MARKETING STOPS

In this environment where everyone is forced to do more with less, many destinations are pulling out all the marketing stops. In 2004, San Jose created Team San Jose, a nonprofit, public-private partnership between the San Jose CVB and local hotels and other tourism businesses, the arts community and organized labor. The Team San Jose model has provided the foundation for all of the city’s tourism and meeting marketing efforts for the past six years. The main benefit to meeting and event planners is that Team San Jose provides a one-team approach to planning events, says CEO Dan Fenton. “We handle everything from logistics and customized menus to strategic planning for clients, rather than handing them off to multiple organizations like most destinations do. This saves planners time and creates more affordable event options.”

The approach has paid off handsomely for the city. Revenue has doubled in facilities managed by Team San Jose since it was created, and the number of room nights generated is up 60 percent, according to Fenton. “This is in the midst of more competition and a down economy. Our model gives us a lot of flexibility and a competitive advantage.”

FIGHTING NEGATIVE PUBLICITY

For years, Cleveland, Ohio, has fought against what many believe is an unfair reputation as an old Rust-Belt city with few attractions and little reason to visit or have a meeting or event there. As part of the city’s ongoing marketing efforts, the Convention and Visitors Bureau of Greater Cleveland was renamed Positively Cleveland in 2007. There were a number of different reasons for the change, including the fact that the former name was cumbersome and not well-understood by non-travel industry consumers, says Tamera Lash Brown, Positively Cleveland’s vice president of marketing. Also, it didn’t convey the sense of “Midwestern hip, swagger and pride” that the city wanted to deliver to potential visitors.

“By this, we mean that you’ll discover a twist on things that you might not expect when you come to Cleveland,” she says. “For example, most people expect to find lots of bowling alleys here, so we have a bowling alley in a chic martini bar downtown.”

Earlier this year, Positively Cleveland took what could have been a disastrous public relations scenario and turned it completely around. Following an online survey, Forbes.com named Cleveland the “Most Miserable City in America.” But instead of sulking or brooding, Positively Cleveland had fun with it, creating a website called whattheforbes.com where fans of the region posted videos, photos and comments about why they love Cleveland for a chance to win $5,000 worth of prizes donated by CVB members.

Brown says they received 266 entries that celebrated life in the city. “It has been nice to see there are so many supporters who know that we’re happy in Cleveland,” says Brown. “There have been a growing number of articles, blog posts and Facebook groups springing up to defend the city.”

Reno, Nev., also has had to fight long-held misperceptions, in its case, that the area is primarily a gaming destination. With gaming now available in almost every state in the country, the city knew it needed to rebrand itself to new audiences, so it conducted nearly a year’s worth of in-depth research used to create a new marketing campaign centered around the new tagline: Far From Expected. This rebranding campaign has been aimed primarily at the leisure market so far, but the city plans to use it to attract more meeting and event planners this year. The campaign also includes a new mobile-enabled website that’s easy for planners to read on their cell phones and PDAs, says Ellen Oppenheim, the CEO of the Reno-Sparks CVA.

“All organizations that plan events have been impacted by the economy,” she notes. “This has added more competition to what was already a very competitive environment among destinations to attract meetings and events. We’re always looking for unique ways to differentiate ourselves.”

ON THE FLIP SIDE

Many CVBs are facing large budget cuts that they say will negatively affect visitor traffic and city revenue. They contend that such cuts are short-sighted, at best. For the second straight year, the Pennsylvania Association of Convention and Visitors Bureaus (PACVB) and the Pennsylvania Tourism and Lodging Association are opposing proposed budget cuts to the state’s Tourism Promotion Assistance budget line item. Pennsylvania tourism and promotion funding decreased from $32 million in 2009 to $14.2 million in the 2010 budget. This amount has been reduced again to $11.2 million in the proposed budget for next year — resulting in what could be a 65 percent reduction in just two years.

“Obviously, these are difficult times and everybody is sharing in the pain,” says Rob Fulton, president of the PACVB. “But we strongly believe that now is not the time to be cutting our marketing budget further. Tourism, meetings and conventions bring significant revenue to the state, and the budget’s line item for local tourism funding represents a minimal investment for so great a return.”

Fulton says the Pennsylvania tourism industry has been in discussions with the state government to explain the critical impact that tourism and meetings have on the state economy and to retain the current level of funding in next year’s budget. “The administration must recognize our industry’s ability to create jobs and revenue for Pennsylvania in a time of economic uncertainty,” he notes.

That message is an ongoing campaign of travel and meeting industry organizations around the country, echoing in the halls of federal, state and municipal government offices. The stepped-up marketing campaigns from today’s savvier CVBs are bound to help raise the industry’s profile.

Medical and health care industries are key target markets for many cities when it comes to hosting large meetings and events. Some destinations are even concentrating sales and marketing resources solely on this group segment. As a result, a mutually beneficial relationship has formed between planners and these cities.

In 2008, Florida’s Visit Jacksonville launched a medical tourism initiative branded “America’s Health Center” that focuses on drawing more medical and health care meetings and conventions to the city, explains Lyndsay Rossman, senior director of corporate communications for Visit Jacksonville. “Jacksonville is well known as a city that’s very rich in its health care offerings,” she says. “Through our America’s Health Center initiative, we’re branding Jacksonville as a great city for medical conferences and meetings and working hard to communicate this message to meeting and event planners.”

According to Rossman, Jacksonville is home to roughly 30 major medical facilities, including the Mayo Clinic, University of Florida Proton Therapy Institute, Shands Jacksonville Medical Center, St. Vincent’s Medical Center and Wolfson Children’s Hospital. In addition, major universities like Jacksonville University, Florida State College at Jacksonville and the University of North Florida boast nursing and research programs that often attract medical meetings and events.

“There is no question that planners of medical and health care events are looking for cities that can offer outstanding health care resources,” says Rossman. In the past year, she notes, hotel room nights for medical meetings have increased nearly 260 percent, representing more than 7,100 room nights over the same period last year. “There are many opportunities for planners to utilize the rich talent and resources in Jacksonville as part of their events” she adds. Planners can organize on-site medical facility tours and then recruit experts from area facilities as trainers and speakers at events. Rossman anticipates the city will book the 2011 annual conferences for the American Hospital Association and the Association of Oncology Social Work, as well as the 2013 American Association of Neurological Surgeons meeting.

Barbara Jones, coordinator of Continuing Medical Education (CME) for the University of Florida’s College of Medicine, says she has planned a number of meetings and seminars in Jacksonville and is scheduling more in the city next year. “All the health care resources make it such an attractive city for us that we just naturally hold events there. There’s a large audience of physicians and staff for continuing education, both as attendees and faculty.”

Since support businesses in the city are used to dealing with the unique demands of the industry, they are prepared to work with medical and health care meeting planners who come to town. “I’ve spent many a night at the all-night FedEx [Office] in Jacksonville, or picked things up at 6 a.m.,” says Jones. “Services like this make a big difference to our industry.”

Cleveland, Ohio is another city that’s making a big push for more medical and health care meetings. Eric Julian is Positively Cleveland’s national sales manager who recently took over the role of bringing more medical events to the city.

Julian says the health care industry is now the city’s largest employer. “Cleveland has transformed itself from an old Rust Belt city into a world-class center for medical services, research and biotechnology. Medical meeting planners recognize that our resources, including world-renowned physicians and specialists, can help draw more attendees to their events.”

The Cleveland Clinic, the city’s most recognized health care resource, often partners with Positively Cleveland. Medical professionals from the Clinic often meet with planners, trying to convince them to bring their events to the city. Other major medical resources in Cleveland include Case Western Reserve University and the MetroHealth System.

As the national advocacy director for the Hydrocephalus Association, Marybeth Godlewski helped plan the association’s biennial conference before starting a new nonprofit in June. She says the list of finalists for the 2010 conference was narrowed to three cities — Cleveland, Boston and Philadelphia. The planning committee chose Cleveland, primarily due to the Cleveland Clinic, which specializes in hydrocephalus.

“Our hotel was actually connected to the Cleveland Clinic, so we were able to encompass the facility into our conference, instead of just having doctors come over to the hotel,” she explains. “They had the technology to help us pull off a great conference.” Physicians performed surgeries in the Clinic that were broadcast live on giant screens to conference attendees. “Immediately after the surgeries, the doctors came over to the conference to answer attendees’ questions in person.”

Ground will break this fall on what will become another big Cleveland draw for medical meeting and event planners: the 120,000-sq.-ft. Cleveland Medical Mart and Convention Center, which is slated to open in 2013. “This will help us tremendously when it comes to attracting more health care meetings and events,” says Julian.

The Charleston Area CVB began a massive rework of charlestoncvb.com in 2009 and is currently in the first phase of the project. The first phase of the Web site is designed to lay the foundation for future enhancements and achieve overarching goals including improving its business listings database, navigation and structure and its ability to create revenue opportunities.

If your organization wants to remember or revisit the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Dream,” the touchstones of the civil rights movement now welcome visitors eager to learn more about one of the most fascinating periods in U.S. history. A new Web site, civilrightstravel.com, helps visitors plan trips to such moving places, many now preserved as museums and memorials. It includes videos, hotel and restaurant recommendations, and links to an audio tour and map. The site was founded by award-winning journalist and Connect contributor Larry Bleiberg, former travel editor of The Dallas Morning News.

Positively Cleveland is revealing a redesign for positivelycleveland.com on Wednesday, February 3, 2010 at 1 p.m. The site features online staffers available to instantly answer questions about the destination via a LiveChat feature to suggest itineraries. The destination marketing organization’s site’s last major overhaul took place in 2007.