OKC lands another major convention

[metro]

Oklahoma City earning notice, conferences
Oklahoman
STEVE LACKMEYER
Published: October 2, 2008

A second major national conference is coming to Oklahoma City in 2010 when more than 2,000 members of the National Trust Main Street Center gather at the Cox Convention Center.

Mayor Mick Cornett said Wednesday’s announcement by historic preservation association the National Trust Main Street Center, and Oklahoma City being chosen last year to host the 2010 U.S. Conference of Mayors, shows the city is gaining national attention.

"It’s a thrilling opportunity,” Cornett said. "That conference is held in some really large cities. These particular two conferences are great word of mouth opportunities. They are opinion leaders, and hopefully, when they go back, they will share great stories about us. We’re obviously rotating our way into conferences and conventions that we weren’t getting before.”

Richard Moe, president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, said that Oklahoma City "ably demonstrates the power of historic preservation as both a tool for economic development and a catalyst for improving the quality of life for residents and visitors.”

[lasomeday]

Hopefully we have a lot of people go to it from a lot of towns throughout Oklahoma and they get a lot of great ideas for their downtowns. This is a win win conference for all of Oklahoma.

[TaoMaas]

"It’s a thrilling opportunity,” Cornett said. "That conference is held in some really large cities. These particular two conferences are great word of mouth opportunities. They are opinion leaders, and hopefully, when they go back, they will share great stories about us. We’re obviously rotating our way into conferences and conventions that we weren’t getting before.”

Okay...okay...I admit it. When they first wanted to build the Ford Center, I didn't see the need for having two arenas right next to each other. But it's working out quite well. We can now have sporting events and concerts going on at the same time we're hosting conventions. That's a huge influx of people into the downtown area, with the resulting spending on food, lodging, and entertainment.

[traxx]

What we need is alot more conference floor space in one area. I read a while back that the Comsumer Electronics Show is looking to move from Vegas for cheaper digs. OKC would fit that bill perfectly except that the floor space needed for that show far outreaches anything that OKC has.

[jbrown84]

Here's the site for this year's mayor's conference.

The 76th Annual Meeting of the United States Conference of Mayors

[Larry OKC]

What we need is alot more conference floor space in one area. I read a while back that the Comsumer Electronics Show is looking to move from Vegas for cheaper digs. OKC would fit that bill perfectly except that the floor space needed for that show far outreaches anything that OKC has.

Is 200,000 sf enough? That is what we are going to have with the new C.C (but 10 years away)

[ljbab728]

Is 200,000 sf enough? That is what we are going to have with the new C.C (but 10 years away)

In a word, no. This is one of the largest conventions held anywhere in the world every year in space requirements. Next year's convention in Las Vegas will use all of their convention center plus space in two hotels. It will cover over 35 football fields worth of space. This won't be the kind of convention we'll be competing for.

[mugofbeer]

What we need is alot more conference floor space in one area. I read a while back that the Comsumer Electronics Show is looking to move from Vegas for cheaper digs. OKC would fit that bill perfectly except that the floor space needed for that show far outreaches anything that OKC has.

Plus, its not just floor space for something like the CES, its also flights and hotel rooms.

[Larry OKC]

Plus, its not just floor space for something like the CES, its also flights and hotel rooms.

Absolutely, and those were a couple of the "challenges" OKC has in gaining Tier II status (according to the Chamber's Convention Center report). The new Convention Center alone isn't going to do it (and the only challenge directly addressed w/MAPS 3). Some of it is chicken/egg type stuff.

[Downtowner405]

Absolutely, and those were a couple of the "challenges" OKC has in gaining Tier II status (according to the Chamber's Convention Center report). The new Convention Center alone isn't going to do it (and the only challenge directly addressed w/MAPS 3). Some of it is chicken/egg type stuff.

To really get to that Tier II status we'll need the convention space as well as about 2500 hotel rooms in downtown. The great thing about OKC as a convention destination, as it is right now is:
1. Emerging destination: I.E. it's a fresh destination to promote. New/upgraded facilities and attractions. Sort of like a best-kept secret kind of thing. People come here, never having visited, and they're amazed.

2. Convention space/hotels/attractions - all within walking distance. Event planners and conventioners alike really raise their eyebrows when shopping for a destination wherever this exists because it dramatically reduces transportation and logistics costs. Look at San Antonio. It is a compact destination with lots of hotel rooms, attractions and convention space. And you don't need a car or even a taxi - other than to get to and from the airport. This is why SA is the largest convention destination in the country.
This is one reason why the placement of a convention center in downtown is so critical. Place it too far from hotel sites and you have a problem selling the facility.

Kudos to the CVB for booking this event!

[Larry OKC]

Okay...okay...I admit it. When they first wanted to build the Ford Center, I didn't see the need for having two arenas right next to each other. But it's working out quite well. We can now have sporting events and concerts going on at the same time we're hosting conventions. That's a huge influx of people into the downtown area, with the resulting spending on food, lodging, and entertainment.

LOL. Neither did former Mayor Humphreys...he wanted to tear out the arena and convert it to convention space.

[metro]

I believe the National Main Street Conference is next week. Will be another big week for OKC.

[SkyWestOKC]

Forget weeks....this entire year is big!

[barnold]

I love it that OKC landed this, but what constitutes a Major convention? The last professional convention I attended in Indianapolis this April had over 26,000 attending. Don't get me wrong, i think we should take everything we can get; but is this really a major event?

[Steve]

It's major compared to what OKC was getting a decade ago. You're right, it's all a matter of perspective.

[Spartan]

We as a city can not host those kinds of conventions. The largest convention I'm aware of that we host is the Pre-Paid Legal Services annual company meeting which is attended by around 15,000-18,000 people. Pre-Paid Legal is actually HQ'd down in Ada.

[jbrown84]

Yeah and Pre-Paid sells out EVERY SINGLE HOTEL/MOTEL in the entire city. Most conventions don't want people that spread out. We are already at risk to lose the Pre-Paid convention to Dallas because of our limited space.

[dmoor82]

Yeah and Pre-Paid sells out EVERY SINGLE HOTEL/MOTEL in the entire city. Most conventions don't want people that spread out. We are already at risk to lose the Pre-Paid convention to Dallas because of our limited space.

^^So, when we build The MAPS Convention center,assuming there will be a convention center hotel,how large would that have to be?or how many more rooms in total will have to be built to attract/retain major conventions?

[Downtowner405]

actually I think they book more total conventions. At least it used to be that way.

[Larry OKC]

^^So, when we build The MAPS Convention center,assuming there will be a convention center hotel,how large would that have to be?or how many more rooms in total will have to be built to attract/retain major conventions?

The MAPS 3 Convention Center costs/plans doesn’t appear to include the hotel. At the ULI presentation, think they put that cost at an additional $50M (may be wrong on that and will have to go back and verify)

For a Tier 2 City, the Chamber’s Convention Center Report stated:

On average, there are approximately 2,900 total hotel rooms within one-half mile of competitive and comparable markets primary convention facilities. Including existing and planned properties, there are approximately 1,600 existing hotel rooms within one-half mile of the CCC, ...

The average number of rooms available at headquarters hotels in the competitive and comparable markets analyzed is approximately 770.

(recommended 650)

[Spartan]

We need way more than 650 rooms in the convention hotel, but that would suffice..it just wouldn't give OKC quite the leverage we need in retaining larger conferences who are going to want at least all of their leaders in one hotel. Breaking conferences up into multiple hotels is very taboo, especially if a hotel is miles from the convention center.

[Larry OKC]

Follow up from my previous post, from the ULI presentation:

Currently have 2,000 rooms downtown and we need 4 to 5 thousand (within the next 15 to 20 years). Am presuming they are of the opinion that it will be about 10 years before the C.C. opens (they kept talking about the long "lead time" and we needed to decide where the C.C. was going to be located very soon...like by the end of the meeting...LOL)

For the C.C. hotel, they also recommended 600 to 700 rooms (non-phased) and the hotel doesn't need to open at the same time as the C.C. (said we had plenty of time, but it had to be done within 6 months of opening...LOL).

The $50M number stuck in my head was fairly close to being the mid-range amount. That is the Public portion of the $200M to $220M C.C., 4 star hotel (public amount of 20 to 30 percent or $40M to $66M)

The Convention Center needs to be 200 to 250 thousand sf with the 2nd phase expansion by 50 to 100%

The Chamber's report had it on the low end of the ULI numbers, the "Prime Exhibit Space" sf amounts for
Phase 1 (MAPS 3) = 200,000 sf
Phase 2 as being = 100,000 sf (additional)

Have to love one of the closing remarks attributed to W.C. Fields: "Sometimes you have to take the bull by the tail and face the situation"

[Spartan]

600 just seems so low to me. The former CVB vice pres of sales was a close family friend, and before he moved to Texas to be pres of the Dallas CVB, he was saying we needed 750 AT LEAST if not more in OKC in order to be competitive. This is the man who was solely responsible for bringing in conventions right after MAPS 1 was finished, until two years ago or so.

[sgray]

I think our issue with bigger conventions/events (ones that involve lots people coming in from out-of-town from all over) is the link between DOWNTOWN and TRANSIT centers (AIRPORT, BUS station, TRAIN station,etc). The bulk of the people are not driving cross-country, ya know?

Any downtown circulator (streetcar or whatever) will help WITHIN the downtown area...to get people around from HOTEL to CONVENTION to FOOD/ENTERTAINMENT...but it is merely one COMPONENT of the puzzle. We MUST have some friggen awesome (read: FAST) linkage between transit centers and the downtown area.

Someone mentioned CES, good example of a larger-scale convention. Not entirely impossible, though unlikely. Consider this: most major air carriers have a presence here with a good flight frequency and alternate equipment (read: planes) can easily accommodate the influx of people since the carriers themselves can already bring in and service whatever mainline they have in here, for the most part.

I'm not saying this needs to be built yesterday or el-pronto, but it would need to happen prior to ramping up to larger conventions and would make us look much more attractive to conventions/events of all sizes.

Someone here mentioned hotel rooms. We have witnessed examples of how FAST okc can get hotel towers built...BAM! Entertainment options/hours-of-operation would expand almost overnight, once the businesses see the demand.



Given the ACCESSIBILITY and FACILITY combination, I think we can do some serious damage to the convention market!

[jbrown84]

I think our issue with bigger conventions/events (ones that involve lots people coming in from out-of-town from all over) is the link between DOWNTOWN and TRANSIT centers (AIRPORT, BUS station, TRAIN station,etc).

We MUST have some friggen awesome (read: FAST) linkage between transit centers and the downtown area.

What does San Antonio have??