MY TURN-I’m sure all of you have shared the experience when your kids were at a big holiday dinner, and you were apprehensive they would do something to cause negative comments from your most critical Aunt.
I felt that way last week when the International Association for Expositions and Events (IAEE) came to the Los Angeles Convention Center. They hadn’t been here since 1996 and I was practically holding my breath that things go well. It is a tough audience, as it is comprised of exhibition managers and suppliers, who are accustomed to being treated like VIP’s and, naturally, are trained to notice everything about a city and its facilities. They are also the decision-makers on where exhibitions are held.
Why should anyone not in the business care? The exhibition and events industry adds over $80 billion annually to the U.S. GDP. It adds about $3 billion plus to the Los Angeles economy each year.
You may have wondered if that greenish-turquoise building near the 10 and the 110 freeways is more than just a white elephant. Hundreds of thousands of local Angelenos have attended car shows or any number of events there in the last forty-five years.
The IAEE exhibition and conference saw the largest attendance for its annual meeting, with more than 2000 delegates and 30 countries represented. It meets in a different city each year and there is huge competition from the cities to host IAEE. One attendee shared that he represents 12,000 room nights for his exhibition and conference. Just imagine what his event does to a city’s economy!
The IAEE members represented almost every type of industry possible—- from food to floor coverings—- to farm equipment and technology. Some are non-profits run by associations, others represent some of the largest corporate, for-profit media companies, and others were selling some of the largest convention centers in the world.
Los Angeles just won the number one position for tourism worldwide with New York and London taking second and third place respectfully. Unfortunately, it doesn’t have the same stature when it comes to exhibitions.
Mayor Eric Garcetti was the featured speaker at the opening of IAEE and really impressed the audience. His speech was not the usual canned presentation and targeted the benefits of bringing conventions to the City. He said that near future plans include extending the convention center to one million sq. ft and adding plenty of meeting rooms. This will make LA much more attractive and competitive.
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Back Story:
The LA Convention Center was formerly managed the city, which still owns the premises—some 720,000 sq. ft. It is presently being managed by AEG, owners of LA Live, who have promised to spend some $80 million in refurbishing the venue. By outsourcing the management, the city has seen its annual expenses for the Center decrease considerably.
Historically speaking the Convention Center, until the last decade, lacked hotel rooms near the facility. When people attend an exhibition or event they want to be able to either walk or take a short shuttle. They also want to be able to dine, shop and have entertainment in close proximity.
Originally, trade show organizers were not happy when the city selected AEG out of several bids to run the Convention Center. The feeling was that entertainment/sports events would be their primary focus and the convention center would be treated as the stepchild.
Now:
I was absolutely the proud parent watching my colleagues completely blown away by what has happened in Downtown LA since some of them were here. The Convention Center staff did a tremendous job in making sure everything not only looked good, but was smooth and efficient in the three-day conference, exhibits and food functions. Even the food was good, which is unusual for Convention Centers.
The only complaint I heard was that the facility itself is “dated”. It is and some of the LA fire regulations should be re-examined because they eliminate useable space.
Downtown LA has really come “alive.” There is no shortage of anything except reasonably priced Hotel rooms. The average hotel rate is $156 according to Los Angeles Tourism and Convention Board. That rate holds when there are no conventions in town, but four and five star hotels were in the $200-450 a night range last week.
There is talk about building more reasonably priced hotels on the south side of the Convention Center. That part of Downtown hasn’t changed or had the investment that the north side has enjoyed. Trade shows allow middle management and operational people to see the latest equipment and technology, since they are usually the ones to recommend what their individual companies need. Modern and reasonably priced hotels and eating establishments are crucial. The south part of the area adjacent to the Convention Center could also use some investment and re-gentrification
Exhibitions book their space in Convention Centers usually from two to ten years out. One of the deterrents in booking LA long term is the “Stadium” concern. AEG recently received a six-month extension from the City Council to convince an NFL franchise to come to LA.
So now there are plans A and B regarding the Convention Center. Plan A considers the new stadium. Plan B is without a new stadium.
In my, as well as many others opinion, we don’t need another stadium in downtown LA. There are sufficient venues now in which hold football games. The Coliseum, which for the pitiful amount of rent USC is paying the city —can well afford to update that facility and has already started the process. The Sports Arena offers a diverse venue – it is a little shabby around the edges and smaller than Staples.
The Rose Bowl packs in audiences and Staples certainly fills the coffers between the ongoing concerts, and professional sports franchises, the Clippers, Lakers and Kings. Getting around the area in LA Live as well as going north on Broadway or any other of the through streets leading to the Music Center, is very congested now. Imagine adding 50-100,000 more people to the mix?
Los Angeles competes with Anaheim, San Francisco, San Diego and to a lesser extent Long Beach for exhibitions, conventions, conferences and large corporate events. The 20/20 Committee had suggested that the Southern California Cities-form a regional Tourism Board and try to multiply their efforts. Quite frankly I don’t think it would work because they are competing for similar pieces of business.
Until LA Live and the new hotels were opened, Anaheim had the advantage because it was much larger and had many more reasonable hotel rooms as well as attractions like Disneyland etc. We maybe the entertainment capital of the world, but there was nothing to do in the evenings unless you wanted to drive a half hour or more to visit Hollywood, the Westside, Beverly Hills etc. Now, one of the organizers told me, LA offers more sophistication and entertainment outlets than Anaheim.
They call the events and exhibition business the “hidden industry”, but it has a great trickledown effect in creating jobs in ancillary areas. Shopping—- especially by out of country visitors—is a big draw. Part of the sizable room tax of 14% (city, county and local) is returned to the non-profit but independent Los Angeles Tourism and Convention Board. The organization is also funded by 125 hotel members as well as other related hospitality oriented companies. Their primary focus is filling hotel rooms or as it is known in the industry ...putting “heads in beds”.
The Mayor’s recent trip to Asia highlighted the advantages of doing business in LA. Since the city also attracts huge numbers of visitors from the Americas, we are at the “sweet spot” for conventions seeking to attract international visitors.
It behooves us to pay attention to this industry…to encourage our various individual industry associations and trade shows to take another look at LA. Other cities are much more aggressive in their marketing efforts. IAEE attendees received the “show business” experience last week. Now it is time to show our creativity and ingenuity in implementing a really great sales and marketing campaign.
It is time to ask for the business!
As always, comments are welcome.
(Denyse Selesnick is a featured CityWatch columnist. She is a former Publisher/journalist/international event organizer. Denyse can be reached at: [email protected])
-cw
CityWatch
Vol 12 Issue 101
Pub: Dec 16, 2014