Convention business picks up, as competition intensifies

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Convention and meeting planners want more than a nice building at the right price for their event; they also seek interesting things to do and see in the city or region for their event attendees.

“We have to sell everything that's around us before we even get into the nitty-gritty of the building,” said Michele Hughes, director of sales and marketing at the Connecticut Convention Center in downtown Hartford. “We have a fabulous building here, but we need everything around us to support these groups and the [meeting] planner is always looking at the attendee experience and obviously they want them to have a great experience.”

A survey conducted by Destination Hotels in recent years found location, not hotel rates, had become a top priority of event planners, who often incorporate cultural aspects of the destination into their meeting agendas. In its latest annual survey released in December projecting 2016 meeting trends, Destination Hotels found more interest among planners in recreational options at a meeting site as they seek to give attendees an opportunity to enjoy leisure pursuits before, during or after a meeting. It also found attendees have begun creating mini-vacations around their meetings.

“I definitely think for the larger properties, the ones that have meeting space and a lot of rooms, I would definitely say that selling the area sometimes is as important as talking about our own hotel,” said Karen Bachofner, vice president of sales and marketing for the Waterford Hotel Group, which manages several hotels throughout Connecticut, including the Hilton Hartford, Marriott Hartford Downtown and Sheraton Hartford Hotel at Bradley Airport, as well as the Convention Center.

“If you're bringing in attendees from out of the area, I think the meeting planners want the attendees to be as excited about the area as they are about the hotel and the actual event that they're having,” Bachofner said. “So I think unique experiences are also a big plus in terms of what you can do in New England or what you can do in Hartford that you can't do elsewhere.”

Connecticut Convention Center staff pitch attractions that include the center's connection to the Marriott, easy access to food and entertainment at Adriaen's Landing, unique local restaurants throughout the city, free DASH rides, the Connecticut Science Center and Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts, XL Center and anticipated opening of Dunkin' Donuts Park next spring, the Mark Twain House, and nearby shopping at places like Blue Back Square in West Hartford. Groups sometimes venture farther afield, whether to wineries or casinos. A nearby airport and access to 23 million people within 2 ½ hours is a key draw, too, for expanding meeting attendance, Hughes said.

The Connecticut Convention Center — with 140,000 square feet of exhibit space, 40,000-square-foot ballroom and 25,000 square feet of meeting space — is seeing improvement this year in requests for proposals and bookings for business in future years, Hughes said.

The center is booking events as far out as 2021.

The center continued to deal with a highly competitive market and changing nature of the convention industry's event portfolio last fiscal year, according to an annual report from the Capital Region Development Authority, which oversees the Convention Center. The center reported more events and smaller ones replacing single large events. Total attendance for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2015, the latest data available, was about 346,000, down from about 373,000 the prior year and about even with the year before. But operating profits were up due to the mix of events producing higher individual rates of return, CRDA said in its report.

As the economy improved, the building produced more in tax revenue to the state last year, $5.7 million, than it received in state operating support, $4.3 million, CRDA said.

With good weekday business in Hartford, the Convention Center also targets weekend group activity, typically sports, fraternal and national association business, that is important for the city and generates significant room nights, Hughes said.

Offering her take on the convention and meeting business in the state, Bachofner said it depends on the hotel, the market and other factors.

“I would say our meeting and group outlook for the future is good and perhaps better than it's been in the last couple of years, but I don't know that I would say it's overwhelmingly better,” she said.

It's a competitive industry, with destinations like Boston, Providence and Springfield nearby, she said. Also, some companies are still limiting their travel, only doing so when necessary.

Greater activity

As a meeting planner, Cindy Panioto, conference and events manager for the Connecticut Business & Industry Association, says it's getting harder to book venues in the state on short notice, an indication to her that business is picking up.

“Although I can still place meetings on short notice, I may not get necessarily the space within that venue that I want,” said Panioto, who plans about 20 meetings a year that attract anywhere from 10 to 500 people. “So it's definitely picking up, it's definitely getting more back to … a seller's market, that's for sure.”

Maureen Huntley, general manager at The Riverview, a 36,000-square-foot facility on the Farmington River in the Weatogue section of Simsbury, sees positive signs in her events niche. The Riverview does nearly 300 events a year, mostly weddings, but also events like employee awards dinners and other social gatherings and meetings. She said 2016 is strong compared to recent years.

“I find that people are starting to spend a little bit more money, whether it's social or even meetings, they're not pinching as much anymore, they're not cutting back on the extras, they're à la carting where they can, and they're adding things that improve the experience for the client,” Huntley said.

People are looking for a quality experience, she said. Aside from its own facility, The Riverview also touts its proximity to the airport, river, Farmington Valley culinary scene, nearby hotels and more for wedding guests and other attendees.

Quality food, flexible meeting space and adding more networking time to conference agendas is also important, planners say.