You are Here. Why Isn't Your Meeting?February 25, 2009
Contact Information: Meeting professionals often keep extensive files on potential destinations around their region, the country and the globe. But sometimes they overlook their own home base because, after all, they live there. They know all about their own town, right? Well...maybe...maybe not. The Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau (GHCVB) hopes to change this by launching a local ad campaign focused on keeping meetings local. With the tagline, "You Are Here. Why Isn't Your Meeting?," the GHCVB hopes to encourage boards of directors and decision makers to think Houston first when planning their next meeting or convention. The ads will run in the Houston Business Journal and will begin Feb. 27. The Greater Houston Partnership (GHP) is also participating in the initiative by sending an email blast to their 6,000 members, which make up Houston's corporate community. Click here to view a PDF of the print ad. Meeting Assistance Members of Houston's corporate community may not realize that the GHCVB is a full-service organization and can assist any group booking more than 25 hotel room nights. The GHCVB works with its 1,000+ member network to help each group find host hotels, meeting space, special event venues, florists, entertainment and more. There is no cost for this service. Benchmarking This is not the first time the GHCVB has launched a "meet local" initiative, but it is the first time advertising dollars have supported it. Through the advertising campaign, media relations and the GHP collaboration, the GHCVB hopes to generate qualified leads by tracking the increase in RFP requests, Meeting Planners Guide requests and emails sent to meetings@ghcvb.org. The "backyard marketing" approach has worked before. Several years ago, the GHCVB has hosted events for local members of national associations and invited their meeting planners to take a look at Houston. One of these events resulted in a 2013 booking for the American Association for Clinical Chemistry that will bring nearly $18 million to the city. A Push for Medical Meetings Medical meetings are a target for Houston for several reasons: *Houston is home to the world's largest medical center, which can provide meetings and conventions with a built-in network of attendees, speakers, programming ideas and more. *The combined estimated annual economic impact for the 50 largest medical meetings (according to the Healthcare Convention and Exhibitors Association) is $1,006,358,228. *The Texas Medical Center is made up of 13 hospitals—including M.D. Anderson, the No. 1 cancer hospital in the country—and a total of 46 colleges and research institutions that employ more than 70,000 doctors, nurses, researchers, scientists and engineers. Many of these people are in leadership positions with various associations and organizations that hold meetings and conventions. Many live in one of Houston's suburbs, and every day they drive or take public transportation to their place of employment and return to their neighborhood without seeing much of the rest of the city. Since they attend meetings in other destinations, they are probably more familiar with hotels, museums, facilities and amenities in other cities than they are of the ones in Houston. Vertical Markets The GHCVB is targeting the same vertical markets for conventions that the GHP is targeting for relocation—one reason the collaboration works well. According to an econometrics study by The Perryman Group, the following industries are critical to Houston's future prosperity: Aviation and Aerospace Energy and Petrochemical Medical and Biotechnology Information technology Nanotechnology These industries are key to Houston's business and economy, and the GHCVB hopes to leverage locals to bring major industry conventions to Houston. |
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