As convention biz dwindles, KC goes after 3rd tier groups

[aknowledgeableperson]

Didn't figure the new PAC would be used as conference space but it apparently helps draw more conferences as it is such an amazing space.

It is being used as space for holding general sessions. Instead of setting up a thousand or so chairs, staging, and a sound system on Bartle's floor just go to the PAC. The Music Hall was sometimes used the PAC space is more attractive, and newer.

[chaglang]

If you built a contemporary shopping mall around a historic country school house, does it respect the intent of saving it or putting a museum in it? Or should the historic school house be moved to a site more fitting of its original intent? Or to a site more apt to find visitors?

I don't really follow your analogy, but I do think that site matters more than convenience. For me, part of the thrill of a place like 18th and Vine is occupying the same physical space that someone like Duke or Count or Satchel Paige once did. Relocating things just makes them disassociated fragments. If I want that I'll go to the Nelson.

And if you wanted to list the school house on the NRHP or get MO historic tax credits for it, you'd have to leave it where it is.

I get that the surroundings at 18th and Vine are fake, but the location is not. Yes, jazz was enjoyed everywhere, but that area was also the epicenter of African-American cultural life in Kansas City. And the original idea was to move both of the museums. Then the message is that we are so lazy that we have to move our history to places more convenient to us instead of finding a way to incorporate historic places into the current fabric of the city.

[earthling]

KC needs to go after the Google I/O conference, which is high profile for Android development and gets major attention by tech media. Is under 6K attendance, so KC downtown to Plaza hotels can easily accommodate. Google could show off GFiber in the process, which should be rolled out to most initial hoods by 2014. BTW, KC metro ranks high for # of Android developers.

http://phandroid.com/2012/12/04/google- ... 5-17-2013/

[slimwhitman]

What we call the Jazz District today was in reality the epicenter of the retail and business district for the black community for a period of time. It wasn't always. At one point, the Isaac Ridge mansion stood where Lincoln High School is now.
.......
In actuality, one could make a good argument that 12th Street through downtown was as much, or more so, the jazz district of Kansas City than 18th and Vine was.
...

Thanks for this well-researched post.

[chaglang]

The "for a period of time" argument is slightly disingenuous. Cities are impermanent.

[pash]

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[pash]

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[earthling]

Except that Google invested in a one of a kind service in KC that has the attention of the world pointed towards KC. Google IO attendees probably wouldn't mind going to KC to check it out. Google knows KC now and KC does have the event space to pull it off. KC CVB should go for this.

[pash]

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[AJoD]

There are, however, lots of other tech conferences that do take place in a new city each year. I can't think of a reason that KC would be particularly attractive to any of them, though. ...

This is explicitly one of our playbook plays, and if anyone wants to start a running list of good such conferences to target, that would be great. We got one, Sports & Entertainment Alliance in Technology, for next year.

I wouldn't count on I/O.

[pash]

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[AJoD]

Language-specific programming conferences like PyCon and RubyConf are about the right size and would be great for the local tech community, but I don't know how interested they would be in coming to a non-tourist city. Better than a one-off thing, in my opinion, would be annual regional conferences for a variety of technologies—more conferences like Ruby Midwest, etc. You could probably roll a couple of those into the same week, maybe add an entrepreneurial conference organized by Silicon Prairie News or the Kauffman Foundation or somebody, and you'd have a fairly major event.

Good call, Silicon Prairie News is organizing a Big Kansas City conference March 26-28, 2013.

Ruby Midwest is slated for April 5-6, 2013. I hadn't realized that was an annual event, thanks for the tip.

And for the other suggestions.

What do you mean "non-tourist city"?

[AJoD]

Language-specific programming conferences like PyCon and RubyConf are about the right size and would be great for the local tech community, but I don't know how interested they would be in coming to a non-tourist city. Better than a one-off thing, in my opinion, would be annual regional conferences for a variety of technologies—more conferences like Ruby Midwest, etc. You could probably roll a couple of those into the same week, maybe add an entrepreneurial conference organized by Silicon Prairie News or the Kauffman Foundation or somebody, and you'd have a fairly major event.

Good call, Silicon Prairie News is organizing a Big Kansas City conference March 26-28, 2013.

Ruby Midwest is slated for April 5-6, 2013. I hadn't realized that was an annual event, thanks for the tip.

And for the other suggestions.

What do you mean "non-tourist city"?

[TheBigChuckbowski]

18th & Vine is disingenuous. As Fang covered pretty well, almost all of the jazz venues were downtown, centered on 12th Street and extending east. The Foundation is really the only historic venue in an artificial jazz district that is, let's face it, where it is more for reasons of racial politics than of history.

Wait a minute. Yes, jazz was spread all over the city but black people were not. To say that 18th & Vine had no significance is a bit ridiculous. 18th & Vine was the center of the black community, the "black downtown". Don't forget the Negro Leagues museum. The Monarchs played just a few blocks from there. 18th & Vine is a celebration of Kansas City's black culture more than it is a celebration of KC's jazz history. To move it into a historically white neighborhood would be a bit retarded.

[brewcrew1000]

Isn't IHOP having some big Convention at the end of the year, i've seen billboards that say 25,000 people are coming

[mean]

Yeah, they're coming to learn how to prepare for the "end times" or something. Hoookay...

[grovester]

No pancakes?

[mean]

If preparing for the "end times" involves ingesting copious amounts of butter pecan syrup, I may be able to put aside my skepticism for at least one meal.

[grovester]

That would be Rapturous!

[flyingember]

Isn't IHOP having some big Convention at the end of the year, i've seen billboards that say 25,000 people are coming

no, they want 25,000 people to come.

doesn't mean that many will sign up. doesn't mean more won't sign up