Bringing Conventions to Kansas City

[miz.jordan17]

Missouri General Assembly bill would allot $3 million annually to help cover costs of conventions if they choose Missouri. The bill just needs to be signed by Governor Nixon. This could be great coupled with the new hotels and transit infrastructure in Kansas City. What a time to be alive.

http://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/b ... tions.html

[earthling]

Streetcar and more hotels will obviously help, but would also help if the airport had a lot more cities with non-stop flights. It used to be about 100 cities nonstop and now it's below 50. Another reason we need a new terminal, so that it's more effective to operate a mini-hub. Any indication how much of a factor flights are to convention selection committees?

[flyingember]

To me one growth area is regional events. There's A LOT of small 100-200 person spaces between all the different event spaces that KC could host a meeting. This is a size where you can fit a small group into remaining hotel rooms and remaining convention space the same time as a bigger event.

Like the regional franchisee owners for company X, A specific religious denomination, a small technical conference, that sort of thing.

Union Station has a number of spaces this size, for example.

[DaveKCMO]

Streetcar and more hotels will obviously help, but would also help if the airport had a lot more cities with non-stop flights. It used to be about 100 cities nonstop and now it's below 50. Another reason we need a new terminal, so that it's more effective to operate a mini-hub. Any indication how much of a factor flights are to convention selection committees?

when was it 100? was this my lifetime? or was this before deregulation?

[earthling]

Braniff/Vangard airlines days. It might have been around 70 or so with Vangard but think it peaked at 100 at times with other competition. 9/11 killed Vangard. With cheap gas and better market conditions, would be nice to see another local startup airline. But the current terminal layout isn't good for acting as a hub, even a minihub.

But as to not turn this into a KCI sucks/rules thread, do convention planners factor number of nonstop cities available at airport?

[aknowledgeableperson]

"do convention planners factor number of nonstop cities available at airport?"

I would say no two convention planners factor the various items with the same weight, or what they consider. Some conventions rotate though the various regions of the country. Some conventions look for a local host. Some mainly just look at the best location for the money. Getting into and out of a city may be a factor but not necessarily a major one.

[KCPowercat]

Streetcar and more hotels will obviously help, but would also help if the airport had a lot more cities with non-stop flights. It used to be about 100 cities nonstop and now it's below 50. Another reason we need a new terminal, so that it's more effective to operate a mini-hub. Any indication how much of a factor flights are to convention selection committees?

Its a huge deal.

[flyingember]

Streetcar and more hotels will obviously help, but would also help if the airport had a lot more cities with non-stop flights. It used to be about 100 cities nonstop and now it's below 50. Another reason we need a new terminal, so that it's more effective to operate a mini-hub. Any indication how much of a factor flights are to convention selection committees?

Its a huge deal.

If your attendees from several cities have to all change to the same plane in whatever city that dramatically limits convention capacity.

[kcjak]

Looks like Louisville is in the same spot KC was a few years ago - both FFA and SkillsUSA leaving for cities with more hotel rooms closer to centralized convention facilities.

http://www.courier-journal.com/story/ne ... /86426216/

[flyingember]

Looks like Louisville is in the same spot KC was a few years ago - both FFA and SkillsUSA leaving for cities with more hotel rooms closer to centralized convention facilities.

http://www.courier-journal.com/story/ne ... /86426216/

The group's board has voted to land in Atlanta for at least six years starting in 2021, because Louisville has a shortage of hotel rooms and it is too expensive to provide buses to shuttle attendees from hotels to the event venue

Atlanta has 20k downtown rooms, Louisville has 5k, KC's rooms coming will bring us to 5400. We have around 3400 today

Remember that downtown has total convention, event and activity space for around 30k. This shows again how important nearby rooms are and we built the usable convention space to excess rather than hotel rooms and couldn't support the conventions that would use the space.

[aknowledgeableperson]

"and we built the usable convention space to excess rather than hotel rooms and couldn't support the conventions that would use the space"

True to a degree but not completely accurate. FFA, Skills USA, and Walmart left KC for another reason also besides hotel rooms. There wasn't convention space downtown to host those events. Notice in the article a comment about the facilities.

[brewcrew1000]

Atlanta has 20k downtown rooms, Louisville has 5k, KC's rooms coming will bring us to 5400. We have around 3400 today

Remember that downtown has total convention, event and activity space for around 30k. This shows again how important nearby rooms are and we built the usable convention space to excess rather than hotel rooms and couldn't support the conventions that would use the space.

How many rooms does KC have if you include Plaza and Westport? Also, what is Atlanata counting in theres, I'm sure they are going all the way up to Midtown and possibly Buckhead in those counts

[aknowledgeableperson]

Plaza and Westport are not walkable.
There are about 25 different hotel properties near the Georgia World Congress Center, all pretty much within walking distance. Not sure of room numbers and quality but the 20,000 might be high though close. Some of the properties appear to be over 1,000 rooms.

[flyingember]

"and we built the usable convention space to excess rather than hotel rooms and couldn't support the conventions that would use the space"

True to a degree but not completely accurate. FFA, Skills USA, and Walmart left KC for another reason also besides hotel rooms. There wasn't convention space downtown to host those events. Notice in the article a comment about the facilities.

You can make that claim except Skills USA actually blamed the number of hotel rooms nearby.

Tom Holdsworth from Skills USA says they’re just too spread out every year.

"We're out to Overland Park, we're all the way out to the Royals' stadium, we're out to the airport. We're in 35 hotels,: says Holdsworth.

http://www.kshb.com/money/skills-usa-to ... -out-of-kc

Walmart was even more specific

"If you had a new 1,000-room hotel next to the convention center, we probably wouldn't be having this conversation," Mark Henneberger, the company's vice president of shows and events, said in a statement released by the association.

http://www.columbiamissourian.com/news/ ... 05249.html

[aknowledgeableperson]

Go to: http://www.kansascity.com/news/business ... 23028.html and you will see a comment about Skills USA outgrowing KCMO's available space. The get together not only used Bartle but also buildings at the ARC for the competition plus I believe some outdoor space.

[flyingember]

Go to: http://www.kansascity.com/news/business ... 23028.html and you will see a comment about Skills USA outgrowing KCMO's available space. The get together not only used Bartle but also buildings at the ARC for the competition plus I believe some outdoor space.

That's a quote from the city of Louisville vs the other being a quote from the org holding the event. Which one do you think is more valid?

[aknowledgeableperson]

And on space needs for Walmart:
"http://www.kansascity.com/105/story/677895-p2.html

Wal-Mart officials had toured Kemper Arena with him recently, he said, and appeared agreeable to expanding the event’s merchandise exhibit to that building for the first time. The show already consumes all of Bartle Hall and Municipal Auditorium.

“We had a nonbinding letter of agreement they would meet in Kansas City through 2012,” McGaskey said.

Part of the problem, McGaskey said, is that Wal-Mart last year compressed its event by several days into one meeting instead of back-to-back sessions. That sharply increased the need for more rooms as well as the need for more show floor space.

The shows are closed to the public.

“We knew when we booked them the day would come when they would outgrow us,” Lucas said.

[aknowledgeableperson]

Go to: http://www.kansascity.com/news/business ... 23028.html and you will see a comment about Skills USA outgrowing KCMO's available space. The get together not only used Bartle but also buildings at the ARC for the competition plus I believe some outdoor space.

That's a quote from the city of Louisville vs the other being a quote from the org holding the event. Which one do you think is more valid?

Look at the space that was used in Louisville and compare that to KC and KC loses by a large amount of square footage. Kansas city didn't come close to 1.5 million sq ft.

[aknowledgeableperson]

From a KC Business Journal article:
SkillsUSA ended a 21-year run in Kansas City in 2014. The conference, which was Kansas City's biggest, decided to move its convention elsewhere due to lack of space and accommodations.

Plus:
And from the following site:
http://www.skillsusa.org/about/louisville.shtml

?Our national conference and SkillsUSA Championships is the nation?s biggest and best showcase for career and technical education students and the skilled work force it prepares. We have an obligation to our members and sponsors to keep it growing,? said Tim Lawrence, executive director of SkillsUSA. ?We look forward to being back in Louisville. As we plan for our continued growth, we know we will need larger convention facilities and over 6,000 hotel rooms nearby. Louisville meets those needs

[DaveKCMO]

new visitKC video targeting meeting planners with streetcar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjoCyyD ... ZdSjXud6AN