If you're not familiar with how Convention and Visitors Bureaus work and the kinds of complimentary services they offer to meeting planners, then this article is for you! One of the main reasons CVBs exist is to bring tourism, meetings, conventions and events to their destinations, so that means your business is very important to them! As a result, CVBs will do whatever they can to not only bring your meeting to their destination but also support its success.
Think of a CVB as your go-to advocate, one who is there to help coordinate your efforts on your behalf and help you find the perfect fit in meeting spaces, hotels and services. Because they're funded by a combination of factors, including hotel occupancy taxes, CVBs are able to offer a host of services and support before, during and after events, including pre-convention planning, program and registration assistance, attendance building and event publicity and promotion. Although freebies can depend on the bureau and size of a meeting or event, by working closely with a CVB, you'll not only save time and money, you'll also free up your energy to focus on really crucial things, like negotiating the best rates and making your meeting a success!
Here's the rundown on some of the free services many CVBs are now offering to help you plan and pull off a fabulous event.
Destination Expertise:
Along with a vested interest in bringing meetings and events of all shapes and sizes to their destinations, CVBs are experts when it comes to knowing the ins and outs of their cities. With their unbiased knowledge and unique destination perspective, CVBs have the expertise to guide planners in the right direction and help them make faster, more educated decisions.
But nothing beats experiencing a destination first-hand, so many CVBs offer complimentary familiarization (FAM) tours and guided site inspections. These hosted excursions allow planners to gain a better understanding of what a destination has to offer, including accommodations, meetings and convention spaces, activities and attractions. Some bureaus, such as the Tucson Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau, also offer customized trips for individual planners.
"If they have a piece of business that would fit into Tucson, we'll fly a planner out so they can experience the destination," says Richard Vaughan, senior vice president of sales and marketing for the Metro Tucson Convention & Visitors Bureau. "You choose the date, we set up all your site inspections, give you customized attention and take you around to the hotels customized to your needs."
RFP Gathering and Site Selection:
CVBs can also be an invaluable resource and partner in helping you select the right hotel and meeting spaces. Because they have extensive knowledge about the properties and venues within their destinations, they can do the legwork for you by sending out your RFPs to those that best meet your criteria. This not only saves you from having to contact each individual property on your own but also helps you save more time by narrowing down the selection process.
"Certainly we can do site selection for them," says David DuBois, president and CEO of the Fort Worth Convention & Visitors Bureau. "If they have a 300-room group for four nights and it's a sales meeting, we'll narrow it down the number of hotels based upon their specs. If they have an exhibit need, that narrows it down even further because they want to be next to the convention center. We review their specs and see if there's a fit and then we show the meeting planner the property or properties that would fit their needs."
Connections With Vendors:
Besides helping you find the best match in hotels and meeting spaces, CVBs can also gather information and provide referrals for important local resources, including airport, transportation, city services, florists, speakers and recreational activities. If the CVB is a membership-funded organization, they can provide you with a list of members and work as a go-between with vendors that fit your needs.
"When we meet with the planner we discuss their specific requirements and educate them about what's available," says Vaughan. "That way the leads are targeted, it's a focused communication channel and planners aren't inundated with calls (from vendors)."
Attendee Marketing:
CVBs have a vested interest in the success of your event. After all, if you have a positive experience, won't you be more likely to come back? That's why offering free pre-event attendance promotion and program coordination to planners makes good business sense for CVBs. Besides producing customized presentations, news and press releases and email blasts on your event's behalf, many CVBs are also able to create custom web pages, provide you with promotional materials and assist in pre- and post-stay itinerary planning.
Since attracting robust event participation is in a CVB's best interest, bureaus such as the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Bureau offer cutting-edge attendance promotion programs as a complementary service for their larger events.
"We have a host of attendance promotion activities for larger types of shows," says Chris Meyer, LVCVA vice president of sales. "The most popular one is our convention call program. The show organizer provides us with a list, it's given to our call center and we engage with attendees and encourage them to register for the event. It's been a very successful program."
Make the CVB Connection:
Although every bureau may differ slightly in the kinds of services they can offer for free, CVBs are nonetheless an invaluable resource that planners should make a point of leveraging. After all, one of their main jobs is to provide you with the expertise, services and support you need so you can do what you do best: execute a stellar meeting!
"Certainly the primary mission for all DMOs is to be the primary ambassador and advocate for the meeting planner that will represent them throughout the whole community," says Vaughan. "It allows them to use a lot less time and effort to find a vendor or additional assistance, they have one point of central contact and they have a designated person that's their destination advocate for all their meetings needs."
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