As other destinations struggle to push capital projects for their convention centers in rough economic times, Pasadena, CA, unveiled its $150 million expansion of the Pasadena Convention Center this month. Nan Marchand, executive director of the Pasadena Convention & Visitors Bureau, said the new building, with two exhibit halls totaling 54,000 sf, plus a new 25,000-sf ballroom in an existing building, gives Pasadena better leverage against a list of competing California cities: Long Beach, Ontario, Monterey, San Jose, and Sacramento.
One of the first effects of the new product, said Marchand, in a sit-down interview with MeetingNews, is that groups that outgrew Pasadena are returning, like the State Bar of California. Propelled by that product, the CVB has embarked on an array of firsts: the first-ever marketing effort in New York City (to boost Northeast business); the launch of a dedicated website for meeting planners; offices on site at the convention center for the first time; first-ever sales manager dedicated to Sacramento, based in that city; and it's the first destination agency in Southern California to adopt VisionNet, a technology that allows quick packaging of multiple proposals, or bid books, for group clients.
"Planners can customize bid books, such as eliminating banquet orders if they don't need them, for example," said Marchand, of the VisionNet system. "Suppliers can load information (e.g., logistics and floor plans) into a template. It's a step further than online RFPs. Hotels love the efficiency." The system, which allows sharing of video, photos, animations, and documents over the web, also speeds up the CVB sales managers' jobs because bids can be packaged rapidly.
"It frees up sales managers for selling," Marchand noted. "And it's green because it saves on paper and postage." VisionNet will be part of Pasadena's dedicated website for planners, and that site, in turn, will be part of a completely overhauled CVB website.
Also improving the CVB's efficiency is a new sales manager focused on small groups.
The sales staff is selling a drastically reconfigured convention complex. Gone will be the temporary 27,000-sf East Pavilion that has kept the convention center running; it will be replaced by new parking space. The CVB's offices are now in the refurbished Conference Center building, and the new ballroom is divisible by eight, while the two combinable exhibit halls are about the same size.
Marchand expects the revamped facility (which will have an official opening on April 3) to see a healthy increase in meetings and social events.