Jack Moneypenny had an "aha" moment a few years ago.
"I was sitting at my desk, thinking, 'There's got to be another way to do this job,' " remembers the vice president of sales and services for Visit Milwaukee, the city's CVB. "I thought, 'What if I could find a city that was like us that we didn't directly compete with, and tackle this challenge of finding businesstogether?' "
Moneypenny was looking to promote Milwaukee to association conventions as a destination for their Midwestern rotation; he thought if he could find a similar city in a different part of the country, the two could partner on promoting each other without worrying about giving business away. After a little homework, he hit on Pittsburgh as a good matchthe cities are about the same size and have roughly the same number of hotel roomsand called Craig Davis, VisitPittsburgh's executive director of convention sales.
"It's uncanny you should call," Davis told him. "I've had similar thoughts myself!" Even better, Davis already had an idea for the city that could serve as the Western-rotation partner: Portland, OR. Portland, like Pittsburgh, has a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design)-certified convention center, and Davis had already been partnering with Mike Smith, vice president of sales at the Portland Oregon Visitors Association, on "green" marketing events, like an annual "green tea" party for meeting planners in Chicago.
"And thus," Moneypenny concludes, "the partnership of three cities was born."
In the cutthroat world of sales, most people would find the notion of convention & visitor bureaus teaming up with other bureaus tantamount to collaborating with the enemy. But some CVBs are asking, "Why not?" Here are the stories of their partnerships, and why these alliances can be a win-win for both the bureaus and the groups they serve.
Along Came Jones
Less than 40 miles separate Dallas from Fort Worth, but for the locals who live there, it might as well be 4,000. To Dallasites, Fort Worthians are small-time cowfolk; to Fort Worthians, Dallasites are big-city snobs. Of course, to outsiders, these distinctions mean nearly nothing. Enter Louisiana native Philip Jones.
Jones, who was appointed president and CEO of the Dallas CVB a little over three years ago, found that not being from the area proved an advantage. When he noticed a rivalry for convention business between Dallas and Fort Worth, he thought it seemed "odd." Since Dallas was really competing for conventions with faraway places like San Diego, Chicago, and Las Vegas, didn't it make more sense to offer the two cities as a package deal, and thereby give groups the option of a variety of experiences?
Jones approached his Fort Worth counterpart, Doug Harman, with his idea. Harman was enthusiastic, and the partnership was officially launched in 2005 at Meeting Professionals International's Professional Education Conference in San Diego. (Although Harman has since retired, his replacement, David DuBois, is going full steam ahead with the partnership, says Jones.) In the exhibit area, Dallas and Fort Worth shared a booth, and "the buzz on the trade show floor was amazing," says Jones, laughing. "You'd think the Berlin Wall had just come down!"
Norman Burkhalter, director of national events for the Boy Scouts of America, based in nearby Irving, says he first learned of the Dallas-Fort Worth partnership last October at a meeting of the Dallas CVB's advisory board (of which he is a member). "It was a surprise," admits Burkhalter. "I'd always thought of the two cities as separate entities and never the twain shall meet. But the whole concept of them working together is outstanding."
He's hardly the only fan. At the trade show that launched the collaboration, Dallas and Fort Worth's combined sales leads were three times what either had gotten individually beforeand to Burkhalter, that only makes sense: "It saves planners time. They can visit one booth and learn about what both cities have to offer. For instance, if I were bringing a meeting to Dallas and staying at the Hyatt Regency [downtown], I could put my group on the train and send them to Fort Worth for an event at the Stockyards. [The partnership] lets planners see the whole metropolitan area instead of just a portion."
Indeed, since teaming up with Fort Worth, Jones says, the two bureaus have been joined by the Irving CVB and plan to take their cooperation to the next level: Inspired by the Milwaukee-Portland-Pittsburgh example, Jones has been discussing the idea of teaming up with the bureaus in Orlando and San Francisco on a similar rotation-market strategy. Joe D'Alessandro, the recently appointed head of the San Francisco bureau, didn't need to be sold on the idea, Jones adds: "He came to San Francisco from [the] Portland [bureau], so he's seen the value of the partnership."
Value Added
For bureaus, a big plus of partnerships is that they stretch marketing dollars. "The power of three is better than the power of one," says Milwaukee's Moneypenny. "We have the resources to host bigger and better events to show our clients what our three cities are." And planners are taking notice: Attendance at the annual dinner hosted by the three cities during the American Society of Association Executives annual meeting has more than quadrupled, from 39 at the 2004 launch event to 179 in 2006. The three cities also host an annual Christmastime wreath-making workshop at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington D.C. that one attendee describes as "a great event with a lot of one-on-one time with reps from all three destinations."
Bryan Lane, meeting manager of the Mathematical Association of America, in Washington D.C., didn't know about the three-city partnership until he "lucked into it" while lining up potential sites for his annual convention. "We had all three cities on our list as possibilities, and when we went to Portland for a site inspection, they brought the partnership to our attention," says Lane. "It made it almost a no-brainer." So far, Lane has booked Portland for his 2009 convention and Pittsburgh for 2010; as for Milwaukee, "We're meeting in Madison [Wisconsin] in 2008, so we have to wait awhile before heading back there," he explains.
An important feature of the three-city partnership is the financial awards given to planners who book two or more cities at a time. For Lane, this was especially enticing. "Us being a nonprofit, that piqued our interest," he says. Specific incentives vary from group to group, but in Lane's case, "they're giving us a discount"he won't specify how much"that we can use as credit toward any of our expenses, like transportation or assisting students with their housing and travel. It will definitely defray some of our costs."
Craig Davis of Pittsburgh adds that another benefit for planners is that "the customer experience in all three cities is similar. We're all committed to the same high level of service in our hotels, restaurants, and the city in general, and we're willing to take our reputation and risk it on recommending one of the other cities. We'll say to our clients, 'If you go to Milwaukee or Portland, we think you'll love it as much as you loved Pittsburgh.' "
But a partnership won't work for every bureau, cautions Milwaukee's Moneypenny. "It's not an easy thing," he says. "You have to have personalities that will work well together. We've had to work hard, but it's really worth it." And there's another benefit he never expected: "In the process, I've made two lifelong friends. Craig and Mike have become closer than brothers to me."
Sidebar: Howdy, Partner! These Bureaus Should Team Up
Inspired by Jack Moneypenny's example, SM researched cities in different regions with similar group capacities (as measured by the number of downtown hotel rooms and the amount of exhibit space), and compiled this list of possible bureau partnerships:
Austin, Baltimore, & Minneapolis
(6,870 rms/246,325 sf) (4,687 rms/300,000 sf) (6,000 rms/477,200 sf)
Indianapolis, Los Angeles, & Miami
(6,000 rms/403,700 sf) (5,827 rms/720,000 sf) (5,000 rms/502,848 sf)
Philadelphia, San Antonio, & San Diego
(10,200 rms/440,000 sf) (11,000 rms/440,000 sf) (10,769 rms/525,701 sf)