Originally published May 22, 2006 in MeetingNews
It's no secret that medical meetings are a bright spot in an unpredictable economy. So it should be no surprise that cities nationwide are pulling out all the stops.
How far will cities go to lure the medical trade? A couple of examples: A few years back, Honolulu designed its Hawaii Convention Center largely to land the American Dental Association. More recently, the Cleveland Convention and Visitors Bureau backed plans to build the InterContinental Hotel Cleveland MBNA Conference Center in the middle of the sprawling Cleveland Clinic campus.
"There was a desire to open a property that marketed to the needs of the medical segment," said Kelly Brewer, vice president of sales for the Cleveland CVB. "It absolutely strengthens our ability to focus on the medical meetings market."
Live operating-room video feeds can be beamed around the world, onto giant screens in a 500-seat theater, or into guestrooms. If a speaker can't make it, the center has one of the few stages worldwide that can project three-dimensional holographic images, the next best thing to being there in person.
"We are offering a different venue than anyone else in the country," said Chris Coburn, executive director of Cleveland Clinic Innovations. "This environment, surrounded by 20,000 medical employees and more than 80 operating rooms, is unique in contemporary medicine and in medical meetings."
Pittsburgh is making its own play for medical events. The David L. Lawrence Convention Center was designed with help from medical meeting planners, said Robert Imperata, executive vice president of the Greater Pittsburgh CVB. When planners asked for ample breakout space, they got 88,000 square feet in 53 meeting rooms. That's significantly more meeting space than most 300,000-square-foot exhibit facilities can offer, Imperata noted.
It doesn't hurt that the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center is a leading center for organ transplant research and sports medicine, or that the Oncology Nursing Society is based in Pittsburgh. Both groups have been instrumental in bringing major events to town.
Philadelphia, which has five medical schools, went another route. In a bid to tap even more deeply into the medical market, the city's CVB formed its own Health Care Congress. It is a roster of 300 health care professionals who promote their hometown as the logical place to meet. A dedicated speakers bureau can provide expertise on almost any medical topic, often on short notice to fill in for no-shows.