CVC'S MISSION IS SIMPLE: INCREASE VISITOR SPENDING AND DEMAND By Jane Beckerdite The St. Louis Convention & Visitors Commission (CVC) promotes and sells St. Louis as a destination for conventions, meetings, tours and leisure travel. The CVC also operates the America’s Center convention complex. In hopes of expanding its success, the organization recently unveiled a slick advertising promotion called “Hello, My Name is St. Louis.” An example of the new St. Louis Convention & Visitors Commission's ad campaign. “The new campaign was launched in December as an idea to reintroduce St. Louis to new and existing meeting professionals,” says Diane Gincoletto, director of marketing for the CVC. “We needed to do this because we have a lot of new and renovated hotels, new restaurants, streetscapes and new labor-agreement enhancements. The nametag is something that is familiar to convention attendees. From a personal perspective, each person in the ads (bearing the ‘Hello, My Name is St. Louis’ nametag) is someone a visitor would come into contact with.” Nancy Milton, CVC’s vice president of marketing communications, says her organization has used a variety of ads in the past, but it was time for something fresh. “St. Louis has changed its product. New and renovated hotels are the biggest change, but we have new downtown activities and restaurants that have sprung up around the America’s Center. We have the upcoming Bottle District, the new Cardinal stadium, loft condos and high-end dining along Washington Ave. We’ve had a whole product shift and the meeting planners needed to know about it,” Milton says. Edward Korczak knows. As executive director of the National Wood Flooring Association, Korczak recently held his convention in St. Louis. “We chose St. Louis for our convention because it’s easy to get to and was very reasonable in price. What meeting planners look for is a city that has sufficient size for trade show exhibits and varying prices in hotels. You also want to have a city that’s easily accessible by car and airport. St. Louis fills that bill very nicely.” Korczak says what is most important to meeting planners, aside from the convention center itself, is the “package” that literally surrounds it. “You want restaurants and shopping nearby. People who attend need activities other than the convention itself. If you didn’t have that, you might as well keep them at home.” Milton says even a single convention can mean great things for St. Louis. “They put people to work. One convention can mean tens of millions of dollars. And it gives you a chance to show your community off. We have so much to offer and sometimes people don’t realize it.” Conventions are planned years in advance. Korczak says he generally books his meetings about three to four years before the event, because places like the America’s Center tend to fill up fast. “It’s a state-of-the-art facility. But even more important than that is the staff, because they have great ideas to help you construct your show. And the unions are great to work with. The people they send to work your booths are wonderful. I would do it in a heartbeat again.” The upcoming 2005 NCAA Final Four event was awarded to St. Louis seven years ago. More than 50,000 visitors are expected to visit the St. Louis region this April as a result. And although the financial upshot that a NCAA Final Four holds for each host city is different, trends indicate the average direct and indirect spending is approximately $62 million. With 502,000 square feet of exhibit space at the America’s Center convention complex, 35,000 area-wide hotel rooms and 26 hotel properties that each offer more than 10,000 square feet of meeting space, St. Louis has meetings covered. Add $2.2 billion in recent downtown development and 7,600 sleeping rooms near the convention center to the mix, and it’s clear that St. Louis has experienced resurgence, hence the need for a new advertising campaign to spread the word. “We want meeting planners to say ‘I didn’t know that about St. Louis.’ We’re asking them to take a look at us or to take a new look,” Milton says. “The ads are reinforcement or an introduction to make a meeting planner perk up and take notice. We have a preserved, built-in environment that is the envy of a lot of communities. St. Louis is clearly better with this development. With the recession in 1999 and the disaster of 9-11, we’ve been in recovery mode ever since. But now, we’re in a place competing with a different set of cities, like San Antonio with its River Walk. But our product is better because we have a central location. And accessibility is chief.” Milton expects the “Hello, My Name is St. Louis” advertising promotion to have a shelf life. “We see it as a two-year campaign to introduce the product of St. Louis. You can’t say ‘hello’ forever.” St. Louis Hoops It Up When the National Collegiate Athletic Association selects sites for the Final Four, it looks at, ironically, four things–competition venue, air service, lodging and the ability of the people in the city to administer the tournament according to the NCAA’s policies. St. Louis stacks up well in all four categories,” says Bill Hancock, NCAA tournament media coordinator. Georgia Tech's Clarence Moore drives past Kansas' J.R. Giddens in the NCAA St. Louis Regional held at the Edward Jones Dome in March 2004. “The Edward Jones Dome and America’s Center is a beautiful and functional facility and the staff has done a wonderful job. Lambert Field and the hotels certainly are excellent, and Doug Elgin at the Missouri Valley Conference and Missy Slay have put together an outstanding local organizing committee of volunteers. My goodness, there are some talented people in St. Louis!” The 2005 NCAA Final Four awarded St. Louis the event more than seven years ago, says Missy Slay, executive director of the St. Louis Organizing Committee. And there are plenty of reasons why. “First, because of its connectivity to America’s Center and the Edward Jones Dome, second because of our geography and accessibility and third because of the amazing renaissance taking place on Washington Avenue and our inviting hotel package. I personally think we were selected because St. Louis is, and always has been, the best sports city.” In addition to great fans, St. Louis also boasts an enthusiastic and generous business community that continuously shows civic pride by committing the financial resources to put on an event of this magnitude, Slay says. Doug Elgin, chair of the SLOC, is confident about the event’s success. “Our four partnering organizations—the Missouri Valley Conference, Saint Louis University, the St. Louis Sports Commission and the St. Louis Convention & Visitors Commission—each has a great deal of experience in handling major sporting events. By working together, we’re going to collaborate to produce the best event possible for the four teams and their fans, the media and the entire college basketball community.” Mark Your Calendar Friday, April 1 NCAA Hoop City Fan Festival (10 a.m. – 8 p.m.) America’s Center l Open Practice (Free admission) Noon – 4 p.m. (Doors open at 10:30 a.m.) Edward Jones Dome Pep Rally (school bands and cheerleaders) (4 – 6 p.m.) Kiener Plaza (Free) Taste of St. Louis (11 a.m. – 8 p.m.) Kiener Plaza (Free admission) NABC All Star Games—Savvis Center (Ticketmaster) l High School All Star Game (4:30 p.m.) Savvis Center University of Missouri vs. University of Illinois Alumni Game (6 p.m.) l NABC All-Stars vs. The Harlem Globetrotters (8 p.m.) Saturday, April 2 NCAA YES Clinics (8 a.m. – Noon) (Free admission) Four sites: Mathews-Dickey Boys & Girls Club, Saint Louis University, University of Missouri-St. Louis, Washington University l NCAA Hoop City Fan Festival (10 a.m. – 8 p.m.) America’s Center Taste of St. Louis (11 a.m. – 6 p.m.) Kiener Plaza (Free admission) National Semi-final Game 1 – Edward Jones Dome (Time TBD) l National Semi-final Game 2 – Edward Jones Dome (40 min. after Game 1) Sunday, April 3 NCAA Hoop City Fan Festival (10 a.m. – 6 p.m.) America’s Center SLOC March to the Arch (2 p.m.) (Free Admission) Starting line: St. Louis Union Station at Market St. Finish line: Kiener Plaza. First 3,000 participants 18 and younger will receive a free basketball and free t-shirt. Dasani Festival (11 a.m. – 7 p.m.) Gateway Mall (Free admission) Taste of St. Louis (11 a.m. – 7 p.m.) Kiener Plaza (Free admission) Monday, April 4 NCAA Hoop City Fan Festival (10 a.m. – 6 p.m.) America’s Center National Championship Game – Edward Jones Dome (Time TBD) Sold out. Tickets for the 2005 NCAA Final Four were allocated via a random computerized selection process conducted by the NCAA. The application deadline was May 14, 2004. Seating capacity for the event is approximately 47,650.

April 2005 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Meet “PR Boomer” Laurna Godwin. Antarctica is a favorite baby boomer spot. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - www.stlrcga.org - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - www.technologygateway.org - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Dr. Steven Teitelbaum supports recruiting great faculty and great students. St. Louis hoops it up with the 2005 NCAA Final Four. Ken Steinback believes in going the extra mile.