CVBs Practice The Fine Art Of Providing Corporate RFPs

Now that many convention and visitors bureaus have developed or allied with technological systems that expedite responses to requests for proposals, and handle housing and registration needs online, some have expanded the scope of their offerings for corporate meeting buyers.

However, CVBs still are running into stumbling blocks while searching for lucrative meeting business, particularly buyers' fears that an RFP sent to a CVB will result in a barrage of responses from properties that don't meet their needs and corporate deals with preferred hotel chains or properties that leave bureaus out of the process. "We'll be contacted by the corporate meeting buyer in many cases after they search unsuccessfully for space in our high season," said Bob Lander, executive vice president of the Greater Phoenix Convention and Visitors Bureau. "It's a fallacy that the CVB must send every RFP to each member; we target the property type they're looking for. It's a fine line to walk with the members, but it gets repeat business from the buyers."

Though the area has incurred some cancellations and meeting attrition, particularly in the technology sector, the Phoenix CVB aggressively is courting corporate meeting buyers with the promise of restricting RFP transmission to properties commensurate with the buyers' needs regarding location, size, rate and type of property, Lander said. Since lead time is often short, as the CVB often is not the buyer's first point of contact, the CVB has not only dedicated a salesperson to corporate events of 50 or fewer attendees but has automated the site selection process as much as currently can be allowed.

"We have an electronic RFP on our Web site and its use has doubled in each of the past three years," Lander said. "We'll conduct business by e-mail as much as the planner wants and as much as our members can handle."

The San Jose CVB—though residing at ground zero for technology company meeting cutbacks—handles between 20 and 30 leads monthly since establishing a division dedicated to small corporate groups in 1999, said president and CEO Daniel Fenton, who expects that figure to double this year. Nevertheless, Fenton said many buyers still fear a fusillade of phone calls from CVB-member hotel salespeople, a result of universally distributed RFPs. "It's a misnomer," Fenton said. "We'll do whatever the planner tells us to do. The hotels also prefer that; they feel obligated to follow up with a potential client, even if they know there's no match with their property."

There are some impediments to CVB usage that are unlikely to dissolve. Specifically, many corporations have developed preferred relationships with hotel chains or properties, lessening interest in other nonpreferred properties.

"National hotel sales offices try to develop those relationships, but we have the direct connection into the community," said Dallas CVB president and CEO Dave Whitney. "We connect to all services, such as offsite venues and restaurants, and provide housing and registration assistance."

Like other CVBs, Dallas' during the past three years has repositioned staff to attract and capture small corporate meetings and ensure RFPs are sent to targeted properties and acted upon within 24 hours. "The misnomer is that CVBs are not interested in corporate business," Whitney said. "There is history there: CVBs often focused on the citywide events that used the convention center, but that's an age-old theory. Now, nothing could be further from the truth."

Meanhile, Michael Gehrisch, president and CEO of the International Association of Convention & Visitor Bureaus, said that while association meeting buyers generally are more aware of the services CVBs provide, corporate adoption of online site selection and housing and registration tools hosted on CVB sites has grown steadily.

The IACVB itself will continue to ramp up its online offerings for corporate planners, including CINET, a database of meeting profiles compiled directly from member CVBs to give planners benchmarks for future negotiations. "We'd like to integrate the online RFP process with post-event reporting," Gehrisch said. "That would enhance the process and streamline data collection."