Cities greet meeting planners with open arms

— -- For its 50th anniversary, the American Choral Directors Association turned to its hometown of Oklahoma City for its biennial convention.

Choosing a destination more modest than its previous convention sites — Miami, Los Angeles and New York — turned out to be fortunate in light of the sharp downturn in the economy and drop in attendees, says executive director Tim Sharp.

The downtown Marriott Renaissance, the host hotel, charged about $150 a night per room, and threw in Wi-Fi Internet and audio-visual equipment free. The Oklahoma City Convention & Visitors Bureau helped with renting the city's main concert hall. In all, the convention was "30% to 40%" less expensive than its last one, in Miami, where attendance was 10% higher.

"Oklahoma City saved me from being in the red," Sharp says. "This part of the country is cheaper."

It's a buyer's market for meeting planners such as Sharp, as hotels and cities of all sizes compete for an ever-shrinking pie of conventions and business meetings.

Having them at five-star resorts during recessionary times has garnered headlines, but times are rough even for workaday conventions, as sluggish attendance is triggering cancellations.

Meeting and convention revenue based on room nights is down about 30% this year compared with 2008, estimates Greg Malark, COO of HelmsBriscoe, one of the country's largest meeting buying companies.

As planners look to trade down, some midprice hotel chains and second-tier convention cities are marketing themselves as affordable alternatives, even as their more upscale competitors court customers with deep discounts unseen in years.

"We've seen clients going to secondary cities both for value and perception," Malark says.

Boost for Oklahoma City

Some smaller markets have proved to be resilient as more firms and associations avoid cities and hotels that may trigger bad public relations, says Kevin Iwamoto of StarCite, which links planners and suppliers online.

According to StarCite's data based on its own bookings, Oklahoma City has seen the highest increase — about 80% — in the number of planners' requests for convention and meeting proposals in February of this year vs. a year ago. Detroit, Des Moines, Omaha and Greensboro, S.C., round out the top five.