Norman Stowe
Sun
On July 4, our Vancouver Convention & Exhibition Centre will be 20 years old.
As part of the original management team that helped launch and market the existing centre, I know how much work needs to be done to make sure the expansion meets its potential.
When we opened the convention centre in 1987, we brought in the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, had dinner for 2,000 guests, and recreated Stanley Park, complete with miniature train, and a country fair with a full-size Ferris wheel, all to show the size and capacity of this latest addition to our waterfront. That creative approach to marketing, and the sales program that followed, attracted the attention of meeting planners at home and abroad.
So, am I optimistic about the success of the expansion? You bet. In fact, with more good reason today than when we opened the original two decades ago. You see, a lot has happened over the years to make Vancouver one of the world’s great destinations.
For instance, when we opened in 1987, our biggest job was telling the world about Vancouver. At the time we were not a convention destination, and Tourism Vancouver was not the organization it is today. In fact, very few meeting planners had even heard of us and even fewer thought we could hold a major convention. The biggest room in town was at the Hyatt Hotel, so major meetings weren’t exactly beating a path to our door, the way they do now.
When we did our first research in those early days, Vancouver and Victoria had the same name recognition among major meeting and convention planners, mostly because Vancouver wasn’t seen as a convention or conference city.
Today, all of that has changed. Vancouver is among the world’s top destinations for national and international meeting planners, and the size and scope of the expansion has been given thumbs up by the customers who marvel at its waterfront setting and have been part of its overall planning, ensuring it meets their needs.
At the same time, the argument about who markets the centre is also an old one, something that has been going on for nearly all of the past 20 years. Having Tourism Vancouver and the Vancouver Convention & Exhibition Centre both going at it hasn’t hurt. But with the new expansion, it makes a lot more sense to have it marketed by the convention centre, the people who are going to run it and be accountable for its success. That should cut down any confusion among meeting and convention planners.
Having been there at the beginning, and heard some of the same concerns and doubts then that we’re hearing today, I think history has shown that there’s every reason to believe the expansion will be as effective, popular and lucrative for British Columbia as the original.
Is there work to do? Absolutely. So, let’s get on with it.
Norman Stowe is managing partner of the Pace Group, a Vancouver public relations firm.
© The Vancouver Sun 2007
