Big Lots’ Jeremy Ball (r) with celebrity Jack Hanna of Columbus. Ball meets in Columbus because of the great value. Credit: Big Lots-Debbie Stansberry

Although the meeting industry has returned to robust health and vitality, one lingering aftereffect of the Great Recession has been unprecedented and ongoing management scrutiny of budgets, while at the same time the proverbial pendulum has swung back to a seller’s market that has caused costs to spike in many A-list destinations.

Thus, for many planners, finding real value is more important than ever before.

“There are still budget restrictions for many companies,” says Darla Huckaby, CMP, global account executive at Confer­ence Direct in Irving, Texas. “The economy is rebounding. But in the meeting and event industry, because of what we had to deal with a few years back, people are still being conservative and budgets are being reviewed very carefully. And companies also want to do more with less. So that is now a top consideration for a lot of companies.”

A related factor is a continuation of the longstanding trend of many meetings being booked on very short notice, Huckaby says. That means many A-list destinations are not available, which forces planners to use a less well-known or second-tier destination. And that translates to an opportunity to get value that cannot be matched in first-tier destinations. “So we’re now looking more and more,” Huckaby says, “to those alternative destinations simply based on lack of availability, on short notice, in major destinations.”

And in turn, Huckaby notes, strong demand for top first-tier destinations — simply in terms of supply and demand — tends to drive up the cost of a meeting in a major destination, whereas in a second-tier destination, by definition, demand is less intense and the value proposition is reinforced.

“It really boils down to supply and demand,” she says. “So based on that factor alone, to get the best value today, you have to start looking at these alternative destinations.”

In fact, never before in her 20-year career as a planner has Huckaby seen market factors so strongly aligned in favor of seeking out superior value in less well-known destinations. “And that also opens you up as a planner to more creative thinking in terms of destination selection,” she says. “It really does give you an opportunity to do more for less.”

Like Huckaby, Turner Gravitt Jr., director, corporate events, member relations and government affairs at Richmond, Virginia-based agricultural supplier South States Cooperative, faces tight budgets and seeks solid value destinations. Today, bottom-line bang for the buck plays more of a role in his destination selection than ever before.

“We’ve always been a conservative company,” Gravitt says, “but especially since the recession we’ve tried to do an even better job of watching our budgets and analyzing our costs and the value we get from every dollar we spend.”

Lisa Crouse, founder of independent meeting planning firm Fagan & Crouse in Marietta, Georgia, is another planner who is increasingly aware of the importance of value destinations.

“Many clients are concerned about their budgets these days,” she says. “And a lot of them want the best possible quality in hotel rooms at the lowest possible price. So we always look for destinations that we think deliver real value.”

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Although many smaller, less well-known destinations now tout their value proposition, few equal Oklahoma City, which Huckaby has used multiple times over the last few years.

“Oklahoma City was never even on my radar,” she says. “It wasn’t a destination I even thought about or knew anything about. But once I discovered Oklahoma City and realized the number of flights coming in and the accessibility and convenience it offers with its downtown area, I saw that it is a very attractive destination.”

And like Dallas/Fort Worth, Oklaho­ma City is equidistant between the East and West coasts, which makes it a favorable choice in terms of logistics. It offers similar hotel product and dining and entertainment options, but at a significantly reduced cost, Huckaby says.

Oklahoma City represents substantial savings over doing the same meeting in Chicago or Dallas, Huckaby says. “And one reason for that is lower airfares,” she says. “And because the airport is very close to downtown, it’s a very convenient destination and you save money on ground transportation. You also get good value in hotel rooms, food and beverage and meeting space. You get good value on everything.”

But there’s also an important related benefit that Huckaby and her clients like. “Oklahoma City really offers that kind of down-home hospitality that you don’t find in many places anymore,” she says. “And there are just great people in Oklahoma City. That’s something that is becoming more and more important today in terms of the kind of support and service you’re going to get. Good people enable a successful event. And Oklahoma City has great people. You get smiles and Southern hospitality. And your attendees get well taken care of.”

Over and above that, Huckaby was surprised to discover how much there is to do in Oklahoma City. Popular with attendees is Bricktown (pictured), the former warehouse district on the Bricktown Canal, offering entertainment, shopping and dining. “There’s a lot of nightlife downtown,” she says. “There are a lot of fine-dining restaurants and a wide range of inexpensive restaurants.” And she notes that the Boathouse District offers a range of outdoor adventures such as kayaking, paddleboarding, zip lining and bicycling. “I don’t think most planners realize how much there is to do in Oklahoma City. And a lot of things are within walking distance of the hotels. The city also has great infrastructure.”

In 2016, Oklahoma City’s Boathouse District, home to the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic training site for Canoe/Kayak, will host the U.S. Olympic trials just before unveiling the new $45.2 million whitewater rafting center that same year; one of only a few in the world. Also on the horizon is a new streetcar system, a 70-acre park in downtown Oklahoma City, a new 470,000-sf Downtown Convention Center and headquarters hotel as well as many other hotels in downtown and surrounding districts. The convention center is expected to open in 2019.

The new Embassy Suites Oklahoma City Downtown/Medical Center, located in the heart of the metropolis, marks the third Embassy Suites property in the Sooner State. The full-service hotel offers 195 two-room guest suites and more than 10,000 sf of meeting space. The new onsite restaurant, E.S. Founders, is led by executive chef Andrew Black.

DoubleTree by Hilton Oklahoma City Airport, recently opened as the brand’s first property in the capital city. The 134-room, full-service hotel has commenced property-wide renovations.

Columbus, Ohio

In his quest for value, Jeremy Ball, director of philanthropy and corporate events at retail store operator Big Lots, uses the company’s hometown of Columbus, Ohio, for all of the half-dozen meetings and events he plans each year.

The reason for his fierce loyalty is simple, Ball says: Big Lots has never found a destination that provides better value than Columbus.

“We choose to do our meetings here because Columbus is a top value destination,” he says. “We’ve considered other places, but we ended up making a decision that we want to host all our important meetings locally because we get great value here.”

Value is a principle that is deeply embedded in the company’s identity, Ball says. “It is our anthem,” he says. “We’re all about value in everything we do, whether it’s what our customers look for in a store or it’s something we do as an organization. And that also applies to where we do our meetings and events. And when it comes to value, Columbus has a very compelling story to tell. It provides excellent value, but it also provides an excellent experience. And that is also important to us and our attendees.”

Another key factor in Ball’s loyalty to the destination is Experience Columbus, the local CVB. “I can’t speak highly enough of them,” he says. “And the way we work with them has become even more important as our company has grown. And growing as rapidly as we have in the last few years has challenged us when it comes to fitting more people into our meetings and events and providing an experience that will get them excited. And that has meant moving our events into bigger venues, and we have gotten a lot of help from Experience Columbus.”

Their biggest meetings now, for between 700 and 1,000 attendees from all over the U.S., are held at the Greater Columbus Convention Center (GCCC).

Ball also finds the perfect hotel product in Columbus. “We have working relationships with both the Hilton Columbus Downtown and the Hyatt Regency Columbus,” he says. “Those are our two most important venues and the ones we have built real relationships with. In terms of which one makes more sense at any given time, it just depends on the nature of the event.”

In addition to excellent hotels, Columbus also offers a thriving local food scene, Ball says. “The number of independent entrepreneurs who are opening restaurants is incredible,” he says. “So we now have a lot of great restaurants downtown, but also in some of our other neighborhoods. I personally am a fan of our local mom-and-pop restaurants, and we have a lot of those that are wonderful. We also have some great local coffee houses and bakeries that are fun for meeting attendees. And now the local craft brewery scene is really taking off. From a value standpoint, we now have a lot of places where people can have a great experience, but from a cost point of view, we can also get a lot of bang for our buck.”

“From a value standpoint, we now have a lot of places where people can have a great experience, but from a cost point of view, we can also get a lot of bang for our buck.” — Jeremy Ball

Beyond all those reasons to love Big Lots’ hometown, Ball says, “Columbus is just a cool city. And there are a lot of cool things going on here.”

New & Noteworthy

The renovations at The Westin Columbus are rolling out in carefully orchestrated phases. The lobby and public space is terrific. The more than 12,000 sf of meeting space has been upgraded, and connectivity has been greatly enhanced with high-speed Internet and convenient wireless capability throughout the public space. The boardroom’s new expansive conference table and 50-inch monitor make it an ideal location for smaller functions.

The GCCC is set to undergo a $125 million renovation and expansion project from September 2015 through July 2017. The space will expand from 1.7 to 1.8 million sf and gain LEED certification. The 100,000-sf expansion will include 10,000 sf of two-level meeting space and 37,000 sf of exhibit space, and the meeting room inventory increases from 65 to 75 rooms.

The CBUS Circulator is a free bus that circulates through downtown. It operates seven days per week, every 10-15 minutes depending on time of day, and stops are easy to find throughout the city. Pickups happen regularly in front of the GCCC, making it easy for convention and meeting attendees to explore the city.

The Port Columbus International Airport, located a short drive from downtown, is currently undergoing a three-year, $80 million renovation. Southwest has recently begun direct service to Dallas and Washington DC and will begin direct service to Boston and Oakland in August, allowing easier access from around the country.

Charlotte, North Carolina

For Southern States Cooperative’s biggest and most important meeting of the year, a management meeting and product show that draws 2,000 attendees, Gravitt has used booming Southern metropolis Charlotte for the last five years. And based on the value the company gets there, Southern States is booked through 2019.

“One of the most basic ways Charlotte provides value for us is that it is centrally located for all of our attendees,” Gravitt says. “We also get good value on hotel rooms, food and beverage, meeting rooms and audio-visual services.”

The convenience of the downtown hotels to the Charlotte Convention Center is another factor in Gravitt’s value proposition, because most attendees can walk to the venue. “And that saves us quite a bit of money on transportation costs,” he says.

The convention center features 280,000 sf of exhibit space, more than 90,000 sf of flexible meeting space, a 40,000-sf ballroom and a 35,000-sf ballroom.

For his 2,000-attendee meeting, Gravitt says, Charlotte Convention Center is perfectly sized and configured. “It has just the right number of breakout rooms that we need,” he says.

Southern States also enjoys good food and beverage value in Charlotte. For the sake of convenience and overall budget control, Gravitt stages breakfast, lunch and dinner at the convention center each day. “We get excellent food and excellent service,” he says. “And we also get very good value. That’s one of the reasons we keep coming back year after year.”

For the last two years, his headquarters hotel has been The Westin Charlotte, and it will serve in that role again this fall. “It’s very convenient for us because it’s right across the street from the convention center,” Gravitt says.

Gravitt also places great importance on the support services he gets from the local CVB, Visit Charlotte. “They know the area, and they kind of serve as our ‘mediator’ with all our vendors,” he says. “So we work as much as we can through them. We ask them a lot of questions, and then they come up with current information that we know we can rely on. We don’t have to go digging for information or wonder whether the information we’re being given is actually true.”

And Visit Charlotte helped facilitate his superb relationships with the convention center and hotels, Gravitt says. And part of that facilitation has been to ensure that Southern States gets real value from every dollar it spends in town.

“But the main thing is that we just like the quality of the people we work with at Visit Charlotte,” Gravitt says. “We feel like they bend over backwards to help us meet our goals and take good care of us. They treat us like we’re important and that they care about us. And that is very, very important to us. And that’s not just Visit Charlotte: It’s the same with the people at the convention center and the hotels. So in Charlotte, we get people, the place and value.”

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Another thriving and well-known metropolitan area that also happens to deliver exceptional value to meeting planners is Minneapolis.

Marlys Knutson, external relations manager at Minneapolis-based recreational equipment manufacturer Polaris Industries Inc., uses the company’s hometown every five years for an important meeting that also commemorates a key anniversary for the company. Last year, she used Minneapolis for the company’s 60th anniversary, and Polaris will be back in 2019 for its 65th anniversary.

The four-day, three-night celebration draws 5,000 attendees from the U.S. and more than 30 countries internationally.

Last year, Knutson used the Minneapolis Convention Center as her meeting venue, and Polaris will use it again in 2019. The facility, the largest convention center in the upper Midwest, features 475,000 sf of exhibit space, 87 individual meeting rooms, and food and beverage services from award-winning Kelber Catering.

“The Minneapolis Convention Center is awesome, and it’s the perfect size for us,” Knutson says. “We’re one of a very few groups that use almost the entire facility. We also have a lot of hotel rooms in downtown Minneapolis that are great. We use 16 hotels for our meeting, and almost everyone can walk to the convention center, so our busing costs were minimal.”

Hotel rooms costs are one of the primary factors that make Minneapolis a top value destination,” Knutson says. “Hotel rooms in Minneapolis are quite a bit less expensive than they are in the other destinations that we use,” she says. “The F&B catering we get in Minneapolis is also awesome. Not only do we get reasonable prices, but the food is great. And the staff we work with at the convention center is great.”

Airlift and cost-effective airfares are another budgetary advantage that Minneapolis offers, Knutson says, because the city is a hub for Delta Airlines.

Planners who are unfamiliar with Minneapolis will find a number of pleasant surprises there, Knutson says. “I would say the size and scope of the convention center facility is probably the biggest surprise to planners who have never been to Minneapolis before,” she says. “And along with that is the way they offset a large percentage of the cost of the facility through hotel room rebates and things like that. The formula they use really works well.”

All of the 16 hotels Polaris used last year provided a nice rebate. “And those rebates offset a large percentage of our cost for the convention center,” Knutson says.

And when it comes to such net cost savings on a convention center, only two destinations she knows of offer that perk, Knutson says. The other is Phoenix.

New & Noteworthy

The Minneapolis-Saint Paul metropolitan area saw 30.9 million total visitors in 2014 — an all-time record for the area.

Craft Bar and Lounge is now open at the Minneapolis Convention Center. The venue was created to provide an alternative place for meeting planners and guests to connect and build relationships. It is located on the balcony of the new Visitor Information Center in the main lobby.

Super Bowl LII will be held February 2018 in the new Minnesota Stadium as will the NCAA Men’s Final Four in March/April 2019. The new Minnesota Stadium, currently under construction in downtown Minneapolis, will open in July 2016.

New Orleans, Louisiana

Perhaps the best news of all for planners is that it’s not just less well known or second-tier destinations that offer exceptional value in today’s market.

One A-list, perennially popular destination that has built a formidable reputation for value is New Orleans.

“I love New Orleans because it not only delivers real value, but it’s also a destination that will attract attendees and make then want to come to the meeting, Crouse says. “It’s just a great destination, because everybody has heard of New Orleans and there are lots of things to do there.”

Crouse has used New Orleans repeatedly for more than 25 years. And she gets excellent hotel rates there, she says, compared to similar major city destinations.

She and her clients also love the city’s world-famous culture, dining scene and unique venues, such as the World War II Museum.

Most of all, she says, she loves the New Orleans Convention & Visitors Bureau. “They just go above and beyond to make sure you have everything you need and that your meeting is successful,” Crouse says. “And a big part of that success is getting value for the money you spend.”

New & Noteworthy

The New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center is embarking on an ambitious new venture that will revitalize the City’s riverfront. The Convention Center District Development Project, situated on 47 acres upriver from the center, calls for construction of a new headquarters hotel, a linear park (pictured) along Convention Center Bou­levard, outdoor entertainment, arts and cultural venues and new retail and housing options.

Readers of Condé Nast Traveler voted New Orleans the No. 1 “U.S. City for Business Travelers” in the February issue of the magazine based on friendliness, value, walkability and its 1,400 restaurants.

In January 2015, The New York Times named New Orleans one of its “52 Places to Go in 2015,” which proposes untraveled destinations as well as familiar cities offering travelers new reasons to visit this year.

Antoine’s Restaurant is celebrating 175 years of French Creole culinary traditions in 2015. In commemoration of this prestigious anniversary, the oldest continuously operating restaurant in America and birthplace of Oysters Rockefeller will host special events, present new menus and bring its celebrations beyond the French Quarter.

Emeril’s New Orleans, the original flagship of Chef Emeril Lagasse, is celebrating 25 years in the Cres­cent City in 2015.

Louis Armstrong International Air­port has surpassed pre-Katrina passenger numbers. With 14 airlines providing service to 46 nonstop destinations, the airport is serving the most nonstop destinations in its history. Plans were announced to build a new, state-of-the-art airport terminal on the north side of the current airport property.

The Aloft New Orleans Downtown, HRI Lodging’s newest property, opened in New Orleans’ Central Business Dis­trict in March 2015. The Aloft offers 188 guest rooms, 2,500 sf of meeting space, a bar and more. The hotel accompanies 192 apartments in the same building dubbed the Strand Apartments.

The Wyndham New Orleans-French Quarter has completed its multimillion-dollar renovation, which included 374 guest rooms as well as the building’s exterior and improvements to the parking garage. C&IT