Meeting workers: Bring us more conventions

By Leon Stafford

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

With convention business down in Atlanta this year, the mammoth Georgia World Congress Center is not the only part of the hospitality industry hurting.

Members of the Exhibit Designers and Producers Association -- a group representing workers who build the exhibits, set the lights and truck in materials for displays on the trade show floor -- say business is off as much as 25 percent.

At a meeting Thursday to get an update on the overall meetings economy, EDPA members pressed Atlanta convention leaders to be more aggressive to attract business and to find new ways to market the city.

“Looking at the trade show calendar that I have access to for 2010, it looks like we are losing business to other cities. And not only to Orlando and Las Vegas, but to Boston and San Antonio,” said Jerrold Tyler, president of Tyler’s Design Supply, an Atlanta company.

“What are those cities doing to get that business?” he quizzed. “Are they doing things that we can’t do to get that business?”

Hospitality is an $11.4 billion industry in metro Atlanta and conventions are a large part of that.

Atlanta hospitality officials said they are working hard to bring in business, but added it gets tougher every day. Sixteen new convention centers opened this year, GWCC general manager Mark Zimmerman said, adding to what many say is a saturated market.

The Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau has introduced new programs to win business, including a push to convince leaders with the area’s Fortune 500 companies to keep their big meetings here. Coca-Cola Enterprises, Arby’s National Franchise and Duane Morris Partners have agreed to keep meetings here.

“I don’t think there is a magic bullet in those cities,” Zimmerman said in response to Tyler’s question. “I think they are playing ‘Let’s Make A Deal,’ and so are we.”