With smaller convention centers throughout the region nipping at its heels, Atlanta’s behemoth Georgia World Congress Center is using sheer size to distinguish itself from competitors.
The nation’s fourth-largest convention center is booking more large industrial equipment or big manufacturing shows that smaller facilities in Nashville or Charlotte can’t handle because of the bulk and weight of the machinery involved.
That’s a big deal because meetings facilities make most of their revenue from exhibitors and the power that they use to operate displays. While attendance, parking and food and beverage spending are important, exhibit space rental is the lifeblood of the industry.
The GWCC recently booked meetings for the American Chemical Society, the Air-Conditioning, Heating and Refrigeration industry and the show for industrial welding manufacturing dubbed Fabtech — all conventions that require 500,000 square feet or more of exhibit space and feature individual equipment weighing several thousand pounds.
“That show will not go to just any city because they won’t fit,” GWCC General Manager Mark Zimmerman said of the ACS convention, which is booked for Atlanta for 2021 and 2026.
ACS will use 700,000 square feet for its meeting while Air-Conditioning, Heating and Refrigeration show will use 1 million square feet when the group meets in 2019. Fabtech, which met in Atlanta earlier this year, used more than 1 million square feet.
The GWCC’s focus on big manufacturing shows is necessitated by the battle to fill space. The supply nationally of convention space continues to outstrip demand, despite calls from critics to slow growth.
Congress Center bookings have had peaks and valleys in recent years as other cities offer new venue options for smaller shows. The Congress Center’s most recent exhibit space and energy peak was in fiscal 2007 and 2008 when several meetings moved to Atlanta from New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.
The GWCC collected $9.9 million in rent in fiscal 2014, compared with $14.7 million in fiscal 2007, according the GWCC Authority’s annual report. Utility fees were $6.9 million last year, vs. $7.5 million in 2007.
Dangling incentives
To compete, Atlanta and other cities offer incentives such as in-kind services, advertising and sometimes cash. Or they look for ways to make their facilities stand out either through size, ease of getting to facilities (Atlanta boasts of Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport and its wealth of nonstop flights) or after hours activities such as Disney World.
Atlanta hospitality officials also want the city to be indispensable for conventions in the face of a political climate that many argue threatens business. The industry opposed Georgia’s recent “religious liberty” legislation, which leaders said could discourage conventions from coming to the state at a time when they have momentum and business is picking up.
Atlanta hosted 14 of the Top 250 largest trade shows in 2014, the Atlanta Convention & Visitors Bureau said, citing Trade Show News Network numbers. That is up from 11 in 2013.
But with 1.4 million-square-feet of exhibition space — only convention centers in Chicago, Orlando and Las Vegas are bigger — the GWCC has a lot of space to fill.
To attract this week's Clean Show, a meeting of manufacturers and leaders representing dry cleaners, coin laundry operators and others in the sector, the GWCC spent $400,000 to install piping that can send steam to show equipment for demonstrations. The piping is permanent so the GWCC, which last hosted the show in 1987, can be part of the group's regular rotation, which includes conventions in Las Vegas, New Orleans and Orlando.
In addition to the steam use, Clean Show also will demand a lot of power, running at least 100 pieces of laundry equipment simultaneously, spokeswoman Lindsey Hollifield said.
Debby Cannon, director of the hospitality program at Georgia State University, said the impact of the investment for the Clean Show can’t be understated. When Clean Show last visited, Centennial Park had not been created as a result of the 1996 Summer Olympics. There was no Georgia Aquarium or College Football Hall of Fame. The GWCC itself also was significantly smaller.
‘Very different city’
“They are going to see a very different, vibrant city,” Cannon said.
Jim Wulfekuhle, vice president of sales and marketing for one of Atlanta’s longtime conventions, International Woodworking Fair, said only between six and 10 convention centers nationally can handle his group’s needs. Weighty saws, presses and molders can be too heavy for facilities — especially those with second or third floors — or have the flexibility to update wiring as equipment is updated.
The convention’s energy demands are so large that it could power Atlanta for several days, a requirement that could cripple some meeting facilities, he said.
“There are not a lot of facilities that can handle the output,” Wulfekuhle said.
Charles Olentine, executive vice president of U.S. Poultry & Egg, the city’s long-time convention, said its annual expo uses 400,000 square feet, a size that easily fits at the GWCC and gives the meeting room to grow. That’s important to organizers — which include members of the meat and feed industry — as they grow the convention beyond the U.S. and bring in more international members, especially from Latin America, he said.
“I’m really bullish on the future of trade shows down the line,” Olentine said. “I have heard a lot of people talk about virtual trade shows replacing the way we meet now, but there is nothing like face-to-face meetings.”
