Being a big fish in a small pond

Between mountains, alongside beaches, bordering metro areas, small cities define
their own distinctive territories.

By Christine Born

Success in the Wilderness

Amanda Maples Marr wants to spread the good word about Sevierville, Tenn. She’s the marketing director for the convention and visitors bureau, which reports a 40.9 percent increase in overall lodging tax numbers this year. What’s the secret of success for this small city (year-round population under 20,000) when so many other destinations are reporting declines in group business and visitors?

“The Sevierville Events Center has been one of the reasons,” says Marr. “We have gotten a lot more trade show groups, which we didn’t have space to accommodate prior to the opening of the event center. We can now handle groups of 6-7,000.”

The concept for the center was manifold. The planning committee wanted to bring new business to the community, not pull it away from nearby Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg. They wanted events that would bring in a lot of extra people and wouldn’t require people to be in sessions all day or in conventions from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., so attendees could get out and enjoy the town and all its activities.

“Mike Wilds [director of development and marketing for the center] called up everyone and asked, ‘What would be your dream center?’” Marr recalls. “When we finished it, we called them back and said, ‘When are you coming?’”

The International Gift Exposition came at the beginning of November, the largest event of its size on the East Coast with 1,300 booths. It used every square inch of space in the new center and poured outside. “It works so beautifully because visitors can go straight from one end to other in direct rows,” Marr says.

The center is attached to the Wilderness At The Smokies Waterpark Resort, which opened its first phase in May. “It’s a great all-season resort and a big boon,” says Marr, who says another plus for the area is that a full 30 percent of the hotel inventory was brand new this year with most opening at the end of 2008.

Add to the mix outlet shopping featuring upscale stores, a host of seasonal events, resort-style golf courses and spas, and it’s no surprise that Sevierville and the surrounding area appeals to younger families with kids, teen groups and senior citizen couples. Part of the tourism triumvirate including Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg that welcomes visitors to the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park and reflects the traditionally conservative values of the region, Sevierville is the birthplace of a living American icon — country sweetheart Dolly Parton, who is honored with a statue on the lawn of the Sevierville courthouse.

Marr also ticks off the same reasons many other destinations promote themselves to faith-based groups. “The area is so affordable, really it is a value destination,” she says. “It costs a lot less per person for them to come to your conference plus will cost you less to have it here. There’s so much to do no matter what niche market you have — seniors, kids, families.”

Meeting on the Edge

The value equation is true of small cities that tout their own niche: small city advantages and big city attractions, owing to their locations on the edge of major metropolitan regions. Grapevine, Texas, actually claims the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport as its backyard and all the attractions of the region at its front door. But you can tuck your attendees into the comfort of a small Main Street city, billed as the Christmas Capital of Texas, and never go any farther. Grapevine has a year-round calendar of events, its own vintage railroad, the Grapevine Opry, galleries, shopping and numerous other activities.

Montgomery County, Md. , calls itself the crown jewel of Metro Washington, D.C., with the communities of Bethesda, Chevy Chase, Gaithersburg, Germantown, Potomac, Rockville and Silver Spring all located within its boundaries. Your attendees can visit the many neighborhoods in these communities or head into the nation’s capital. The county’s seat of Rockville is equidistant from three major Metro DC airports, all within a 45-minute drive, and the Metrorail has 13 Red Line Stations in Montgomery County all leading into Washington.

St. Tammany Parish on Louisiana’s Northshore, 45 minutes north of New Orleans, shares the distinctive culture and tastes of its bigger counterpart. Your group can enjoy dining that melds Southern roots, Louisiana ingredients and French technique; tour wildlife centers; and visit historic downtown Covington and its many galleries and shops, including HJ Smith’s Son General Store and Museum, an institution since 1876 and in the same family all that time. There are enough attractions and events to keep attendees busy without ever leaving the Northshore, but the Big Easy is just around the bend for those who want to venture farther.

Special Attractions

Beach cities are always a popular meeting destination and Daytona Beach has historically been a year-round, family-friendly resort area. With the 164,000-sq.-ft. expansion of the beachfront Ocean Center, which doubled the facility’s size, the city has attracted returnees and new events. The seasonal town sports several crowd-pleasing events, most notably Speedweeks in early February when more than 200,000 NASCAR fans come to attend the season-opening Daytona 500. Other events include the NASCAR Coke Zero 400 race in July, Bike Week in early March, Biketoberfest in mid-October, and the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona endurance race in January. Outside those dates and during its off-season, the city boasts good values for groups.

With no beach, no major attractions and no metro nearby, some small cities have to be more inventive in marketing themselves.

“Why would anyone have their meeting in Lake Charles, La.?” The rhetorical question was posed, and answered, by Tico Soto, sales director, Lake Charles/Southwest Louisiana CVB. “It’s the people,” says Soto. “You can meet someone at a festival and the next day, go to dinner at their house.”

He pauses and adds, “The ease of everything when they get here. All they have to do is show up.” He’s not done yet. “Oh, the two biggest reasons: the cuisine and the nature trail eco-tours.”

Of course, Lake Charles has all the basic ingredients for a conference: 62,000 square feet of space in the Lake Charles Civic Center; more than 161,000 square feet of multi-purpose facilities throughout the parish; and 6,000 hotel rooms in the parish with roughly 2,000 of those brand new. But Soto adds the buzzwords that appeal to today’s visitors. He talks about “farm to table” culinary tours, including tours of rice mills and crawfish farms and promotes Lake Charles’ segment on the Creole Nature Trail and the La Boudin Trail. But mostly, he wants to talk about what his area will do for planners.

“We’ll arrange site visits, take care of flight arrangements, provide gas if it’s a drive market, plan an itinerary, arrange spousal tours. We’ve got something for everyone.”

Something for everyone seems to be a catchall phrase for small city destination representatives, right up there with the big fish in a small pond idiom. Whatever their selling points, there’s not much question that small cities can indeed be a blessing for planners of faith-based conferences.