The money saved by consolidating the two tourism organizations will be redirected to national and international marketing campaigns. Chicago currently has only three international sales offices and received less than 5 percent of the overseas travelers to the United States in 2010. New York City has 18 international offices and saw 32 percent of the 2010 international travelers. Welsh said he plans to open new sales offices in Canada, Brazil and Mexico.

Emanuel hopes to attract 50 million visitors annually to Chicago by 2020, which will bring nearly $4 billion a year to the city’s economy. “The mayor feels that a combined organization with a singular focus and website and all the resources of people [working together] is the most realistic way of achieving the goal,” Welsh said. The agencies will start working together immediately, followed by a formal launch this summer.

Travel organizations, hotel companies and destination marketing organizations lauded the president for the speech. In a statement Roger Dow, president and CEO of the U.S. Travel Association, said, “The President’s timing couldn’t be better. U.S. Travel will immediately engage the administration on policies that can benefit our country and all aspects of the travel community. Among our objectives will be for our government to pursue concrete actions to increase international travel, business travel, participation in meetings and conventions, and leisure travel throughout America,” he added.

The president also called for visa reform, which would make it easier for international travelers to enter the country. By executive order, he’s tasked the Departments of State and Homeland Security to interview at least 80 percent of non-immigrant visa applications in three weeks and expand the Visa Waiver Program.

Hotel companies and convention and visitors bureaus also rallied in support of the president’s move. “We’re thrilled with the President’s announcement to augment efforts to reform our visa and entry systems to allow more people to experience the United States,” said Bill Marriott, Marriott International chairman and CEO, in a statement. A study last year by Oxford Economics revealed that visa restrictions kept 116,000 international travelers from attending events in the United States. NYC and Company, the city of New York’s official tourism marketing agency, also issued a statement regarding President Obama’s reforms. It said: “We believe visa reform measures have the ability to create over one million new jobs nationwide and generate billions more in revenue, and applaud the President’s call to accelerate and expand visa issuing and processing in emerging global markets to achieve these goals.” New York City was the nation’s No. 1 tourist destination in 2011 with more than 50 million visitors.

Like New York’s, Las Vegas’ tourism leaders want faster visa processing. “In some instances, there are business people who want to attend important trade shows but the process has made it quite prohibitive,” MGM spokesman Gordon Absher told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “The announcement today is going to help that.”

1. 40 Under 40: The cover story of our October 2011 issue drew more traffic to our website than any other. We highlighted 40 young people making their marks on the industry today, and if you don’t know them, you should. If you have someone in mind who should be considered for the 2012 40 Under 40, send the person’s name and a brief description to editor@collinsonmedia.com with “Rejuvenate 40 Under 40” in the subject line.
2. Top Chefs: Attendees may come for the education and networking, but they leave talking about the food. Convention center chefs across the country are mixing it up and adding sustainable elements to your typical food and beverage menus.
3. Full Green Ahead: Like it or not, the move toward greener meetings is here to stay. But what really constitutes a green meeting? And have that many planners really latched on to the movement. We answered those questions and more.
4. Grace Under Pressure: We believe you can learn from one another just as much—or more—as you can from any industry expert. Willow Creek’s Steve Bell shared an invaluable lesson for any planner: How to handle a difficult situation (like a last-minute speaker cancellation) with the utmost grace.
5. The New Art of Event Marketing: No longer passive consumers of information, people play an active role in seeking out content, especially online. That means marketing events is getting more complicated, but also more exciting. We outlined the six rules you need to know to market your event today.
6. Launching Point: Reaching the next generation can be a monumental and frustrating task for planners. We talked to planners who are thinking outside the box to attract youth with their interests and using their media.
7. The Anatomy of Citywide: We showed you how these events come together and what you need to know when planning them.
8. Gulf Coast: One Year Later: In April, we reported on the ongoing recovery efforts in Gulf Coast cities one year after the BP oil spill.
9. Bigger Than Auto: Early last year, the Convention Industry Council released its Economic Significance of Meetings to the U.S. Economy study by the Convention Industry Council. What it revealed was no surprise to most in the industry: meetings are important. Very important. We talked to the people behind meetings—the planners, boat captains and entrepreneurs—who rely on events for their livelihood and spotlighted cities that point to meetings as what carries them through tough economic times.
10. Rules of Engagement: The future of meetings, in many ways, is now. We looked at the rock-star innovations and intrepid planners adding event technologies that once seemed well out of reach.
11. 10 Reasons to Love Your Job: Being a meeting planner can be hard, but it can also be really, really fun. In case you needed reminded, we gave 10 reasons to love being a meeting planner.

San Jose demonstrated how a good host city can make a conference better. Team San Jose is a partnership between the San Jose Convention and Visitors Bureau, hotels, arts, labor and downtown venues. The separate entities are able to work together to help planners create successful events.

San Jose laid out the red carpet for attendees beginning with a marching band welcome for a “Taste of California” opening reception at the Tech Museum. Adorned in “San Jose + Rejuvenate Marketplace” buttons, TSJ staff was ever-present in and around the convention center throughout the week. They led the way on social media, contributing to the #Rejuvenate Twitter stream, answering questions and interacting with attendees. Rejuvenate logos were displayed in hotel lobbies, on banners on light posts and on signs in downtown restaurants. An enormous welcome sign draped the entrance to the convention center.

With all its efforts, Team San Jose proved that a close partnership with a host city can enhance the attendee experience—and make the lives of meeting planners much easier.

See more from Rejuvenate Marketplace in San Jose on Facebook, Flickr, and YouTube, in our blogs and in the December issue of Rejuvenate magazine.

1. You’re now in charge of meetings and convention sales efforts in Austin, Texas. What ideas do you have to bring more events to town?
As I learn about Austin, I’m finding out it’s extremely successful. It runs the highest occupancy rate of all the Texas markets, has a strong convention base and strong leisure base. People come here to enjoy entertainment and the variety of festivals. In addition to the convention center and the product currently here, there’s going to be a 1,000-plus room Marriott that’s going to continue to lure larger conventions. One of the main reasons why Austin is one of the few cities in the country to get such a large hotel is because the case has been made that the convention industry is strong and has a bright future.

2. What else is new in town?
There’s also the Formula One series, which draws an incredible international crowd and tourists. The track being built is going to be multipurpose and have a motorcycle event as well. Overall, that will help visitors come to town. And South By Southwest is growing by leaps and bounds, has an international presence and makes Austin a great location for the latest in cutting-edge technology.

3. What’s exciting to you about Austin as a destination?
The new [Marriott] is going to be a tremendous opportunity to provide convention planners a new destination. Austin is a vibrant, cool, hip, livable city. Many people immediately congratulated me [when I accepted the position] and said, ‘That’s such a cool city,’ and they hadn’t event been here. There’s curiosity about the town and that’s something to draw meeting planners here. Every association is looking to attract more members under 35, and I believe cities like Austin provide a great niche for that demographic. It’s going to help those associations who want to grow their attendance.

4. You call Austin a “new destination.” What do you mean by that?
There’s a curiosity and pent-up demand for Austin because of national and international accolades, but there’s a certain size of conventions that require a certain number of hotels. The new Marriott is going to parlay us into a whole new level of convention planners that will be looking at us for the first time. We have all the key logistical aspects they’re looking for such as hotels, a convention center and great airport access. Once downtown, you can walk everywhere. It’s safe; it’s vibrant. Now, with the large national associations and corporate groups, we can accommodate them.

5. What advice do you have for planners working with CVB representatives?
Be very direct and honest in asking those questions that are so vital to their decisions. We know the city, we qualify the needs of their conference very thoroughly and we can save them time.

“Having the nation’s largest Hispanic advocacy group call off its boycott of our state allows our sales staff to get back the business of booking conventions,” says Kevin Kamenzind, chief marketing officer of the Greater Phoenix Convention and Visitors Bureau. “After the national media latched onto the immigration debate and La Raza’s boycott, we lost a few definite conventions but saved the others.”

Despite losing business such as the American Immigration Lawyers Association’s meeting in Scottsdale and having cities such as San Francisco and Los Angeles ban government employees from traveling to Arizona, tourism and convention business in the state did not seem to suffer much since the controversial immigration law was passed in May 2010. From 2009 to 2010, overnight domestic and international visitors increased 4.5 percent, overseas visitation jumped 15 percent and Canadian travel increased by 16.5 percent.

This summer at the Phoenix Convention Center was a hot one—or “record-breaking” to use Kamenzind’s description of the meetings and event volume. From June to August, downtown Phoenix hosted the Major League Baseball All-Star Week and four citywide conventions—the Southern Baptist Convention, Volleyball Festival, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and the General Council of the Assemblies of God. More than 250,000 people visited the convention center, and the events brought $100 million worth of direct spending to Phoenix during what is traditionally its down season.

“Perhaps the most important takeaway from our successful summer of 2011, aside from the positive impact it had on our economy, is that the array of large and diverse groups who convened here proved meeting in Phoenix in the summer is an entirely enjoyable experience,” Kamenzind says. “As the folks from Major League Baseball, who were definitely concerned about the heat, pointed out, our downtown footprint is compact and convenient. It’s a short walk from all the major hotels to the convention center, and the light-rail trains (and even one of the light-rail stations) are air-conditioned.”

The latest downtown draw is CityScape, a multi-block, mixed-use development including a variety of retail, entertainment and dining options. A 250-room Hotel Palomar will be opening in the coming months within CityScape and one block from the convention center.

Several large conventions are booked for the next two years, including the National League of Cities, the National Council of Teachers of English, the American Society of Landscape Architects, the National Indian Gaming Association and the return of the Volleyball Festival. Faith-based groups coming to town include the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations in 2012 and the National Baptist Congress and Mennonite Church USA in 2013.

“We don’t just turn up the AC and the discounts in summer—we turn up the service,” Kamenzind says. “Our staff and volunteers from the downtown community handed out 19,000 bottles of water and 6,000 cups of lemonade to Assemblies of God attendees during their visit.”

* Read more about the huge impact of meetings on Phoenix and other U.S. cities in “Bigger than Auto.”