Meetings: Minnesota's Hospitality Journal

Beyond Peers: AgNite in Pictures

Editor's Choice: 2008 Headlines & Events

 Editor’s Note: In honor of the end of the year, each week in December editors Amanda Fretheim Gates, Ellie Bayrd and Marni Ginther will provide some of our top hospitality-related picks of 2008. We don't have any special alliances with these products/places/things; we've formed the lists around our own personal opinions.

Besides new hotels, restaurants and tech tools, this year brought some interesting news items as well. The country suffered through a recession, we elected a new president, Wall Street fell, writers went on strike, proposition 8 passed; 2008 will go down as a historic year for several reasons, and nearly all events affected the hospitality industry.

+ Changes in Travel Due to a struggling economy, and at one time high gas prices, air travel took a hit this year. Fees went up. Northwest Airlines officially merged with Delta. Southwest announced its arrival to the Twin Cities. Our airport announced some upgrades.

+ Minnesota turns 150 2008 was also a year of celebration, with our fair state commemorating its sesquicentennial with events held all over the state, special exhibits, songs and souvenirs.

+ Republican National Convention Locally, the RNC was the biggest event to hit the Twin Cities in a long time, perhaps ever. A hurricane in the Gulf (figurtively) hit us all the way up here. Sarah Palin was introduced to the world from the stage of the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul. Protesters took to the streets. Throughout the year on this blog, we covered the four-day event. For a compilation of our RNC coverage, see here.

+ Minnesota in the News Even though it was a year of news all around the world, the Twin Cities was still able to collect some accolades of its own, including: Best and Greenest, Distinctive Destination (Red Wing), Hot Restaurant (Heidi's), Most Livable, top meeting and incentive companies, America's Coolest Library , Best Sports Cities and Sustainable Cities. 

+ James Beard Nominations It's the Oscar of the food world, and several Minnesota chefs and restaurants made the prestigious list that is the James Beard Nominations, and three chefs made it to the finals: Tim McKee of La Belle Vie; Issac Becker of 112 Eatery; and Alex Roberts of Restaurant Alma.

So, what did we miss? What are your top headlines of 2008?

--Amanda Fretheim Gates
Managing Editor

Garrison Keillor's St. Paul

For another magazine we work on, I recently interviewed Garrison Keillor. In my research, I came across this video he did for ABC news during the RNC about what makes St. Paul special. He calls it "a well-loved city," and says we St. Paulites are "a culture of do-gooders." He also concludes that "the thing that keeps St. Paul St. Paul is winter, which is not that cold here but we have a reputation for cold that keeps away slackers and Texans..." While I have no beef with Texans, I did get a kick out of that comment because as a kid, when I complained about the cold, my Dad would say, "you should be thankful for it, kid. It keeps out the riff-raff." Take a look at Mr. Keillor's St. Paul and see if you agree:

--Marni Ginther
Assistant Editor

RNC Recap with Melvin Tennant

For our upcoming fall issue, I interviewed Melvin Tennant, who’s been president of Meet Minneapolis since April. The story includes his thoughts as a relative newcomer to the position and the cities, his goals for the organization and his outlook for the local hospitality industry.

But one thing I couldn’t cover was the RNC, since I interviewed him before the event, but the issue is coming out afterward. Such are the difficulties of publishing. But luckily I have this trusty blog and luckily Melvin is a nice enough guy to answer a few random questions for it, so you don’t have to wait until our winter issue to hear his take on how the RNC went. Here are some snippets of our conversation:

The ROI of the RNC: A Newfound Place in the Spotlight?

Since the RNC ended, some are still up to their ears in work, some feel they were promised much more than they got and some are turning their sights to the future.

Yesterday the St. Paul Area Chamber of Commerce held a meeting with downtown business owners disappointed by the turnout (or lack thereof) at the RNC.  According to a MinnPost report, Chamber of Commerce and Convention and Visitors Authority staff held the meeting to let frustrated business owners voice their concerns and to learn what the two organizations could have done better. Two major takeaways: ask better questions (like, How big is the perimeter of fencing between conventioneers and protesters?) and be more conservative in estimating attendance and profit.

However, the report also quotes St. Paul Convention and Visitors Authority President Karolyn Kirchgesler saying St. Paul just signed on four new conventions that will bring a total of 14,000 visitor room nights to St. Paul hotels. She attributed these new conventions partially to St. Paul having hosted the RNC. And just last week, representatives of the Minnesota Twins, the City of Minneapolis, Hennepin County, Meet Minneapolis and the Minnesota Ballpark Authority announced Minneapolis’ intent to bid for the 2014 Major League Baseball All-Star Game. The weeklong festivities would bring a projected 2,000 journalists and, according to Meet Minneapolis President Melvin Tennant, potentially more than $50 million in economic impact.

These steps seem to indicate that city leaders (on both sides of the river) are wasting no time in leveraging the Twin Cities' newfound credibility in the visitor market. In this fall’s issue of Meetings: Minnesota’s Hospitality Journal, I interviewed Tennant about this topic, among others. It will be interesting to see, throughout 2009, what other events Minneapolis-St. Paul is able to attract. What kind of ROI will we be getting from the RNC?

(Photo: Officials at the announcement of the Major League Baseball All-Star Game bid. Courtesy of Meet Minneapolis. Left to right: Chair of the Hennepin County Board of Commissioners, Mike Opat; former Minnesota Twins player Tony Oliva; Minnesota Twins President, Dave St. Peter; Meet Minneapolis President Melvin Tennant; Twins Sports Inc. President Jerry Bell and Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak.)

--Marni Ginther
Assistant Editor

Successful RNC

All of the balloons have hardly been gathered and already the Host Committee for the RNC is calling the convention held last week in St. Paul a resounding success. According to their data, the RNC resulted in more than 8 billion media impressions for the Twin Cities, "the equivalent of a $330 million ad campaign," according to a press release just issued by the Host Committee.

"As we've said all along, the exposure from this convention is truly priceless," said Jeff Larsen, CEO of the Minneapolis Saint Paul 2008 Host Committee. "The coverage we've received so far is the equivalent of purchasing 122 Super Bowl ads."

--Joel Schettler,
Editor

Refund Wanted: CivicFest exhibitors unhappy with show attendance

Maybe you all saw this story in the Star Tribune, which tells about some of the first negative comments to last week's RNC festivities. Vendors at CivicFest are demanding a refund of their $2,500 exhibitor fee citing low attendance and awkward position on the floor. While vendors say they were promised an expected 150,000 attendees at CivicFest over the week, the show greeted only about 50,000. Also, if you look on the map of the show floor, you can see where exhibitors were placed, at the end of the hall behind a gift/souvenir shop.

I think I can see their point. When we went on a tour of the show last week, it was pretty empty. I found much of the information and many of the exhibits extrememly interesting, so I questioned if the event was publicized well enough. The hours were a little unfortunate for a public event, as Minnesotans with school and jobs could only attend on certain days when the exhibit stayed open until 9 p.m. Also, by the time I had walked the whole floor and I reached the "Marketplace" I wasn't even sure what it was all about, I didn't feel like being the lonely soul walking amongst the booths, and I was ready to take off.

I'm interested in what you tradeshow vets have to say. Is this just the risk exhibitors take? Were the exhibitors misled? How could've things turned out differently?

[UPDATE 9-9-08: Here is a bit of an update from MinnPost about this issue. Looks like vendors will get their money back. The article also talks about all the money the Host Committee donated to hurricane-related charities from CivicFest funds.]

--Amanda Fretheim Gates
Managing Editor

RNC: Coming to a Close

As we bid farewell to the RNC tonight, we'll be treated to the sight of 100,000 balloons and 200 pounds of confetti. The main man behind the balloons is Treb Heining of Newport Beach, Calif. He was hired to drop the celebratory mess on folks at the end of tonight. Yet another of the many quiet, behind-the-scenes contributers charged with making this event go smoothly. USA Today talked to Heining about his contribution today. (The USA Today blog Political Party is good source, by the way, for various star sightings and insider RNC info).

We'll continue our coverage of the RNC and the aftermath of the influx of visitors to the Twin Cities well after the balloons drop, so stay tuned.

--Ellie M. Bayrd, Associate Editor

Your Moment of Zen

I've been scrolling through all the national coverage of our cities and the behind-the-scenes action over in St. Paul this week to find gems to share. Today I stumbled upon some of Jon Stewart's humorous bits about the RNC for The Daily Show, which is filming in the History Theatre this week. I won't embed the Larry Craig bathroom stall clip here (watch for yourself if you dare), but I will share Stewart's contribution to the squabble between Minneapolis and St. Paul over which city is better.

--Ellie M. Bayrd,
Associate Editor

Destination Marketing Campaigns vs. Unflattering News Reports

Whether the RNC boosts Minneapolis-St. Paul’s status on the national travel and tourism scene remains to be determined. So far, reports from retailers are less than rosy, and news of St. Paul protests and arrests are certainly not going unnoticed in Denver, where officials and planners no doubt are breathing sighs of relief. 

But we’ve still got our local cheerleaders. Check out the Minneapolis St. Paul 2008 Host Committee’s TV ad touting Twin Cities attractions and urging delegates to get out there and explore the area. Of course today is the last day of the convention, and the last day the ad will be running, so they don’t have much time.

Will ads like this and marketing efforts by the MSP More To Life campaign catch enough of the media and delegates’ attention, or will they be drowned out by news of protesters and police clashes? To what extent do you think the unrest reflects on Minneapolis and St. Paul as cities? Or do you think people will associate the unrest with the convention, rather than the cities hosting it?

--Marni Ginther
Assistant Editor