Meeting News - October 19, 2009 - (Page 44)

South Regional By Lisa Iannucci O c t o b e r 1 9 , 2 0 0 9 Vo l u m e 3 3 , N u m b e r 1 3 Corporate/Sales Nella Veldran, Vice President, Travel Group Phone: (646) 654-7325 Southeast/Mid-Atlantic/Ohio With New Hotel, Macon, Ga., Eyes Large Mtgs. The 220-room Marriott City Center Hotel that opened last month in Macon, Ga., adjacent to the city’s convention center significantly changes the face of the local meetings market. The city of Macon already had a lot going for it as a prime meetings spot: It is centrally located in Georgia, is among the state’s largest metropolitan areas, and it’s also home to the Macon Centreplex Convention Center, Georgia’s largest entertainment facility and convention center outside of Atlanta. According to Janice Marshall, the president and CEO of the Macon-Bibb County Convention & Visitors Bureau, these features brought in the smaller SMERF— social, military, education, religion and fraternal—meetings, but for the past few decades, Macon wasn’t able to capitalize on attracting the larger meetings. The city was missing one vital piece of the puzzle: a hotel located right near the convention center. The closest hotel was a short drive away, across the Ocmulgee River in downtown Macon. Although , 352 meetings and conventions were held in Macon during 2007 and 2008 and the attendees spent $61.5 million during their stays, the city was losing out on a prime economic opportunity. “In 1988, we had research done by Randall Travel Marketing and it was clear that without a hotel adjacent to the convention center, we were losing $33 million per year in convention business,” 44 MeetingNews Larry Mischik, Ad Director/Account Manager 3054 Four Oaks Drive, Atlanta, GA 30360 Phone: (770) 604-9641 N.Y./N.J./New England/Bermuda/Caribbean said Marshall. “Once we knew that, we lobbied for the hotel.” The addition of the Marriott City Center Hotel, owned by Noble Investment Group, now fills that void. The project started Group proposal was attractive because it was a reputable hotel company and had expertise in running meeting facilities. It was certainly attractive to the meeting planners because it offered them Diane DiMaggio, International Advertising Director 770 Broadway, NY, NY 10003; Phone: (646) 654-7332 Florida/Cruise Arthur Hyman, Associate Publisher/Account Manager 1267 Via Fiume, Boynton Beach, FL 33436 Phone: (561) 736-5374 CA/HI/Colorado/Arizona/Nevada/N.M. Sharon Freeark, Account Manager 2950 31st St., Ste. 100, Santa Monica, CA 90405-3037 Phone: (626) 578-0700; Fax: (626) 578-0720 Digital Sales Jared Smith, National Account Manager 770 Broadway, NY, NY 10003; Phone: (646) 654-5520 International Diane DiMaggio, International Advertising Director 770 Broadway, NY, NY 10003; Phone: (646) 654-7332 Diane.Dimaggio@nielsen.com Canada Cyndy Fleming,Publicitas APR 468 Queen St. E, Toronto, ON M5A 1T7 Phone: (416) 363-1388 Cyndy.Fleming@Publicitas.com Western office: Rosalind Genge, Publicitas APR 1281 W. Georgia St., 502, Vancouver, BC V6E 3J7 Phone: (604) 688-5914; Fax: (604) 689-0703 Rosalind.Genge@Publicitas.com Mexico & Latin America Veronica Castro, CASS Media Corina No 31-B; Col. Del Carmen Coyoacan, Mexico, DF 04100 Phone: 52-55/5605-1757 veronicacastro@cassmedia.com Singapore Lavender Tan, Al Media 733 Bukit timah Road #03-05, Singapore 269748 Phone: (65) 6469-9321; Fax: (65)6469-8028 lavtan@signet.com.sg Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines Annie Blanchard & Assoc Unit 9A #8 Wack Wack Rd. Condo-minium, Wack Wack Rd., Greenhills E, Mandaluyong City 1550, Metro Manila, Philippines Phone: (632) 646-2497; Fax: (632) 647-1853 abaltd@skyinet.net Korea Jung-Won Suh, Sinsegi Media Inc. 4-13, Yoick-dong, Kandungpo-gu, Seoul, Korea 150-890 Phone: +82 2 3275 5969; Fax: +82 2 785 8225 sinsegi-2@sinsegimemdia.info Japan Hiroko Kujime, Pacific Business, Inc. Matsuda Building, 2-4-6 Nihonbashi Kayabacho Chuo-ku, Tokyo 103-0025; Phone 81-3-3661-6138 Fax: 81-3-3661-6139; Kujime-pbi@gol.com Taiwan Ye Chang & Paula Liu, Epoch Ltd 3F-4, 189 eelung Road, Section 2, Taipei 11054, Taiwan Phone: +886-223-779108 epoch.paula@msa.hinet.net, epoch.ye@msa.hinet.net Spain Macon’s Marriott City Center Hotel’s Vintage Restaurant with a request for proposals a few years ago. “The goals were to have a brand hotel that would complement the area and have it directly attached to the center,” said Marshall. “The Noble Investment a one-stop shop to be able to get their facilities and the host hotel all at the same time.” The hotel broke ground in the spring of 2008 and opened to the public last month. According to continued on page 50 Luis Andrade, Luis Andrade Publicidad Internacional Plaza Descubridor Diego de Ordas 1, Madrid, 28003, Spain Phone: +34-91-441-6266, Fax: +34-91-441-6549 LAndrade@luisandrade.com Portugal Paulo Andrade, Ilimitada Media International Av. Eng. Duarte Pacheco; Amoreiras Torre 2, Piso 5 Sala 1, Lisbon, 1070102, Portugal Phone: 351-21-385-3598/45; Fax: 351-21-388-3283, PAndrade@ilimitadapub.com October 19, 2009 www.meetingnews.com http://www.MeetingNews.com http://www.meetingnews.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Meeting News - October 19, 2009

Meeting News - October 19, 2009
Contents
Meeting Post
Meetings Spotlight
Event Profile
Construction Cites
Meeting People
Association Watch
VantagePoint
Gaming Destinations
Dateline: Florida
South Regional
Dateline: Guadalajara
Travel Dashboard

Meeting News - October 19, 2009