A "top-to-bottom" review of the Baltimore Area Convention and Visitors Association is under consideration, the board chairman of the group charged with bringing conventions and trade shows to the city said yesterday. It would be the first comprehensive examination of the association's operation.
That analysis could include an examination of the association's performance since a $151 million expansion of the Convention Center, which tripled its exhibit space, in 1997.
It could also include an audit of room nights - the number of hotel rooms used - and an examination of the structure of the organization and whether Baltimore is going after the right markets and using the right measurements to evaluate success.
"We'd like to take a complete look at BACVA, how it's organized and where it's going, spurred by the fact that it's never been done," said Clarence T. Bishop, chairman of the association's board. "We would like to have a clear baseline of where things stand to move the organization forward.
"Are room nights being measured right?" he asked. "Are room nights the best measure, or should it be revenue or something else? Do we want this [independent assessment] done, or are the practices that we're following already satisfactory?"
It was projected that the center would attract 50 conventions a year, but The Sun reported Sunday that the results have fallen far short, ranging from a high of 41 in 1998 to a low of 26 two years ago.
Combined attendance from trade shows and conventions has never reached the 330,000 projected by the feasibility study proponents of the expansion have promoted. And the economic impact numbers used for the center are widely viewed as inflated.
Only six conventions are scheduled for 2007. National conventions typically book five to seven years ahead to allow adequate time for planning.
Carroll R. Armstrong, president and chief executive of BACVA, said he suggested the review in light of the struggling economy, convention center expansions in other cities and the lingering effects of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11.
"The idea was getting someone from outside who has an in-depth knowledge of the convention bureau business to come in and help us set our goals for the next few years related to our staff size, our product, what's happening in the industry with our competitors. ... We need to be realistic about what we're doing here, about the expectations," Armstrong said.
State Comptroller William Donald Schaefer, a former mayor of Baltimore, said yesterday that he supports the idea of having a consultant evaluate the Baltimore Area Convention and Visitors Association's performance.
"I think the first thing to take a look at is themselves," said Schaefer, who also served as governor. "I think we need some new board members with the idea that they're not going to find excuses for not getting more conventions."
Booking conventions takes aggressive selling, he said.
Armstrong "is a nice man, but a nice man doesn't sell conventions. I don't want to hear that we only have a couple conventions for 2007," Schaefer said.
As a result of The Sun's story, a discussion of the Convention Center's performance has been scheduled for the next meeting of the association's board on June 25, Bishop said.
"It's possible the story could help shape it, could add some urgency to our work," he said.
Werner Kunz, managing director of the Harbor Court Hotel, said too many agencies are involved in Baltimore's convention industry. The Baltimore Area Convention and Visitors Association attracts the conventions, and a separate staff at the Convention Center operates the building.
Hotels provide blocks of rooms, sometimes at reduced rates, to help the association land the conventions, and the mayor appoints members to the association's board.
"I think something has to happen with the way we're structured," Kunz said. "It should be one entity."
Bishop said one of the association's problems is insufficient money to market the Convention Center.
"We have been begging the Maryland legislature for the last several years for $2 million to help market," he said. "It's very tough to compete with Philadelphia, New York and others who spend two to three times the money."
Mayor Martin O'Malley said, "It would be nice if the state could put more money into marketing. I think the biggest thing we're lacking is promotional dollars."
The association's board also is trying to determine where the city stands on evaluating a headquarters hotel, Bishop said.
"The fact that we don't have such a product makes us not competitive in other cities," he said. "We need the capacity and the headquarters hotel in order to compete. One without the other just doesn't work."
Baltimore Development Corp., the city's economic development agency, has retained a consultant to study the need for a headquarters hotel.
Armstrong said the Convention Center can't fulfill its potential without a headquarters hotel adjacent to or near the center that would allow convention delegates to be entirely or largely housed in one hotel.
Kunz is skeptical that the economics would make such a project feasible. "To say we need a headquarters hotel ... who's going to build the hotel and where?" he said.
Armstrong also has said that the city should consider expanding the Convention Center again to double its exhibit space, at an estimated cost of $250 million.
Talk of another center expansion caught Bishop by surprise. "That isn't something our board has been discussing with any seriousness at all," he said.
Kunz dismissed the idea of another expansion, saying, "They haven't filled what they've got. I think it's crazy."