STAR-BULLETIN / APRIL 2001
Under a new state law, the company that manages the Hawaii Convention Center will be required to also market the center, a change from the current practice.
A new state law says SMG must market the Hawaii Convention Center next year, replacing the Hawaii Visitors & Convention Bureau. Center’s manager
adds new dutiesUnder law, SMG must start
marketing the convention centerBy Tim Ruel
truel@starbulletin.comPhiladelphia-based SMG manages the convention center, along with dozens of convention and exhibition facilities around the nation.
It also markets convention centers; precisely two of them, according to research by the Hawaii Tourism Authority. One in El Paso, Texas, and another in Ontario, Calif.
Joe Davis, general manager of the Hawaii Convention Center, is frank about SMG's experience in marketing convention centers: "It's not our core business."
SMG has little choice when it comes to marketing the Hawaii Convention Center. The law, backed by state Sen. Donna Kim, specifies that the manager of the convention center must serve as the marketer, and the HVCB's term runs out at the end of the year.
Rick Humphreys, former executive director of the tourism authority, has theorized the state could work around the new law if SMG simply stuck to the strict terms of its management contract. But the authority's new leadership -- under chairman Mike McCartney and incoming executive director Rex Johnson -- is sticking with the law.
On Aug. 10, the authority wrote SMG requesting that it come up with a proposal to market the convention center. It specified the proposal must handle the issue of SMG's transition into to the post.
SMG is working on the proposal -- potentially covering the next three to five years -- and plans to submit it next month, Davis said.
"The assignment came fairly recently so we're working out the concepts as we go," Davis said.
Officials at HVCB have insisted they are best suited for the job. The bureau markets Hawaii as a leisure destination on a $37 million contract with the HTA, and says it has the contacts and experience to attract business-oriented travelers. The bureau, a nonprofit organization, has marketed Hawaii for a century, and has marketed the Hawaii Convention Center since its 1998 opening.
It's possible that SMG could involve the visitors bureau in its proposal, Davis said, but the two entities have not formally discussed the matter.
"Our responsibility is to be good stewards of the management of the operation and to follow the direction of the HTA, which we are doing," Davis said.
When asked if SMG enjoys the idea of expanding into the convention marketing business in Hawaii, Davis said: "It's not a question of like or dislike. Anything we do, I'll think we'll do well."
SMG has worked with convention center customers alongside HVCB, and knows the people, Davis said. "It's not a foreign area for us" he said.
SMG already arranges for local conventions at the Hawaii Convention Center, in between the larger conventions the HVCB brings in from outside the state. The HVCB has said its conventions generate 90 percent of the center's revenue.
SMG, short for Spectacor Management Group, is a joint venture of Aramark Corp. of Philadelphia and Hyatt Hotels Corp. of Chicago. The firm's contract to manage the Hawaii Convention Center expires in June.
