SMG prepares to market
Hawaii Convention Center

By Tim Ruel
truel@starbulletin.com

For the first time since 1995, the Hawaii Convention Center will be getting a new voice to attract meetings and conventions from outside Hawaii, under a proposal heading for approval by the state Hawaii Tourism Authority.

SMG, a Philadelphia company that manages operations at the center, is set to assume the $6 million annual marketing contract with the authority, replacing the nonprofit Hawaii Visitors & Convention Bureau. A marketing committee of the state authority reviewed SMG's proposal behind closed doors last week, and questions were minor, revolving around clarification of strategic goals, said Randy Tanaka, director of sales and marketing for SMG.

"It's a solid proposal," said Frank Haas, tourism marketing director for the authority.

One of the changes that will be in store for the convention center is a new brand message, Tanaka said. He declined to provide specifics at this time.

The authority's comments on the proposal will be addressed by SMG before the end of the month, Haas said. The HTA board would need to approve the contract, and a meeting should be scheduled soon.

The bureau's contract expires at the end of the year. In January, the operator of the convention center becomes responsible for the marketing, under a new state law. The law's advocate, Sen. Donna Kim, said the visitors bureau hasn't attracted enough meetings, so it's time to try a new marketer. It's more efficient to make the property manager responsible for filing the building with meetings, she added.

SMG's contract to manage the center ends in June 2003.

The length of SMG's marketing contract has not been settled on, and could be six months or a year, Tanaka said. The firm is pushing for a one-year term, because a six-month contract is too short to build a consistent marketing message for the center. To get a one-year marketing contract, SMG would need an extension, or renewal, of its management contract.

Bureau officials fought losing the marketing pact. The bureau said it booked 188 offshore conventions during the past five years, generating $2.43 billion in visitor spending. As the state's leisure marketing agency, the bureau said it has well-established relationships with visitor officials. The bureau, which has been around for a century, recently received a one-year extension of its $34.4 million contract to market Hawaii to tourists.

SMG manages dozens of meetings facilities nationwide, and markets just two of them, though the firm has been responsible for bringing short-term bookings to the Hawaii Convention Center. Most of those events are local.

SMG doesn't think experience is a problem. The firm can tap the bureau's own talent, and is looking to hire employees who handled marketing at the convention center, Tanaka said. "We're looking at all that talent that is over there," he said.

The possibility of having the bureau work with SMG on the marketing contract was discussed earlier, but shelved, Tanaka said.

The visitors bureau will keep a $2 million contract to secure corporate meetings that would be held at Hawaii hotels, outside the convention center, Haas said. The bureau has as many as 20 workers who handle the marketing of meeting, convention and incentive travel. The bureau has been marketing the convention center since Cayetano approved construction of the $350 million project in 1995. The center opened in June 1998.

SMG, short for Spectacor Management Group, is a joint venture of the Hyatt Hotels and Aramark corporations.