Smaller events remake Hartford’s convention calendar

Photos | Contributed Ex-astronaut Dan Burbank (left), of Tolland, moderated a forum at the International Space Trade Summit that drew 245 people to downtown Hartford earlier in May.

Photos | Contributed Connecticut Congressman Joe Courtney moderated a panel of space-agency officers, including Acting NASA Deputy Associate Administrator Melanie Saunders.

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By Gregory Seay

Hartford’s convention business got a boost last month when several hundred visitors from the U.S., Europe and the South Pacific descended on the Capital City for an International Space Trade Summit.

It’s precisely the type of smaller event the city needs to focus on attracting, convention and other officials say, especially as competition for larger gatherings heats up across the region.

Robert Murdock, President, Connecticut Convention & Sports Bureau

“Sometimes we want the huge events,’’ said Robert Murdock, president of the Connecticut Convention & Sports Bureau in Hartford. “But the smaller events bring influencers to Hartford and they can spread word-of-mouth to other peer groups.’’

While more high-attendance conventions, meetings and events locally are the ultimate aim, they are becoming increasingly harder to attract.

In the last year, Hartford lost two major annual conventions — the auto and boat shows, each drawing tens of thousands of mainly regional visitors — to Mohegan Sun casino, which debuted last year an $80-million, 250,000-square-foot convention center.

Springfield’s MGM Casino also debuted a new convention facility in 2018. That added competition, along with the recent loss of shows, is part of the reason the Capital Region Development Authority has hired an outside consultant to examine the 14-year-old Connecticut Convention Center’s future, including how it can capture new business and retain existing shows.

Despite the competitive threats, Hartford has still been able to hold its own.

Overall, Hartford hosted more citywide conventions in fiscal 2018 compared to a year earlier, which contributed to an overall increase of 4,000 room nights being utilized in the market, CRDA data show.

The total number of days the convention center was used and overall attendance were largely flat last fiscal year, CRDA data show. Operating and tax revenues generated by the facility were down slightly.

Matt Fleury, CEO, Connecticut Science Center

Even with Hartford’s aging convention-meeting infrastructure, especially the XL Center downtown, the city “can continue to compete successfully as a convention market,’’ said Matt Fleury, CEO of the Connecticut Science Center.

He knows that first-hand. Late last fall some 1,700 members and guests of the Association of Science-Technology Centers — representing 50 states and 48 countries — descended on Hartford and Fleury’s facility for a four-day session, attracted here, in part, by lower costs for food, lodging and transportation compared to nearby larger cities.

Many came away fully impressed with what they saw and experienced in downtown, Fleury said, which should boost efforts to make Hartford a more appealing convention location.

“It is imperative that we continue to support these venues with sufficient marketing, operating and capital funding,” Fleury said. “Visibility in tourism and convention marketing requires an investment.”

Meantime, on June 3, some 250 of the nation’s gourmet chocolatiers, including Connecticut’s own Munson’s Chocolates in Bolton and Fascia’s Chocolates in Waterbury, will host their Retail Confectioners International Annual Convention & Industry Expo in Hartford. The group last met in Connecticut for a 1994 regional meeting in Mystic.

Places to spend

Murdock said one of the advantages of smaller gatherings is they have the potential to grow into bigger events. Plus, small groups of attendees still must eat, drink and relax, and Hartford nowadays offers plenty of options, observers say.

Anne Evans, district director for the U.S. Commerce Department’s Commercial Division, coordinated with state economic-development authorities, other public agencies and U.S. and foreign manufacturers to bring the space-trade summit to Hartford.

Evans said she watched as dozens of summit attendees crossed the street, to go to the Front Street Entertainment District, for dining and cocktails at Capital Grille, Spotlight Theatres, Ted’s Montana Grill, and Infinity Music Hall.

Evans said the summit exemplified how supposedly small events can yield extra attendees. Her initial attendance estimate of 150 grew to 245 by the end of first-day registration May 20. Attendance benefited from participants’ word-of-mouth, plus unexpectedly strong local and national press coverage.

Moreover, after the summit, Evans said she and 10 overseas space-agency executives and manufacturing officials toured UConn’s Technology Park in Mansfield and the Connecticut Center for Advanced Technology in East Hartford. Advanced aerospace components and technology and the requisite manufacturing expertise necessary to return mankind to the moon were the summit’s key topics.

Photo | HBJ File

The Connecticut Convention Center in Hartford.

Hartford’s central location in Connecticut, plus the proximity of an international airport and major highways, Evans said, are underestimated by everyone except those who live outside the state.

“The only people who said to me, ‘Why Hartford?,’ were people from Connecticut,’’ she said. “What it tells me is that Connecticut doesn’t realize we’re a good city in a great place. We’ve got a nice infrastructure for meetings, big and small.’’

Connecticut hotelier Len Wolman, principal in The Waterford Group, owner-operator of lodging space statewide and other U.S. regions, including the Hartford Marriott, said many moving parts are involved in bringing and retaining meeting-business to the city.

Aside from Evans’ engagement with Waterford Group and convention-center staff to host the space summit, the MetroHartford Alliance, Connecticut Airport Authority, state Department of Economic and Community Development and Science Center also lent a hand.

Hartford, Wolman said, over the years has enhanced its appeal as a convention-meeting destination with its menu of leisure amenities and attractions for downtown visitors: Yard Goats minor-league baseball games at Dunkin’ Donuts Park; college hockey games at the XL Center; and Front Street.

In addition, UConn, Capital Community College, Trinity College, and University of St. Joseph all have downtown campuses — appealing to education groups and visitors, he said.

“There’s a foundation and a base that one can really build from today,’’ Wolman said.

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