Strengthening Ties

» AS FAR AS MICHAEL CONCANNON IS CONCERNED, the Greater Lansing Convention & Visitors Bureau is a key partner. Concannon is assistant director of sales for the relatively new Graduate East Lansing hotel.

Since opening in 2021, he says the staff has relied on the CVB for making market introductions and forecasting events as they get a handle on the ebbs and flows of business in a typical calendar year. They’ve also turned to the CVB for help identifying activities for groups as well as arranging items like parking and transportation.

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“Even guest speakers or other local vendors, they’ve definitely been a big help and resource identifying some helpful bits of things we can offer that help pull people’s programs together—just being a new hotel in the market [calls for] relying on the CVB’s experience and knowledge,” Concannon says.

That’s what David Buckenberger likes to hear. The CVB’s senior vice president of business development says his organization is involved in a concentrated outreach effort to make sure area hoteliers know about the CVB’s services and how it can help.

“One of the national polls that PCMA [Professional Convention Management Association] and DI [Destinations International] did together … one of the terms that came up was ‘intellectual capital’— leveraging our intellectual capital from a CVB perspective, to help events become more successful,” he says. That’s especially important in the wake of COVID-19 repercussions, when many properties work with pared-down staff, each of whom can wear many hats and be stretched too thin.

“If we can help them with the things that happen outside of their building—whether it’s a tour they want coordinated to the state capitol building, transportation that needs to be quoted and put together, or connecting with a partner that may do some unique and special catering—we have a lot of those resources in place and do our best do educate our hotel partners that we already have them,” says Brandie Putnam, senior convention services manager. CVB staff have met with general managers and directors of sales to spread the word and strengthen those relationships.

“We feel we don’t achieve our desired results without our hotel partners being on board with us,” Buckenberger says. “We need them and ultimately, they need us. Our salespeople in the hotels don’t want to hear what experts we are, but they do want us to help them get better. We can help them with that.” –Kathy

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