September 2006
Trends for Religious Conventions

Religious meetings and conventions posted their third year in a row of big gains in 2005. But rising hotel and travel costs are forcing religious groups to rethink their events.

By Maxine Golding



As religious meetings flourish, dark clouds — in the form of rising hotel rates — threaten. 

Despite its bargaining power, the United Pentecostal Church International (UPCI, www.upci.org) is anticipating the pain to come from negotiating in a seller’s market. Last year, UPCI shortened its annual General Conference — the premier organizational meeting for its churches in the United States and Canada — by one day. And this year, its board requested that future conferences be sited in Midwestern cities that attract larger audiences such as Louisville, Indianapolis and Columbus.

These are not insignificant steps for a religious meeting that draws nearly 20,000, uses 100,000 net square feet of exhibit space and boasts up to $15 million in economic impact on the host city.

The spotlight falls on UPCI’s General Conference to surmount the growing challenge of negotiating “quality lodging at affordable prices,” according to T.M. Jackson, Senior Executive Administrative Assistant. It’s getting harder for him to hold rates in the $115 to $130 range, with overflow properties at $69 to $99, for the pastors, evangelists, ministers and parishioners who attend, some with limited resources.

“People are more selective as to which meetings they attend and will shorten their stay if the hotel and food rates are on the high side,” he says. 

The concerns extend far beyond the flagship conference. Hotel rates come into play for more than 1,000 off-site meetings that UPCI plans and executes each year for 5,000 churches in North America. These range from a few hundred participants to 10,000 attendees, and from district conferences to youth camps, ladies groups and foreign missions.

Blockbusters face similar hazards. The Seventh-Day Adventists Church (www.adventist.org/) expects to hit the 70,000 mark in Atlanta at its 2010 General Conference, which is held every five years. In St. Louis in 2005, the group used 17 hotels and 6,000 sleeping rooms per night for 12 nights. “Hotel contracts were initiated years ago in a very different market,” says Sheri Clemmer, Associate Meeting Planner.  “We made the commitment through the convention and visitors bureau, and they’ve stuck with it.” She’ll be finalizing rates in October for the 2015 conference session and expects to set the same cap as the 2010 meeting on annual increases in the years leading up to the conference — 3 percent or the consumer price index, whichever is lower. 

Suppliers will give a lot on large and lengthy pieces of business. Perhaps most squeezed are smaller groups, like the 3,000-attendee meeting of The Salvation Army Central Territory (www.usc.salvationarmy.org), which covers 11 states. “With conditions the way they are,” says Marjorie Homer, Special Events Coordinator, “I’m encouraging hotel negotiations now for our 2009 and 2010 contracts.”

But rising hotel costs aren’t the only issue that religious convention managers face. EXPO examines the hottest trends for religious groups and how they’re dealing with the challenges they face.

Heightened security forces changes
Only about 12 percent — 2,500 — of UPCI’s attendees at the General Conference are formally badged. The same situation holds for the Seventh-Day Adventists’ General Conference. Its registered delegates, whose expenses are paid by the church, come from all over the world; all other attendees come at their own expense and are not badged.

With today’s heightened security issues, this will have to change. A resolution to be presented at this year’s UPCI conference seeks approval of the governing voting body of 2,000 ministers for badging all participants by 2008. It will take considerable work, staff and professional assistance to facilitate, Jackson acknowledges, “but from the standpoint of security, this is almost a must.”

Seating is very restricted for delegates and staff (about 2,600) attending the Seventh-Day Adventists’ General Conference Session, and they’re given badges that identify the areas they can access. In pre-9/11 days, if a delegate appeared for a session without a badge but gave his name, he would have been admitted. That did not fly in 2005. Security guards would not seat a delegate without his badge but admitted his wife who had her badge; the delegate had to go back to his hotel to retrieve his badge before he was allowed in.

Barcoding delegate badges made a huge difference for this group in 2005. The church’s computer team developed the program, which allowed each delegate who wanted to speak to an issue on the floor to come to a microphone and scan his badge. The individual’s name then appeared on the chair’s computer screen. Speakers queued up in the correct order, and the recording secretary had the correct name of each speaker – especially important for international delegates with long, difficult names. “This really helped the meeting’s flow,” Clemmer says.

Expanding exhibit space
At its General Conference, UPCI routinely raises $3 million to $4 million in financial commitments for specific projects. Almost $1 million alone was raised in 2005 to assist the victims of Hurricane Katrina. “But that doesn’t pay the light bill at the conference,” Jackson explains. So UPCI seeks out new sources of revenue to underwrite conference deficits of approximately $500,000 each year.

One solution is to add exhibits. Although many religious groups are not attuned to the commerce of exhibits, these can work “wonderfully well,” says Dr. DeWayne Woodring, CMP, Executive Director/CEO of the Religious Conference Management Association (RCMA, www.rcmaweb.org) which has 3,400 members and embraces all the world’s major faiths.

For the first time in 2005, UPCI’s General Conference accepted “outside” exhibits with church and ministry-related products. The exhibit hall mostly featured “Interest Centers,” which included a 110- by 140-foot booth for its publishing activities and a 90- by 100-foot booth for foreign missions. Additionally, there were about 30 10- by 10-foot booths. “Up to this point, we’re selling products to ourselves,” Jackson explains. “We want to ensure that the exhibits do not jeopardize our non-profit tax-exempt status.”

Focusing on add-ons, offshoots, venues
At a time of tremendous pressure on trade shows and conferences to tighten their programs and shorten their schedules, some religious meetings are lengthening their stay. Special focus meetings — such as for women and young adult groups — are being added before and after the main event, both to plan and follow up on actions enacted.

“It all translates into a longer period for cash registers to jingle in the host city,” says Dr. Woodring. “If people are already paying their way, it doesn’t cost much more to come before and stay on to focus on a particular area of work.”

Indeed, Homer of The Salvation Army Central Territory expects to tack more small meetings onto her region’s annual large meeting in mid-June in Merrillville, IN. More than 3,000 attendees utilize a 3,400-seat theater, 25,000 square feet in the convention center and 20 concurrent meeting rooms. “We’ll change the groups that piggy-back every year or two,” she says.

Bucking this trend, UPCI is instead growing offshoots. Its Ladies Ministries is stoking the growth of its own conference, a biennial event that launched two years ago with 4,000 to 5,000 attendees. Similarly, UPCI’s Youth Congress, also every two years, now draws 17,000 youth, advisors and counselors.

With all this conference activity, religious organizations “are always looking for new venues, so they can witness and support fellow believers,” Dr. Woodring says. Speed and economy of travel and improved facilities are giving these groups many more site options at a lower cost. That extends beyond U.S. borders, as religious groups expand their reach into more international destinations. UPCI now convenes more than 100 meetings in its six regions around the world, plus a Global Council every two years. As a result, UPCI’s own General Conference draws only a limited number of international leaders since they can attend conferences and assemble in their respective regions.

Some requirements, however, may limit site options. The length of the Seventh-Day Adventists’ meeting, for example, has kept the group from returning to Toronto for the 2015 General Conference. “We have to be in a facility for 19 days, and Toronto didn’t want to give up home baseball games,” she says.

Attendance continues to be faithful
Devotion to religion means faithful attendance. But conferences also conduct important business for religious organizations — electing officers and revising policies — guaranteeing a strong turnout.

Such loyalty gives UPCI a very good handle well in advance on how it’s filling its room block for the annual flagship event. The reservation process for the next year begins right at the General Conference, where UPCI distributes reservation forms to boards and committees. This helps the church begin to fill up its 600-room block at the host hotel. In December, UPCI mails registration and hotel reservation information to 900-plus ministers. By March, the church knows how well the conference will be attended.

The territorial annual meeting for The Salvation Army similarly relies on the nature of its program to meet attendance projections. It centers on commissioning and ordaining cadets who have finished their years of training. With separate services where they receive their rank and assignment, “it’s quite a jubilee,” says Homer, “and very much a family reunion.” To counter late registration, she uses the carrot of ticketed seating at three events. The earlier people register, the better their seating and the easier it is to arrange to be seated with others.

But if there’s a message from religious organizations to hoteliers and vendors in this seller’s market, it could be summed up as, “Take heed.” Following 9/11, when many businesses and associations ceased holding their events, “churches, synagogues and religious denominations continued their meetings,” asserts Dr. Woodring.

This was brought home to him just a few months after 9/11, when he was working late one evening at his office in the RCA Dome in Indianapolis. He heard singing from the arena, and later learned that it came from a Catholic youth group 22,000 strong (with more in attendance than prior to 9/11).

“At a time when meetings in the corporate world shriveled up, thousands of parents were willing to send their offspring across the United States,” Dr. Woodring says. “When the outlook was most bleak, religious meetings were the salvation of many a convention center, hotel and community.”

Message delivered.