^{April 2001}

1895
The roots of present-day convention & visitor bureaus (CVBs) are planted when journalist Milton Carmichael suggests in The Detroit Journal that local businessmen band together to promote the city as a convention destination, as well as represent the city and its many hotels to bid for business. Two weeks later, what will become the Detroit Convention and Businessmen’s League forms to do just that. Carmichael heads the group, which will later evolve into the Detroit Metro CVB. 

1902
W.C. Weedon convinces a group of Honolulu businessmen to pay him to promote the Territory of Hawaii. The next year, funding will be approved for the Hawaii Promotion Committee, renamed the Hawaii Tourist Bureau in 1919 and the Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau in 1996.

1908
In Atlantic City, NJ, a group called the Publicity Bureau is founded by Walter E. Edge, who later serves as governor and U.S. Senator. The group will eventually become the Atlantic City Convention & Visitors Authority.

1909
Following the Democratic National Convention of 1908, a group of prominent Denver businessmen realizes the economic benefit that large groups bring to the Mile High City. The group launches a convention promotion group that will later become known as the Denver Metro CVB. 

After the city’s success at hosting the 1904 World’s Fair, the St. Louis Convention & Tourism Bureau organizes to encourage tourism and meetings as a means of economic development. 

1913
Wanting to capitalize on Atlanta’s position as a railroad crossroads and a growing cosmopolitan center, two businessmen, Wilmer Moore and J. Lee Barnes, created a convention bureau. Intent on attracting groups of travelers and conventioneers, the Chamber of Commerce and the Hotel Men’s Association form a visitors association that will later become the Atlanta CVB. Twenty-one years later, Atlanta has been host to a total of 5,409 conventions attracting more than 1 million attendees who have spent a total of $35.7 million. 

1914
The International Association of Convention Bureaus (IACB) — later renamed the International Association of Convention & Visitor Bureaus (IACVB) — is founded by convention secretaries (as convention sales representatives were called at the time ) to share information about meetings they had hosted and to promote the professional practices of the industry. The mission of IACVB remains largely unchanged today. Early convention secretaries offered services, including negotiating special convention rates and charter trains for delegates.

1919
A pamphlet authored by Charles R. Hatfield,Executive Director of the Convention & Publicity Bureau of Greater St. Louis, encourages meeting professionals to charge convention attendees a registration fee to help defray costs.

1920
Conventions during the Roaring ‘20s are rollicking three- and four-day affairs. Many bureaus send typed written letters to individual convention attendees inviting them to a particular convention. These letters inform attendees of the convention dates, the location of host hotels and provids a brief description of the host city. 

IACB holds its first formal meeting. The membership comprises 28 associations.

1923
IACB establishes its first Code of Ethics to promote sound professional practices in soliciting and servicing meetings. That wasn’t always the case, as an attendee at the 1925 IACB Annual Convention explained that some of her predecessors “bought conventions without shame, sold facilities that didn’t exist, and worked exclusively on the premise that their job was to get the convention to town regardless of the consequences.” 

1925
The Detroit Metro CVB utilizes ‘registration ladies’ to assist convention attendees, a practice that later became a standard in the industry. This group evolved into the Red Coats (named for the uniform they wear). 

1927
The City of Minneapolis completes construction of its first full-size convention hall, Minneapolis Auditorium. The City and the Chamber of Commerce launch the Minneapolis Convention and Visitors Commission to market the facility.

1930
IACVB publishes pamphlets called “Sound Convention Financing,” supporting individual registration fees for attendees; “Selecting the Convention City,” advocating site selection by a board of directors or a committee rather than by a vote of the previous year’s delegates; and “Convention Planning,” which covered organizing various committees and volunteers, committee duties, budgeting and publicity. 

Due to the Great Depression, many meetings are shortened and draw fewer attendees. Conventions typically last only one or two days in order to trim costs. CVBs begin to give additional attention to the corporate meetings market during the Depression, as a way to fill vacant hotel rooms. The meetings industry discovers the benefits of staging a convention or sales meeting in conjunction with a trade show.

1931
Hoping that booking conventions would help lift the city out of the Great Depression, the Greater Washington Board of Trade forms what will become the Washington, D.C. Convention & Visitors Association, which will become an independent organization in 1976.

The Metro Detroit CVB starts a housing department. One of its first jobs is to handle 6,000 reservations for the National Education Association Annual Meeting, without the benefit of databases or online confirmations. 

1934
After conventions — such as The Dairy Industries Exposition, the American Transit Association, the Finnish Industrial Art Exhibition and the National Machine Tool Association — bring more than $1.2 million to Cleveland in 1933, the Chamber of Commerce’s Convention Board becomes a separate entity called the Convention and Visitors Bureau Inc. The name will later be changed to the Greater Cleveland CVB. 

1935
Following seven hotels that established a temporary bureau in 1933, the New York CVB is formed. In January 1999, the bureau will merge with New Yorkers for New York: the Permanent Host Committee, a business group supporting major events, such as the Olympics, to become the city’s official tourism marketing organization.

For most meetings and conventions, site selection is based on a vote of delegates at the previous year’s convention. To convince delegates to choose their destinations, convention sales representatives would pull out all the stops. For example, at one convention in 1937 where two cities were vying for the business, one convention sales representative sent flowers to the leaders and distributed folding fans to delegates with the city’s name imprinted on them. The other addressed the delegates and told a story about her dangerously ill president. According to the May 1, 1937, issue of Business Week, the sales rep “sobbed as she told delegates her president would be cheered by the news that the convention had gone to her destination.”

  
1940
The convention industry deals with obstacles, such as many hotels being booked to capacity by traveling military personnel and their families. In 1943, the U.S. Office of Defense Transportation (ODT) bans conventions, with the exception of gatherings that help the war effort. By ’44, meetings of more than 50 participants require prior authorization by the ODT. One-third of CVBs discontinue activities, and another third curtail their offerings.

1941
Albert M. Greenfield a local financier, realtor, university trustee and philanthropist, launches the Philadelphia CVB, and a year later the group incorporates as a non-profit corporation in the Chamber of Commerce. 

The Travel Industry Association of America (TIA) is created. The Washington, DC -based, non-profit association represents all components of the industry and is a recognized leader in promoting and facilitating increased travel to and within the United States. By 2001, TIA represents more than 2,100 travel-related organizations, including hundreds of CVBs.

1943
Although the Chicago Association of Commerce established a business committee to attract conventions in 1907, it’s not until this year that the Chicago Convention & Visitors Bureau is founded. In 1970, after a merger with the Greater Chicago Tourism Council, the name changes to the Chicago Convention and Tourism Bureau.

1948
IACB conducts its first Convention Income Survey, which reveals that 46 percent of convention attendees traveled to gatherings by car, while 40 percent arrived by train. The survey reported that delegates spent $93.70 per event. The study is the first to define what attendees spend their money on — hotel rooms, restaurants, recreation and entertainment, retail shopping and auto rental. Bureaus used the study to determine the economic impact of a particular convention for their city. 

1949
IACB becomes a charter member of the New York-based Convention Liaison Council (CLC), along with the American Society of Association Executives, the American Hotel & Motel Association and Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International. The CLC will later change its name to the Convention Industry Council (CIC) and grow to include 29 organizations, representing the convention, meeting and exhibition industry, and travel and tourism.

1955
The Nevada State Legislature paves the way for 
the establishment of the Clark County Fair & Recreation Board and passes a 5 percent hotel room tax. Four years later, the resulting funds will be used to complete the Las Vegas Convention Center, and a year after that the bureau will be renamed the Las Vegas Convention Authority. A growing number of cities begin adopting hotel room taxes as funding mechanisms for convention centers and CVBs. This move launches new construction of facilities through the 1970s.

1957
IACB’s Convention Income Survey finds that 38 percent of respondents travel to conventions by airplane, while cars account for slightly more than 37 percent of the traffic. Train travel drops below 24 percent.

1960
After several prominent citizens and business people decid it needs its own staff and its own direction, the Greater New Orleans Tourist & Convention Commission breaks from the local Chamber of Commerce. The group later adopts the name New Orleans Convention & Visitors Bureau. 

1961
Anaheim, CA, Area Visitor & Convention Bureau has very humble beginnings as a handful of sales staff operate out of a farmhouse, on what is now Anaheim convention Center property. 

1967
Although connected to the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce since the 1930s, Milwaukee’s CVB is finally established as a private, non-profit organization. 

1970
The San Francisco CVB manages housing with a 10-person staff. Housing confirmations from the bureau could take weeks to reach exhibitors and attendees. Today, with the help of third-party housing provider, ITS Inc., only one staff person is needed to oversee the housing process and work with show managers.

1974
“and Visitors” is officially added to the International Association of Convention Bureaus’ name to reflect the growing importance of consumer travel.

1984
The Orlando/Orange County Convention & Visitors Bureau forms under Bill Peeper’s direction. The office will grow from a staff of two to more than 150 employees by 2001 and will have representatives in 14 cities and countries across the United States and throughout the world.

1985
IACVB members create INET, later called CINET, a meeting and convention database that tracks records on more than 20,000 association and corporate meetings.

Private and government sectors of the City of Miami, City of Miami Beach, Bal Harbour Village and Miami-Dade County, decide to combine their formerly separate tourism and convention marketing efforts and form the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau. By 2001, the group will comprise the four local governments and 1,000 private businesses.

1990
Total travel expenditures in the United States from resident and international travelers, according to TIA, are $333.7 billion. A surge in new CVB growth begins. By 1996, at least 40 new bureaus — nearly 10 percent of IACVB’s membership — will have formed during this six-year period.

1993
The CLC publishes the industry’s first Economic Impact Study, conducted by Deloitte & Touche. When the study is updated in 1995, it shows industry spending contributes $80.7 billion to the economy.

1995
IACVB Foundation Convention Income Survey finds that convention delegates spend $670 each per event — about seven times more than delegates spent when the study was first published in 1948. 

1997
Las Vegas launches its Web site, which offers a hotel search engine, maps, information about meeting facilities and information about the Las Vegas Convention Center, as well as tourist information about local wedding chapels, attractions and golf courses. Re-launched in 2001, the site handles 350,000 unique visitors each month. New features include Web cams of the Strip and an online store for Las Vegas souvenirs. 

1998
The number of U.S. adults taking at least one business trip during this year, according to TIA’s Survey of Business Travelers, reaches 43.9 million. That number reflects a 2 percent increase from 1997 and a 14 percent increase since 1994.

The Orlando/Orange County CVB in Florida is among the first cities to offer online housing for exhibitors and attendees. The CVB signs on with Passkey.com, an Internet-based housing reservation system featuring e-commerce capabilities for credit-card processing. 

2001
IACVB represents more than 1,100 professional members from nearly 500 CVBs in 30 countries.

Advertising is the largest budget expense for most CVBs followed by sales, publications and marketing. For example, at the Detroit Metro CVB this year, 29 percent of the budget will be spent on advertising, 20 percent on sales and 18 percent on publications and marketing.

Site selection decisions are limited to either a specific show manager or an association’s board of directors. Show managers can easily narrow their choice of potential cities by entering their criteria — such as number of hotel rooms needed, amount of exhibit space required, or the distance from local airports — into one of the many online search engines. Cities, in turn, carefully evaluate business for its revenue potential for local businesses. Bureaus have always sponsored familiarization trips to help show managers inspect local hotels and facilities, says Richard Grant, Director of Communications for the Denver CVB, but today it’s more important that the show manager leave with an overall “experience” characteristic of the city. Denver plans FAM trips around special events in the city to capitalize on the local excitement. “In 1990, we had the 10th largest convention center. Today, we have the 42nd largest. Even relatively large shows have more choice about which city to select now. To set your city apart, you’ve got to provide better service and convey what makes your overall destination different.”

Travel writers and editors Michael and Linda Kephart Flynn have worked with CVB staffs around the world.

Source: IACVBCrossroads, June 1996