“The hardest part was it was nigh on impossible
to effect change in your destination coming off of
informal, undocumented conversations,” Beck said
of the days before Visit Salt Lake had an official CAB.
“Critical” is how Christine Roberts, vice
president of convention sales and services at the
Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors
Bureau (GFLCVB), describes her CAB’s role in
helping drum up local support for a convention-
center expansion and a headquarters hotel. Fort
Lauderdale’s battle has been particularly challeng-
ing, with efforts to build an adjacent headquarters
hotel stalling multiple times since the convention
center opened 28 years ago. Broward County com-
missioners are still narrowing down developers for
the $550-million project — which would include
a hotel, convention center-expansion, intermodal
transportation center, marina with transient dock
space, new streetscape, and new green spaces, all
to open in 2020 if approved — and Roberts says
GFLCVB’s four-year-old CAB has gone so far as
to sit down with them to lobby for it. “That’s the
hardest thing, sometimes, is to get somebody to
green-light a project,” Roberts said. “Having the
voice of the customer gives people an interest, a
business need to move forward.”
Tammy Blount, president and CEO of the Mon-
terey County Convention & Visitors Bureau,
says her CAB has also been instrumental in
advocating for the $60-million renovation
of the Monterey Conference Center that is
currently underway. “They’ve been really
helpful in articulating to our local com-
munity and our elected officials, who
don’t necessarily read Convene maga-
zine or understand the competitive
landscape,” Blount said.
Because the 40-year-old facility is
owned by the city of Monterey, pushing
a big renovation project isn’t easy. The
CAB has been there every step of the
way. “They’ve looked at designs, they’ve
said, ‘Yes, I would love to bring a meeting
to this building,’ or said, ‘ You know, I’m not
sure about this environment or this color,’”
Blount said. “They’ve weighed in on everything
… they’ve shown up at council meetings from time
to time, looked at things between meetings, … and
been a tremendous ally.”
Indeed, the realization it was missing such an
ally is what prompted the Louisville Convention
& Visitors Bureau — with more than $1 billion in
new infrastructure in the pipeline, and a changing
tourism landscape — to form its first CAB just last
year. “We just felt like this was the time to bring
in professionals,” said Cleo Battle, executive vice
president of the Louisville CVB, “and have them
help be a guide as to how to position ourselves.”
Besides branding, Louisville’s 15-member CAB
— which will hold its second meeting next month
— also consults on how the destination can best
handle the issues that are top of mind for planners,
such as room-block management, technology,
safety and security, and attracting younger attendees. At the last CAB meeting, members brought
‘That’s where the magic
of an advisory board
happens. Each destination
has to know what its DNA
is all about, and then has
to be able to tell that story
effectively.’
