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Advisory Summit
Strengthens Religious Meeting Planners’ Faith in Phoenix
PHOENIX
(Jan. 12, 2009) — Call it a leap for faith.
When two-dozen meeting planners gathered in Phoenix
this fall for the Religious Advisory Summit, it marked the first
time a convention destination had assembled a client advisory
board specifically focused on the needs of religious meeting groups.
The meeting professionals who participated in
the summit shared their knowledge of the religious meetings market
with sales staff from the Greater Phoenix CVB, Phoenix Convention
center, downtown Phoenix hotels, and local businesses that serve
the meeting-and-convention industry.
The Religious Advisory Summit was the brainchild
of the Greater Phoenix Convention & Visitors Bureau’s
Faith in Phoenix sales team, which caters to the needs of faith-based
meetings and conventions. The summit was held Oct. 22-24 at the
Phoenix Convention Center, and among those in attendance were
board members from the two leading religious-market tradeshows
— the Religious Conference Management Association (RCMA)
and Rejuvenate.
“There has never been an event that has
brought religious planners together in this kind of forum,”
said Donald Oswald, Associate Director of Convention Sales at
the Greater Phoenix CVB. “We learned a lot about the nuances
and needs of religious meeting groups, the feedback we received
from the planners was phenomenal. Several of them told us they
got more out the summit than any other meeting of its kind they
had ever attended, they resolved to assist our Faith in Phoenix
partners at tradeshows and remain a resource for us to tap into
throughout the year.”
Kimberly Graber, president of Expert Facilitation
& Training, served as the professional meeting facilitator
for the advisory board’s think-tank sessions and produced
a 53-page report from the proceedings. The report is filled with
ideas about how to best accommodate religious meeting groups,
from outlining industry trends to debunking stereotypes to suggesting
sales and marketing strategies.
Religious meetings on Phoenix’s convention
calendar include the Southern Baptist Convention (2011), General
Council of the Assemblies of God (2011) and Unitarian Universalist
Association General Assembly (2012).
Sponsors of the summit included the Hyatt Regency
Phoenix, Sheraton Phoenix Downtown, Sheraton Wild Horse Resort
and Spa, Wyndham Phoenix Hotel, Phoenix Convention Center, Aventura
Catering, AV Concepts and Modern Display. Kimberly Graber, president
of Expert Facilitation & Training, presided over the gathering,
and Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon and Greater Phoenix CVB Chairman
of the Board George Dean welcomed the group at an opening reception.
For more information about the Greater Phoenix
CVB’s Faith in Phoeinix program, visit www.faithinphoenix.com.
The site provides details about Phoenix’s family-friendly
attractions and local places of worship, and allows planners to
submit online RFPs. Individuals or groups interested in participating
in future Religious Advisory Summit meetings can contact Oswald
at dowsald@visitphoenix.com or (602) 452-6219.
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Greater
Phoenix CVB convenes groundbreaking advisory board for religious-meeting
clients
Religious Advisory Summit will tap knowledge of faith-based
meeting planners
 PHOENIX
(July 8, 2008) - “Wisdom is a tree of life to those who
eat her fruit; happy is the man who keeps on eating it.”
So states Proverbs 3:18, a Bible verse the Greater Phoenix Convention
& Visitors Bureau is taking to heart in its ongoing effort
to make Phoenix the West’s premier destination for religious
meetings and conventions.
Hoping to learn from the wisdom of faith-based
clients, the Greater Phoenix CVB is convening an advisory board
that will focus specifically on the needs of religious meeting
groups. Dubbed the Religious Advisory Summit, this first-of-its-kind
client advisory board will meet Oct. 22-25 in downtown Phoenix,
with think-tank sessions at the recently expanded Phoenix Convention
Center and the new Sheraton Phoenix Downtown hotel.
“In hosting and interacting with faith-based
groups in the past, we’ve found that they have nuanced needs
and expectations,” said Donald Oswald, Associate Director
of Convention Sales at the Greater Phoenix CVB. “We want
to be equipped to meet those needs and exceed those expectations.
The best way to do that is to bring together smart, experienced
people and pick their brains.”
Oswald said 10 faith-based meeting planners and
executives have signed on to participate in the Religious Advisory
Summit, and he hopes to attract five more. Among those scheduled
to attend are representatives from the Mennonite Church USA, Episcopal
Church, Assemblies of God, Church of the Brethren, Christian &
Missionary Alliance and Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
“To my knowledge, we are the only CVB in
the country to put together an advisory board strictly for religious
programs,” Oswald said.
Several hotel executives also will participate
in the summit, including Fred Reichelt, Director of Worldwide
Accounts for Hyatt Hotels International, and sales representatives
from downtown Phoenix’s three major hotels: the Hyatt Regency
Phoenix, the Sheraton Phoenix Downtown and the Wyndham Phoenix.
The Greater Phoenix CVB has hired Kimberly Graber
of Expert Facilitation & Training (www.YourEffectiveMeetings.com),
to preside over the three-day summit. Graber, who possesses 18
years of experience as a professional facilitator, said she will
work to ensure each strategy session is efficient and outcome-based.
“The Religious Advisory Summit will bring
together a diverse group of planners and executives,” Graber
explained. “My role will be to emphasize process, neutrality,
interactivity and consistency. The goal is to cultivate consensus
and document progress for follow-up action.”
The Religious Advisory Summit is not the Greater
Phoenix CVB’s first concerted effort to maximize Phoenix’s
appeal to faith-based convention groups. In December 2006, the
CVB launched FaithInPhoeinix.com (www.faithinphoenix.com), a Web
site specifically created for religious-meeting planners.
The site provides details about Phoenix’s
family-friendly attractions and local places of worship, and allows
planners to submit online RFPs. It also highlights the city’s
enhanced convention package, which includes the $600 expansion
of the Phoenix Convention Center, the opening of the 1,000-room
Sheraton and the debut of a light-rail transportation system.
Religious meetings already on Phoenix’s
convention calendar include the Southern Baptist Convention (2011),
General Council of the Assemblies of God (2011) and Unitarian
Universalist Association General Assembly (2012).
“A meaningful, memorable meeting experience
relies on both people and place,” Oswald said. “With
our endlessly sunny weather, our new convention center, our hotel
and resort product, and attractions like water parks, shopping,
ballgames, museums and mountain parks, Phoenix has got the ‘place’
part of that equation well covered. What we hope to do at the
Religious Advisory Summit is to tap the power of people. The more
we learn, the better service we’ll be able to provide.”
Individuals or groups interested in joining the
Greater Phoenix CVB’s Religious Advisory Summit can contact
Oswald at dowsald@visitphoenix.com
or (602) 452-6219.
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Downtown
Phoenix’s Hospitality Partners Form Human Chain to Demonstrate
Unity to Unitarian Meeting Group
PHOENIX (Oct. 4, 2007) — When
the major players in Phoenix’s meetings-and-convention industry
formed Team Downtown Phoenix this summer, they made a vow to work
hand-in-hand to attract delegates to the new Phoenix Convention
Center.
On Thursday morning, those team players showed
they were serious.
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Michael
Van Liew, a national sales assistant for the Greater Phoenix
Convention & Visitors Bureau, holds a sign as he waits
for a site-inspection team from the Unitarian Universalist
Association to emerge from its hotel. Greater Phoenix
CVB staff joined orange-clad Downtown Phoenix Copper Square
Ambassadors and hotel employees from the Hyatt Regency
Phoenix and Wyndham Phoenix in forming a human chain to
show Phoenix’s desire to host the UUA’s General
Assembly in 2012.
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Hospitality staff from downtown’s three
largest hotels — the Hyatt Regency Phoenix, the Wyndham Downtown,
and the soon-to-be completed Sheraton Downtown Phoenix —joined
hands with employees from the convention center, the Greater Phoenix
Convention & Visitors Bureau and the Downtown Phoenix Partnership
to form a human chain that stretched along Adams Street, from the
Wyndham to the convention center.
Their purpose? To demonstrate unity to a site-inspection
team from the Unitarian Universalist Association, which is considering
Phoenix for the site of its annual General Assembly in 2012.
Headquartered in Boston, the Unitarian Universalist
Association, or UUA, represents more than 1,000 liberal-minded
religious congregations across the globe. Its General Assembly
would bring more than 5,000 attendees to Phoenix in June 2012,
translating into approximately $7.2 million in direct spending
for the city.
As the UUA site-inspection team walked the two
blocks between the Wyndham and Phoenix Convention Center, their
small procession was greeted by applause from the hospitality
employees and orange-clad Copper Square Ambassadors who lined
the sidewalk. Some members of the human chain even brandished
placards with welcome messages.
“With our sunny weather, our new convention
center and plenty of hotel rooms nearby, it’s not hard to
show off Phoenix’s natural attributes as a meeting destination,”
said Donald Oswald, who leads the religious-meetings sales team
at the Greater Phoenix CVB. “But we wanted to go a step
further and demonstrate to our guests from the UUA that, beyond
buildings, this is also a community that values unity, diversity
and warmth. I think we did that today, and we hope to get the
chance to do it again in 2012.”
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Southern
Baptist Convention Will Hold Its 2011 Annual Meeting in Phoenix
Group Expected to Bring 12,000 Delegates to Phoenix
Convention Center
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| Sally
Forrest, Director of National Accounts for the Greater Phoenix
Convention & Visitors Bureau, is flanked by Southern
Baptist Convention officials Jack Wilkerson, right, and
Doug Melton, left. Wilkerson is Vice President for Business
and Finance for the SBC, while Melton is the group’s
Chairman of Convention Arrangements.
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PHOENIX (June 12, 2007) — The largest
Protestant denomination in the United States is bringing its Annual
Meeting back to Phoenix.
The Southern Baptist Convention, which has16
million members who worship in more than 42,000 churches, voted
Tuesday to hold its 2011 Annual Meeting at the Phoenix Convention
Center on June 14 and 15. About 12,000 delegates will attend the
2011 meeting, and those delegates are expected to book 15,000
total room nights.
Southern Baptist Convention President Frank Page
presided over the vote in San Antonio, where this year’s
SBC Annual Meeting is being held. Phoenix last hosted the event
in 2003.
“We are once again pleased that the Southern
Baptist Convention has voted Phoenix as the site of the 2011 Annual
Meeting,” said Jack Wilkerson, Vice President for Business
and Finance for the SBC. “We indeed look forward to returning
to Phoenix.”
Southern Baptist Convention delegates, or “messengers,”
are elected by their local congretations to represent the church
at the Annual Meeting. Those delegates are expected to occupy
3,000 to 3,500 rooms during the 2011 Annual Meeting’s peak
night and spend more than $17 million during their stay in Phoenix.
“We are truly excited to have the Southern
Baptist Convention coming back to Phoenix,” said Sally Forrest,
Director of National Accounts for the Greater Phoenix Convention
& Visitors Bureau, who was on hand for Tuesday’s announcement.
“We think the SBC and its messengers will love the changes
that have occurred in Downtown Phoenix since their last visit.”
When SBC’s Annual Meeting came to Phoenix
in 2003, projects such as the $600 million expansion to the Phoenix
Convention Center, the $1.3 billion light-rail network and the
1,000-room Downtown Sheraton Hotel were all in their planning
stages. By 2011, those projects will have been a reality for at
least two years.
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