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The next time you find yourself giving the conventional nickel tour of the Metroplex to visiting family and friends, don’t fail to mention that the convention industry is, in fact, big business in Dallas. In 1987. it will make an economic impact of more than a billion dollars in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. After all, travel is the second-largest industry in Texas. In 1985, it generated $16 billion, ranking the state third in the nation in travel receipts, says Director of Texas Tourist Development Agency. Larry Todd. predict-ing last year’s travel-generated revenue will approach $17 billion Bringing the impact even closer to home, it’s been estimated that, were it not for the convention business in Dallas, the tax base would go up approximately 10 to 12-percent on an individual level.

Dallas will play host extraordinaire to more than 2.100 conventions in 1987, bringing in a projected gate of $800 million in delegate expenditures. Last year’s figures are estimated to have been in the neighborhood of $770 million.

It’s difficult to pull hard figures once people leave town, says Karen Schifelbein, Dallas Convention Bureau’s director of marketing. “You can’t go back and ask the cab driver how much they spent, the restaurant and so forth,” she reasons. “The figures we have are based on a nationwide survey that was done a year ago by the International Association of Convention and Visitors Bureaus, asking individuals that attended conventions in Dallas what kind of money they spent.”

And if those admittedly conservative figures aren’t enough to make the citys fiscal salivary glands start watering. Dallas drools at the site of how surrounding host cities, such as Arlington and Irving, are also packing them into the Metroplex,

Since the 1985 opening of its new 110,000-square-foot convention center, the Arlington Convention Bureau reports last year’s business nearly doubled in delegates and dollars. Its 1985 convention spending was at $25,9 million, jumping to $42.8 million in 1986. One meeting planner amusingly referred to the city as the Geneva of the Metroplex, referring to Arlington’s “neutral” ground between Dallas and Fort Worth, What Irving lacks by not having its own conventior center, is more than made up for in its dozer or so, first class meeting hotel accommodations which hosted more than 500 meetings and 50.000 delegates in 1986. more thar doubling the previous calendar year’s 20.000 registrants. Again the dollars were doubled, increasing the dividends for Dallas.

It’s a fact that, in the case of convention business in the Metroplex. what’s good for one city is good for all. Schifelbem says it depends on who you talk to. but convention bureaus and convention-related fields figure that the money turns two and a half times before it leaves the state. Banks say the turnover reaches as high as five times before the money leaves. So obviously, the dollars don’t stay within any given radius and the entire area does prosper from anything along those lines.

“We’d all love every bit of business to stay inside our city limits,” adds Margo Brans-comb. Dallas Convention Center’s director of marketing. “But if they’ll just get into this area, the money crosses back and forth. And besides, the more people that come and enjoy it, the more they come back and bring more people!”

Illustrating additional benefits the booming convention industry brings to the city, Director of Dallas Convention Center, Jerry Barshop. makes an example of last November’s American Heart Association convention. “That convention brought to Dallas some 20,000 registrants for four days, and as a result, we employed alot of people here in the building.” he emphasizes. “The economic impact is just one part of the story because of the number of people that are employed on a temporary or part-time basis here in this facility as well as other areas around the city, such as hotels, restaurants, the market center or anywhere else.”

Convention business seems to mean only good things for the entire city. Besides pouring new dollars into the economy and providing jobs, Barshop points to the plus of activities going on in our facilities and the visability element in the marketplace. When convention activity makes the news with a Dallas dateline, its rippling affect serves to enhance the city’s credibility in the industry.

But what of the city’s credibility among its own? While Dallas and her sister cities concentrate on attracting even more convention attention, the industry has already had a therapeutic affect on the area’s economic posture. Local convention and meeting planners have watched the proud fruits of their labors go unnoticed or taken for granted, and would like to see more Dallas-ites informed and sitting up to take notice of their city’s convention conquests.

Fueled by a consistent ranking among the top five convention cities nationwide (New York. Chicago, Atlanta and New Orleans make up the other four), the Dallas Convention Bureau has launched a public awareness campaign on the local level to accompany advertising already being strategically placed in national trade publications.

“John Q. Public in Dallas, Texas does not know that we rank among the top five convention cities in the nation,” Schifelbein says, “They don’t think of Dallas as a convention city. We’re trying to increase community awareness in the local area for several reasons. Number one, we believe Dallasites can sell Dallas better than anybody else. Therefore, we need to educate the people locally that we can handle 90 percent of the conventions out there, so -let’s bring the conventions home. Not only that, but the convention business obviously has a wonderful affect on the economic impact level, it creates very clean, good dollars. They’re dollars from outside of the area and they’re brought right in here. When times are down economically, that’s when you need money coming from other directions.”

Among its efforts to increase public awareness, the Dallas bureau has created a Dallas meetings information hotline, making it easier for the person that’s not a professional planner to book a meeting in Dallas. Anyone, regardless of what size meeting they’re having, can call the number and take advantage of the bureau’s computerized system. Once the criteria for the meeting is put into the system, the computer kicks out a listing of hotels in the area that meet the necessary qualifications. At that point, the information is either sent to the individual for follow-up with the various hotels, or the information is forwarded to the hotels so they can go after the business. Similar services are also available at the mid-cities’ individual convention and visitors bureaus (CVBs).

The Dallas bureau has another computerized service that’s complimentary if you happen to be needing more than 1,000 hotel rooms for your convention, which usually means using more than one hotel property. “The computerized housing service provides a fast turnaround time and is extremely efficient,” says LaVonne Rae, assistant director of convention services for the Dallas bureau. “We have a housing department that takes the registration form mailed to us and enters the information into the computer which pumps out an acknowledgment in a three-part form The form goes to the registrant, the association headquarters and to the hotel, At that point the hotel sends the confirmation, requesting a room deposit or whatever their procedures are.”

The Dallas Convention Bureau, a division of the Dallas Chamber of Commerce, is contracted by the City of Dallas to be the marketing arm for the Dallas Convention Center. In its dealings with the center, the bureau works primarily with association business as opposed to corporate, and con-trols the convention centers books two years out and beyond. The center’s own marketing staff controls the books 24 months and under.

The “hot” times the bureau is working on right now are for conventions in 1991 and 1992. So far, the bureau has conventions booked into 2004. working with associations such as the National Association of Broadcasters, the American Newspaper Publishers Association and the National Association of Home Builders, which will be in Dallas this year and next. The bureau will then turn around and pursue them for 1995,1996 and 1997 Also, the American Bankers Association will be in Dallas in October 1987 and it has not been in the city since 1972.

Whereas the Dallas bureau serves in a marketing capacity for the Dallas Convention Center, Barshop and Branscomb agree that the center’s primary concern is service They brag about the facility’s reliable staff to the point of crediting it with much of the center’s nationally recognized reputation for being a top convention destination that enjoys quite a bit of repeat business.

Despite the center’s successes on a larger scale, its marketing staff is working overtime to dispel a commonly held assumption that you have to be a big meeting to meet at the Dallas Convention Center. Among the largest in the country, the center boasts 72 meeting rooms, can handle any size meeting and you get the same quality of treatment regardless, Branscomb says.

Other than the convention center, the Dallas bureau has a seemingly endless list of meeting hotels and alternative meeting facilities to recommend, including those in the Market Center area, which consists of the Infomart. Market Hall and the Apparel Mart. Also, there are the State Fair of Texas facilities which, says Rae, have been utilized for everything from trade shows to hosting a barbeque and rodeo for as many as 7000 people.

Regardless of the distance traveled, there’s no question that when people convene in Texas, they work when it’s time to work, but when it’s time to play-boy, do they play. Convention bureaus and meeting planners attribute much of the industry’s growth in Texas to the state’s growing “playground.”

Dallas, of course, is the city of multiple choice when it comes to this sort of thing. Folks can see plenty without spending a penny, e.g. a stroll through Old City Park or downtown’s rejuvenated West End Marketplace, plus an impressive array of museums and art galleries at little or no charge.

However, as has already been established, many come to town with the express purpose of laying out the bucks. Again. Dallas knows how to accommodate its guests. Most every kind of cuisine known to mankind can be found within the city limits, not to mention what’s awaiting just north in Addison and beyond. A favorile place to party, and one that draws many convention delegates when they hear a party for them will take place there, is Southfork Ranch. Then, there’s entertainment of the musical variety-everything from symphony, opera and |azz to country, gospel and rock n roll. A big drawing card for Dallas is the fact that it’s a haven for sports enthusiasts and home to professional sports of ail descriptions, from Mavencks basketball to Sidekicks soccer and Willow Bend Polo to Virginia Slims of Dallas tennis. There are comedy bars, songwriter showcases and Dallas boasts incredible talent in its theatre offerings. As a major fashion and trade center, it goes without saying that if it can be bought, you can buy it in Dallas. Especially for convention spouses of the female gender, “shopping” is the operative word at break time or any time for that matter.

Since the opening of Six Flags Over Texas 25 years ago, Arlington has been a major tourist destination that is also home to Texas Rangers baseball and Wet ’n Wild. But now that the city has its own convention center, Arlington Convention Bureau’s Communications Specialist. Teresa Thompson, comments. “Arlington is developing even more of a separate identity, although it doesn’t mind having its very popular neighbors to the east and to the west.” Looking to its southern border, Arlington will reap the benefits of its proximity to Joe Pool Lake, and on the city’s southwest horizon is The Highlands, a 340-acre, 25-year development, following in the footsteps of Irving’s Las Colinas and already attracting national attention for its $3 million sculpture park, Caelum Moor At the edge of The Highlands is The Parks At Arlington, a one-million-square-fool shopping mall scheduled for completion sometime next year All of this development translates into more hotels, restaurants, entertainment and, once again, more convention dollars.

“The two best things that ever happened to Irving are the DFW International Airport and Las Colinas,” says Walter Bowden. associate director of the Irving Convention Bureau. Those are two aspects that have given Irving somewhat of a corner on the market when it comes to corporate meetings in the 350 to 500 delegate range, comfortably accommodated by most any of the city’s “star-rated” hotels. The number of easily accommodated will increase considerably when the new 507-room Harvey Hotel, with its 3.200 square feet of meeting space, opens up in May near the north entrance of DFW Airport. That will bring lrv-ing’s total of meeting hotels to 10 and the total meeting space of all those hotels will be somewhere around 160,000 square feet. Irving does book conventions with up to 900 registrants, but with certain restrictions.

As far as Irving is concerned, Bowden attributes its growth in the convention industry to the fact that, with the advent of Las Colinas. it has grown from a bedroom community to more of a business community. Also, being home for the Dallas Cowboys and a growing film industry at the Dallas Communications Complex hasn’t exactly hurt Irvmg’s increasing popularity as a meeting destination

Romancing a convention to town is not an easy job when you’re surrounded by cities equally as prepared to woo much of the business in their direction. It takes a slick promotional campaign with everything from full-color brochures and convention planning guides to fast-paced videos- all marketing tools that are used by CVBs throughout the Metroplex.

All sorts of tactics have been used by each of the cities, including familiarization tours for corporate and association planners from major cities, coincidentally timed to take place on the weekend their team is in town playing against the Cowboys, and so on.

Schifelbein states that a major obstacle the Dallas bureau has had to combat is the fact that the city has been in puberty for awhile. “Most cities that conventions go to have been around for years and years, and have transitional stages but not as drastic as Dallas’,” she explains. “Our problem is that the conventions that have not been here for awhile, still perceive Dallas the way it was in the early 1980s and late 1970s. So we’re doing an ad campaign on a national level, showing Dallas and how it has changed.”

This means of ’selling” Dallas seems to be working. When going after the American Bankers Association Convention statistical sheets were used to show the dramatic changes Dallas has gone through in 14years. It seems only appropriate that after allthese years-in what is to be a stellar yearfor convention spending in the Metroplex -that a big group of bankers is coming backto Dallas.