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History

Convention Bureau – Over a Century of Success!

By Rui Carvalho (rui.carvalho@fbcvb.org.br)
Executive Officer of Campinas and Region Convention & Visitors Bureau
Communications Officer of Federação Brasileira de Convention & Visitors Bureaux

The origin of CVBs is as old as it is curious. It is known that, in the late 19th Century, even before the assembly line created by Henry Ford in Detroit for the mass production of automobiles of that brand began to attract the attention of businessmen from other states and countries for the success it obtained in increasing productivity and rationalizing production costs, introducing the concept of scale economics, the city of Detroit, founded by Jean De La Mothé Cadillac, was already famous as one of the most active producers of stoves and kitchen furnishings in the country! This attracted a large flow of visitors, anticipating the conceptual revolution that was about to happen in the way tourism was perceived so far.

Detroit has always been a city of great tourism appeal and powerful economy. In early 1896, a lot of businessmen from various cities arrived to Detroit to attend conventions, congresses and business meetings. Hotels, restaurants, taxis, bars and nightclubs were always full of excited people willing to spend money! The city was beginning to show a certain inclination towards business tourism at the end of that century.

It was on one of these days, precisely on February 6th 1896, that Milton Carmichael, a journalist just arrived from Indiana, connected to the Republican Party, came to work in the Detroit Journal, one of the major periodicals of the time, and wrote the article that we reproduce below, which can be considered the springboard for the foundation of the world's firs convention bureau! We draw attention to the accurate strategic vision demonstrated by Charmichael, who died in 1948, evidenced in the deceptive simplicity of the text which, under careful analysis, reveals a modern view which was difficult to understand in the 19th Century.:

A piece of history: cover of the 02.06.1896 issue, where Carmichael's article was published.

...Along the years, Detroit has acquired the fame of a city of conventions. Visitors come from thousands of miles of distance to attend business events. Manufacturers from all over the country use our hotels to hold meetings where they discuss topics of their interest, but all this happens without any effort from the community nor any action seeking to provide them with some support during their stay among us! They simply come to Detroit because they want to or they need to! Couldn't Detroit orchestrate a joint effort in order to secure the organization of 200 or 300 national conventions throughout next year? This would mean the arrival of thousands and thousands of people from all American cities, and they would spend millions of dollars in the local market, thus benefiting the city's population.

With this apparently innocent note, Carmichael was able to arouse the interest of some businessmen and traders who were members of the Board of Trade and the Manufacturers' Club. They convened with hotelkeepers, railway sales agents and other traders in a meeting at the Cadillac hotel and decided to found an organization to promote, in an orderly and jointly fashion, a continuous effort to attract more conventions to the city. Thus the Detroit Convention and Businessmen’s League was born, and entity that would change its name in 1907 to Detroit Convention &Tourists Bureau. At that time, the convention had a few more than 20 associate companies, but the idea caught on and began to bear fruit in other cities of the United States and even abroad. In 1915 there were 12 other conventions, whose representatives gathered in Detroit to form the organization that is now known as IACVB - International Association of Convention & Visitors Bureaux, an entity that encompasses hundreds of CVBs from all over the world.

The emergence of the world's first convention, as described, was motivated by a simple newspaper article that questioned the idleness of local businessmen concerning the benefits of the arrival of visitors in the city. In fact, that article questioned far more than that. Interpreted in an appropriate manner, Carmichael's thinking contained the seed of associatism in the tourism trade! What he actually meant was that businessmen should stop promoting predatory competition among its companies, seeking only their own interests, and favor a global view of the market, acting collectively on behalf of the city's economical development as a whole, an attitude which, in the journalist's opinion, would ultimately benefit each of the participants.

Actually, Carmichael was promoting the advantages of placing the common good above the private good, in other words, he encourage associatism on behalf of the community as a whole. But Carmichael was not naïve. The subliminal message he transmitted was that it is better to have a business, no matter what size, in a strong, robust, growing economy than to strive to keep a company working in a stagnated or declining economy. In a word, by helping to keep economy healthy, you will be helping your own business. This is the genesis of all convention bureaus: to foment the local economy in order to obtain benefits for the businesses of all members.

However, a historical fact helped give the city of Detroit worldwide visibility, and it will be forever connected to the story of conventions. In that same year of 1896, Charles B. King left his store in St Antoine driving a horseless carriage, moved by a two-stroke engine, an unheard of fact that would mark the beginning of the automobile industry, which is Detroit's trademark to this day. That was the first time an automobile was driven through the streets of the city and the one responsible for this feat, Charles King, who got in trouble with local authorities for his boldness, was coincidentally one of the founders of the Detroit convention.

Obviously, things were not as easy as some might imagine. When Carmichael spoke of investments, of spending money to bring people in from outside, some conservative voices immediately claimed that it would be a waste to invest local funds in such a preposterous project. According to this current, investing in attracting visitors and events would be the responsibility of local authorities. But the journalist's strategic vision, insisting on defending that the business community should unite and not just wait for efforts from public authorities, ultimately prevailed. To this day, financial independence and the absence of any political interference are some of the most outstanding features of conventions all over the world.

As can be seen, Carmichael was facing delicate fights at the time, including one that lasted over 50 years, which was the effort for the construction of a large convention center which could host events such as the Detroit Auto Show, the biggest pride of the power automobile industry that was formed within the city.

In a 1913 bulleting the convention warned that, because of lack of proper space, the city had lost nearly 3,500 large events in the previous six years! Strange as it may seem, this is a situation still faced by conventions throughout the world, especially in Brazil. It is a claim that may not have had a lot of practical results, but at least relies on a considerable historical legacy.

In spite of all the problems, the Detroit businessmen, led by the journalist Carmichael, ultimately formed the concept that would give rise to the world's first convention, working in the same manner as today's conventions: the London Convention & Visitors Bureau, founded with this name and features in 1905.

Ever since then, a lot of things changed. Tourism grew and became strategically important for many countries. It became an export product, a business creating jobs and generating income. It reached the status of development booster and made the economy pages of the main media vehicles. However, the idea of entities acting together to support the acquisition of events and the promotion of tourist attractions in a city or region in order to increase the flow of visitors has been consolidated in the five continents, began taking form and today there are more than 1,000 conventions spread throughout the world!

In Brazil, the story of CVBs is much more recent. In fact, our first effort only happened in 1983, with the foundation of the São Paulo Convention &Visitors Bureau, our pioneer. Later, in 1984, Rio de Janeiro created its own bureau to better exploit the enormous potential of that worldwide renowned destination. Next came Florianópolis, Blumenau, Brasília, Petrópolis, Fortaleza, Joinville and Belo Horizonte, but it is curious to observe that, in 1997, one hundred and one years after the creation of the world's first convention and fourteen years past the foundation of Brazil's first, there were only eight CVBs in Brazil! In the next eight year this number was multiplied by seven and, in 2005, there were more than 55 entities all over the Brazilian territory.

All this movement around conventions bureaus took shape with the creation of the Brazilian Forum of CVBs in 1998, which was later turned into the Brazilian Federation of Convention and Visitors Bureaux, presided by João Luiz dos Santos Moreira, an executive specializing in strategic planning and business tourism. From then on, and with the creation of the Ministry of Tourism at the beginning of the Lula administration, the industry was strengthened and is present in all decision levels of Brazilian tourism. The president of Embratur, Eduardo Sanovicz, is himself originated from the CVB system, as he was executive office in the pioneering SPCVB. The team he assembled to manage Embratur was composed of professionals borrowed from various Brazilian CVBs, such as Vera Sanches, formerly of the Brasília CVB, Jeanine Pires, formerly of the Recife CVB, Karin Carvalho, formerly of the Curitiba CVB, Vaniza Schüllerm formerly of the Porto Alegre CVB and Ney Humberto Neves, formerly of the Rio de Janeiro CVB, to mention only the best known ones. FBCVB and the Brazilian system of CVBs became so prominent and acquired such huge strategic importance that they became the main partners of Embratur and the Ministry of Tourism in the business promotion of Brazil in foreign countries. Apart from that, FBCVB is co-responsible for the frequent records broken Brazilian tourism indicators in recent years. The Federation, among other activities, is present in the assembly and marketing of stands for Brazil in more than 40 events of the industry around the world, and headlines the Program for Fight Against Child Sexual Tourism.

If the importance of the conventions in the articulation of local production arrangements cannot be denied, it is important to notice that such importance is due, for the most part, to the understanding that our entities are the most representative of the entire tourism production chain, exactly because they are faithful to the principles set forth by Milton Carmichael in 1896, horizontally integrating industries concerned with the economical development of destinations through tourism.

In all this process, which has been going on for over a century, we must point out exactly the role of the business tourism production chain as the driving force that moved the discussions about convention bureaus from the leisure and entertainment industry to the field of economics. Such shift clearly results in a qualitative and strategic advantage that was difficult to imagine a few years ago.

In fact, by making efforts to acquire events, the conventions ultimately have an effect, directly or indirectly, in a number of trades that are not necessarily connected to tourism! These are companies that provide ancillary services in events, such as security, cleaning, printing, receptionists, simultaneous translation, transportation, flowers, shows, catering, restaurants, night clubs, malls, taxis, in a word, a universe estimated in more than fifty trades which, all told help make up the basis of tourism economy, which is estimated to be responsible for 8% of the country's GDP. Of course, in order to achieve this number, it is necessary to include in the calculation the revenue of companies that temporarily join the tourism trade itself, even on an indirect basis, to form such Tourism Economy. Therefore, when, for instance, a construction company is building a hotel, it becomes a part of tourism economy. By the same reasoning, when such hotel orders the linen supplies it will need from the textile industry, such industry will add its input to tourism economy! The same happens to the ceramic industry when it supplies the chinaware that the hotel will need and so on, in a virtuous circle that spreads benefits throughout the entire regional productive chain.

It was by setting this fortune wheel in motion that CVBs were able to shift the discussion focus from the tourism field to the economical development field. Today in Brazil, more than 50 existing CVBs are more sought after by the newspaper's economy section that by the traditional publications of the tourism trade, although, of course, a good convention bureau must properly represent the entire local tourism trade. Of course, the modern and busiest conventions have expanded their representation basis, covering such a wide scope as to give them legitimacy to discuss, propose and carry out regional tourism policies and influence the authorities in the management of investments in the trade, with quite positive effects in the economy of the regions or cities they represent.

Finally, by grouping around the Brazilian Federation of Convention & Visitors Bureaux, an entity which represents more than 45 different conventions, the industry tends to grow in importance and political relevance, acting like a resonance box for a trade that is responsible for 37 billion reais' annual revenue (3.1% of the GDP), employing nearly three million people and paying 4.2 billion reais in taxes with the organization of 320 thousand events per year.

Regardless of the angle adopted for analysis, these are numbers that cannot be ignored by any national tourism policy, and which, by themselves, attest to the strength of the industry and the foresight of Milton Carmichael when, in 1896 in Detroit, he created almost by accident the concept that is now widely renowned as the recipe for success to foment economical activities and business tourism the Convention & Visitors Bureau.

The presence of these entities in Brazil is so new and all-encompassing that its real mission and priorities are still being discussed. Even among the CVBs' officers, there is no consensus on which line of action must be adopted for the acquisition of events, for instance. However, we defend the idea that CVBs must primarily work to support such acquisitions and not lead the process. This can be explained by the characteristics of the market itself. For instance, in order to attract a medical congress, it is necessary to first contact the medical entity representing the specialty in question, then convince it to suggest that regional branch to host the national congress for the medical specialty it represents. Without this support, without this political willingness, the convention would be stepping over the one responsible for promoting the event, and the chances of failure would be huge. How can we bring to our town, for instance, the National Symposium of Cardiology without the agreement of the Regional Cardiology Council? That's why we say that it is the competence of the medical or class entity to bring the event.

Of course once such decision is taken, which almost always happens on a political/corporate level, this entity will need help from the convention to support its application. After all, the convention specializes in infrastructure for the city's events. The convention specializes in tourist service databases. The convention knows and promotes tourist attractions and knows the destination strong and weak spots like no one else does. That is why we think it is more appropriate to say that conventions support the acquisition of events, even if at times they are forced to take the initiative to motivate the medical or class entity to apply, showing them the chances of winning and the benefits the event could provide to everyone involved and to the applying destination.

If we do not understand this process, it becomes difficult to manage the expectation of companies that join conventions as maintainers. The CVB has no obligation to act directly in order to boost the business of its maintainer. This should happen as a result of long-term planning and continuous work by a good convention. We strive to promote the destination and support the regional economy by fomenting business tourism. but we cannot let a direct cause and effect relationship be formed in the business of this or that maintainer. Most of all, conventions do marketing of the destination. Conventions are marketing tools that horizontally integrate the industries interested in turning a city or region into the host of events and fairs, incentive and business trips and leisure destinations.

Carmichael's thinking must be stressed: let's work together to develop the local economy and everyone will reap benefits from it. Help an entity that promotes economical development so you have do your own business in a growing market and have your chances of profit and success.

In a word, and to be faithful to the Carmichaelian spirit, before asking what the convention of your town can do for your business, you should evaluate what your business can do to help the convention improve the city's economy and its appeal to attract events, deals and tourism. By acting this way, you will increase the chances of success of the convention's work and demonstrate strategic vision in favoring the collective well-being in detriment of the private one. It's a good start. Milton Carmichael would be proud to see how far your original ideas have gone!