Broward to lose biggest annual convention after 2012

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The largest annual convention in Fort Lauderdale is leaving after 2012, seeking a bigger space with an adjoining convention center hotel.

The meeting has an economic impact of $13 million a year, the visitors bureau estimates.

It’s a sign of growing competition in the convention business that affects jobs, tax revenues and construction in South Florida, tourism leaders say.

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Leaving Fort Lauderdale is ARVO, the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology, which will mark 18 years in the city with its 2012 annual convention. It now brings nearly 12,000 people to Broward County Convention Center for its five-day meeting, up from the 7,000 it attracted in 2003.

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Starting 2013, the ARVO convention will move to Seattle, Orlando, Denver and then back to Seattle, with attendance likely to keep growing, said Lancey Cowan, ARVO’s assistant director of meetings.

“We need a bigger, more flexible space,” Cowan said. “When we first came to Fort Lauderdale, a convention center hotel was in the works, in addition to an expansion of the center. Neither happened.”

Without a large hotel linked to the convention center, transportation and logistics are complicated for ARVO’s growing group. It’s tough, for example, for attendees to get back and forth between their hotel and the convention center for meetings, when they have to wait for buses and are spread out among 32 hotels, she said.

Leaders at the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention and Visitors Bureau said it’s unlikely that a single convention can replace the business lost from ARVO.

So the bureau is working to bring in several smaller events that might fill as many rooms as ARVO: about 24,000 room nights a year.

But competition for groups is stiff because big convention center destinations such as Orlando and Las Vegas no longer wait for mega-events. They go after smaller conventions that pieced together can fill up their space events that would more typically go to smaller venues.

“Fort Lauderdale competes with everyone in the United States, just as we do, as it relates to small and medium shows,” said Gary Sain, president of Visit Orlando.

Fort Lauderdale long hoped to draw bigger meetings by adding a hotel linked to the convention center and expanding the center. But plans for a 1,000-room convention center hotel collapsed in 2009 partly because of financing problems. Tourism leaders hope the county can revive plans and get the project done, maybe in time to woo ARVO back for 2017.

Meanwhile, marketers are getting creative to make up for ARVO’s loss. The bureau now promotes its Lauderdale Convention Center Collection of six nearby hotels as one entity. “That puts us on a level field with a hotel with 2,000 rooms under one roof, with one sales person,” said Christine Tascione, the Fort Lauderdale bureau’s vice president for convention and group sales.

Hard hit from ARVO’s departure is the 589-room Hilton Fort Lauderdale Marina across the 17th Street Causeway from the convention center, which long served as the convention headquarters hotel. ARVO guests filled about 70 percent of its rooms during the event, said hotel general manager Carlos Molinet.

“This happens to many destinations, many times. They outgrew us,” said Molinet. “It’s a big loss for the destination and the hotel, because people attending ARVO are well-to-do, nicely traveled and well-spent.”

Other smaller conventions may fill as many rooms, but may not spend as much. Meeting planners have so many choices now that they push for lots of perks from low rental rates for conference rooms, to free audio-visual equipment and waived parking fees, Molinet said.

“It’s gotten much more competitive. That’s why we are asking that funds are there to promote and advertise Greater Fort Lauderdale,” said Molinet, who also serves on the area’s Tourism Development Council.

Some ARVO members don’t want to go their convention to leave Broward either. A petition is circulating, available online, that asks the decision by the group’s trustees to be put to a vote of the ARVO membership. The appeal had 198 signatures as of Friday to keep ARVO in Fort Lauderdale.

or 305-810-5009.

Copyright © 2011, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

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