Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 2, 1995 TAG: 9504150005
SECTION: HOTEL ROANOKE PAGE: 12 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ALLISON BLAKE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
But in its new incarnation, with "and Conference Center" appended to its name, it also is a testament to the team management style now sweeping American business.
Want to hold a meeting? The conference center has a room for you. Artfully attached to the century-old hotel, the city-owned center is a veritable rabbit's warren of meeting rooms: Big ones, little ones, board rooms, ballrooms. Meeting rooms with high-backed ergonomic chairs, meeting rooms with low-backed ergonomic chairs. A lecture room that looks like it was transplanted straight from a Virginia Tech lecture hall.
In all, 29 meetings could be under way simultaneously in different rooms, including eight carved from the cavernous Roanoke Ballroom. At 14,400 square feet, it's the biggest ballroom between Atlanta and Washington, D.C.
Conference business to fill all those rooms is expected to come initially from associations and companies in Virginia, especially Western Virginia, and bordering states. But planners hope to cast their net further afield as the conference center's reputation spreads.
As of mid-March, the conference center had booked 75 conferences through the end of the year. Another 75 were penciled in.
"I think a lot of people are kind of holding back until the doors open," said Sheri Decker, director of conference services. "I think it's phenomenal."
As part of its deal as a project partner, Virginia Tech says it will bring in 20 percent of the business through corporate training programs conducted by professors, or even the kind of networking that comes when alumni book conferences there.
Many local businesses such as Carilion Health Systems have booked programs, said Gary Criser, marketing director for the hotel.
So what does the new and improved Hotel Roanoke bring to the Roanoke Valley that hasn't been here before? Meeting planners, that's what. One-stop meeting shopping, where companies contract out the planning duties to a person employed at the conference center.
"That's the trend right now," said Deborah Wright, director of marketing for the Roanoke Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau.
Most conference centers, from the corporate-owned to those operated by universities, draw business from their states or regions. Costs run the gamut: "There are conference centers well over $300, and there are conference centers at $100," said Tom Bolman, director of the Interational Association of Conference Centers.
The Hotel Roanoke's conference center prices fall just about in between. Per-person costs cover three different types of stay: the complete meeting package, the modified meeting package and the day meeting package. The costs, respectively, are $128.58 to $171.28; $102.55 to $145.25; and $46.92.
For $171.28 a day, what does a meeting-goer get?
A single room, three square meals, continuous refreshment service that means the coffee mug never empties, tax and tip, and a conference that has its own planner handling everything from breakfast bagels to modem-repair problems.
That's the beauty of a conference center, Bolman said. One person employed by the center handles all the details for the entire conference, acting as a sort of conference tour guide.
Getting that message across to corporations and associations wondering what bang they get for their buck will be the key to the conference center's success, Bolman said.
"They're easy to budget," he said. "There are no add-ons, and it's frequently more cost-effective to go with the package."
And the meeting planner can do things like rent out laptop computers that the hotel expects to keep on hand, or help conferees tap into the Blacksburg Electronic Village through computers that will be available. A work space in the conference center provides copy and fax machines, and every guest room has a computer hookup.
Norfolk Southern Corp. is among the first to bring its annual meeting to the refurbished hotel, on May 11.
"It's just reopening and I think the chairman thought it would be nice if we came back up to have our annual meeting there," said Dee Martin, who is helping to organize the meeting for the railroad, which owned the hotel before giving it to Tech in the late 1980s.
Up to 900 people may attend the meeting, although a contingent of about 90 executives and their spouses is expected to spend three days at the hotel, she said.
Conference centers evolved as the total quality management model came to be used in more and more businesses, coupled with technological advances.
"There was a need for employees to be trained at different levels, and it does provide an environment that is more conducive to trainers' needs," said Brian Wishneff, who heads the Hotel Roanoke Commission.
That's one reason many folks are downplaying a couple of free-floating concerns regarding the hotel's success. One is the relatively limited transportation - you can drive, or fly on a limited number of airlines. The second is, does Roanoke offer enough to do in the conferees' spare time?
Wright's group is promoting the fact that 100 flights go in and out of the Roanoke Regional Airport each week. Sure, travelers need to change planes at an airline's hub, such as Baltimore-Washington Airport, or in Charlotte, N.C. But most travelers have to do that, regardless of where they're headed.
And Roanoke probably has plenty to keep conferees entertained - after all, Bolman said, they're in town to work, not play.
The young lawyer's executive council of the Virginia Bar Association opted for Wintergreen over the Hotel Roanoke for its spring meeting because the Shenandoah Valley resort is "a little more centrally located," said Sandy Thompson, the Richmond-based association's administrative director. But she was quick to add that the move is no reflection on Roanoke - just the convenience of this particular meeting for this particular group.
Calling herself "a one-woman chamber of commerce" for Roanoke, Thompson said the group has had other meetings in Roanoke. They'll likely do so again. "I'm real anxious to see how it goes when we get there. I have high hopes," she said.
Although Bolman hasn't visited the Hotel Roanoke, he's heard good reports through the grapevine.
"I think they've already set themselves apart, because there's nothing else right around Roanoke," he said. "They are definitely going to need to appeal to a corporate market, like the training programs corporations can deliver during the week. On the weekend, they'll need another market."
by CNB