New work rules at Convention Center "makes sense," says meeting planner

Right now, in the halls of the Pennsylvania Convention Center, more than 6,500 infectious disease experts from around the world are meeting for the third annual IDWeek to discuss the latest news in diseases such as Ebola and HIV.

However, this particular convention, which will run through Oct. 12, would have been too costly for the organizers — maybe even impossible — if the Convention Center did not implement new work rules earlier this year.

I got a behind-the-scenes look at a “pre-con” event on Monday where all of the people putting a convention in motion — including leaders and other members of the Convention Center, Philadelphia Convention & Visitors Bureau and IDWeek — get together to make sure all the ducks are in a row before a conference takes place, from hotel rooms, restaurant reservations and housekeeping.

During the pre-con, I spoke with Sandra Vura Harwood, vice president of meetings and education at Infectious Diseases Society of America and IDWeek secretariat. She told me about the Convention Center’s previous work rules.

Antiquated work rules

It’s no secret at this point that previous work rules at the Convention Center put a number of restraints on exhibitors during citywide conventions. So much that they, in fact, caused large convention groups to cancel between 2014 and 2017, costing the city 925,000 hotel room nights and $1.3 billion in economic impact to the city, according to the PHLCVB.

And although Harwood said Philadelphia had what it takes to host the event — from the airlift, to the hotel packages and its walkability — it was missing one key component: Manageable and cost-efficient work rules.

“Philadelphia had all the pieces but that,” she said. “To be competitive, something had to be done. I won’t be able to comment on where we end up until afterwards and I see the final bills, [but] I’m cautiously optimistic.”

Part of what a show manager has to consider when bringing their conference to any city is not only the expense to the organization, but the expense to its exhibitors.

“What was happening was, in city rotations, when groups would go into Philadelphia, their exhibitor would downsize because of the expense," Harwood said. "So all of a sudden, your exhibitor floor would shrink."

Not only did the organization’s exhibitor revenue go down, expenses for the city were going up. And there was nothing to offset that, which was a major problem.

Consolidation of labor work

Two of the six unions did not sign the new customer satisfaction agreement, barring them from working at the Convention Center. And, as part of the new customer satisfaction agreement, the work of those two unions — Carpenters and Teamsters — was delegated among the remaining four.

And, while the two unions argue that their work is being “done by lesser-qualified, inexperienced individuals,” show organizers are seeing it as a positive step forward for exhibitors.

“I do think that consolidating functions of some unions makes sense,” said Harwood, who recalled a time when a last-minute change required three unions to do one task. “I had minimum expenses from every union, so the change order was exorbitant compared to the task.”

She hopes that, with the new work rules, those issues can be eliminated.

“By consolidating unions, yes you might have a last-minute overtime union call, but it would be one union you’re paying and not three,” Harwood said. “That’s where, hopefully, exhibitors and show management will realize some savings.”

Since the implementation of the new work rules, a number of conventions have decided to bring their meetings back into Philadelphia, including the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology.

It joined three other groups this year, all of which are expected to generate more than $91 million in economic impact to the city.

IDWeek

IDWeek is a combined meeting of the Infection Diseases Society of America (IDSA), the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA), the HIV Medicine Association (HIVMA) and the Pediatric Infection Diseases Society (PIDS).

The conference is expected to bring in 6,500 people and generate $19 million in economic impact. The conference seems particularly timely considering all the news surrounding the Ebola virus. High-level members from associations like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are expected to attend.

“We’re worried about what’s going to happen with the profession. [PHLCVB’s] life science program has done a great job at reaching out to all the local teaching hospitals and universities,” Harwood said. “It’s an exciting time and an exciting field, and Philadelphia’s been a great part of it. A lot of our leaders are in Pennsylvania.”

Source: Philadelphia Business Journal