If there is any customer qualified to judge whether
changes made at the Pennsylvania Convention Center are working, it's Sandy Vura
Harwood, vice president of meetings for the Infectious Diseases Society of
America.
Starting Wednesday, she will be in charge of making sure
6,500 doctors, scientists, epidemiologists, and professors gathered in
Philadelphia for IDWeek enjoy their experience at a five-day convention worth
an estimated $19 million in economic impact to the region.
"It remains to be seen" whether the changes
will make a difference, Harwood said Monday, shortly before the
all-hands-on-deck meeting of technical, hotel, security and operations
representatives assigned to make the convention run smoothly.
The event couldn't be more timely.
For the scientists, the convention comes as the world
focuses on the Ebola virus, once confined to Africa, but now in the United
States, and the enterovirus D68 virus, suspected in the death of a Mercer
County 4-year-old.
For the city's hospitality apparatus, the convention
comes as the Convention Center and Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau
are pushing a message that customer complaints about inept management and labor
costs and hassles are part of the past, not the future.
Harwood will be in a position to judge.
Until recently, Harwood, who resides in Arlington, Va.,
headquarters of the Infectious Diseases Society, served on the PCC's Customer
Advisory Board. On the board, she heard the complaints from her fellow meeting
planners.
She was also part of the group consulted on changes in
the center's expansion and on changes in the Customer Satisfaction Agreement,
signed by unions and management in May.
"We've never had a bad labor experience here,"
she said. "But it's been an expensive one."
The group has held its conventions in other union cities,
so the union rates were not the main issue, she said. "It was how long it
took to get things done, or how many people it took to do something."
When her organization last came to Philadelphia in 2009,
six unions worked in the building.
In May, two of the six did not sign a customer
satisfaction agreement by a deadline set by management. Those two unions - the
carpenters and the Teamsters - no longer work in the building, although they
are contesting that with the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board.
"I love Philadelphia and I'm happy to see the
changes," she said during Monday's meeting with at least 50 people with
some role producing the convention.
The changes in the customer satisfaction agreement
weren't what prompted Hargrove, in 2012, to book her meeting here in 2014. Big
conventions are locked in years in advance.
But, given Harwood's expertise and history with the
building, winning a post-convention endorsement from her will matter tremendously
to future sales efforts, particularly to groups that vowed never to return to
the center.
Due to the complaints, convention bookings have been
down, and with them, hotel occupancy.
IDWeek attendees and the exhibitors selling to them will
spend nearly 15,000 nights in rooms at 16 hotels over the course of the
convention.
On Monday, as union workers unrolled blue rugs in a
nearby convention hall, Harwood advised the hoteliers at the meeting to make
sure there was plenty of early-morning coffee.
"You might want to staff up," for this group of
early risers, she said. She added that international attendees may need
late-night room service.
Others at what is known as the "pre-con" meeting
made their reports:
There was a glitch setting up the registration area.
Welcome banners had been readied for the airport. A concierge desk will help
attendees make restaurant reservations. Activists objecting to the group's
recommendations on Lyme disease may protest Saturday.
Labor calls had gone smoothly, a representative from SMG,
the company managing the building, said. On Tuesday, 160 people will be working
to install the show before Wednesday's opening.
Source: Philly.com
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