“In the last 30 months, five U.S. cities have turned to private management companies to run their respective convention centers, among them Detroit and Chicago.
Philadelphia and Los Angeles are now looking to do the same.
Requests for proposals to manage the Convention Center are due at 5 p.m. Friday.
Turning to privatization to handle key convention center functions has everything to do with the need to run these complexes as if they were five-star hotels, said some industry experts.
Two regional companies, SMG, of Conshohocken, and Global Spectrum, of Philadelphia, are going head to head to win the contract. Formerly one company, they have been rivals to manage centers in several other cities.
Managing the local facility, where the Pennsylvania Convention Center Authority management, hoteliers, and labor groups have battled fiercely, could be a grueling assignment.
The Customer Satisfaction Agreement between the PCCA and unions, which is meant to define work rules, assure service, and define expenses for conventions that come here, expires June 30.
"We need to start fresh, take the politics out of the center, and continue to live by the rules that are negotiated," said John "Johnny Doc" Dougherty, business manager of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 98.” Read more here…
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