Universities look to keep meeting rooms full

Later in November, Beatles fans will come together at the Holiday Inn Downtown Stamford to pay tribute to Bungalow Bill, the tax man and the octopus”™ garden.

In late October, the Shippan Point Garden Club paid homage to gardens of the terrestrial variety ”“ at the University of Connecticut Stamford”™s campus.

For both venues, the gatherings are providing a bright spot during a year in which the overall meetings industry has been down, and with event planners still trying to wrap their arms around the bookings implications of the coming flu season.

In recent years, colleges and universities have looked to diversify their revenue by increasing the use of their facilities by outside groups, including for business meetings large and small.

While Fairfield University, Sacred Heart University, the University of Bridgeport and other local colleges have ample space for meetings, none book events from non-collegiate groups to the degree of UConn Stamford.

Since the campus”™ construction more than a decade ago, UConn Stamford has become a frequent host of area business events at its General Re Auditorium, which can accommodate up to 200 people on its main level, plus another 90 people in a balcony.

 

The auditorium has a large adjacent foyer for checking in attendees and socializing, and the university”™s Rich Concourse fronting Broad Street can accommodate 400 people for gatherings.

 

Meetings planners have long advocated university facilities as a way to save money on the final tab of hosting an event, in part because student workers provide a cheaper source of labor to serve food or handle audio-visual duties.
With hotels struggling to fill rooms, however ”“ and universities facing less-immediate pressures due to stable tuition revenue and endowment income ”“ hotels appear to be competing aggressively on pricing to attract events.

While UConn Stamford must compete for meetings business with a multitude of downtown hotels, it appears to be holding its own. While the Connecticut Business and Industry Association typically holds its Hartford-area events at a stable of hotels in the capital region, it typically selects UConn Stamford for its Fairfield County events.

“The reason we tend to hold events at UConn Stamford is that we often partner with them,” said Peter Gioia, vice president and economist at CBIA. “For a lot of the (research) we do, they have people who are knowledgeable on it.  But then, it”™s a great location and the parking is free.”

Gioia said that CBIA will occasionally hold Torrington-oriented events at a UConn campus there, but has shied from doing so at Storrs, which has a hotel on campus in addition to auditoriums and academic halls.

“The problem with Storrs is that it”™s out in the middle of nowhere,” Gioia said.

In that respect, UConn Stamford is in the thick of things downtown, and like the city”™s hotels also benefits from relative proximity to the Stamford train station

In addition to the expected lineup from academia, UConn Stamford has hosted events this month sponsored by the Urban Institute; the Connecticut Forest and Park Association; Stamford”™s Urban Redevelopment Commission; and the aforementioned Shippan Point Garden Club.

The club booked Rich Concourse for Oct. 22 and Oct. 23, and the campus connection serves its purposes on another front: the theme of the seminar was “back to school,” with the club hosting classroom sessions for members”™ planting sessions next spring.