Fairfield County”™s convention and meeting market is doing OK, according to directors of sales in some of Stamford”™s largest convention and meeting venues, but growing the market won”™t be easy as some of the largest companies in the area shed jobs and relocate.
“The departure or downsizing of a number of large Fairfield County companies could present a challenge for the region”™s hotel industry,” said H. Scott Phelps, president of the Connecticut Convention & Sports Bureau.
With General Electric”™s ongoing departure from its headquarters in Fairfield, as well as thousands of lost jobs over the last few years at RBS and UBS in Stamford, demand for meeting and convention space in Stamford has not been as strong as it once was, said Bruce Skidmore, director of sales and marketing at the Stamford Marriott Hotel & Spa.
“With GE leaving, that was our biggest transient business account,” he said. “The move has left a big vacancy in the marketplace. Most major hotels had a lot of their business and I think we had the most.”
But the outlook is not all doom and gloom.
Since the 2008 recession and its impact on the likes of financial institutions like RBS and UBS, Skidmore said there has been an ongoing effort to ramp up sales of group functions at Marriott.
“I think it is maybe more relevant perhaps to the volume,” he said. “We have moved the needle tremendously on group revenue and business. It has been a slow recovery, but I think this is going to be the year where we get close to the numbers prior to the recession.”
At the Hilton Stamford Hotel and Executive Meeting Center, the state”™s largest hotel convention center outside of the Foxwoods Resort and Mohegan Sun casinos, director of sales Ann Marie Moayedi acknowledge there was worry at the start of the year over what she termed “the GE effect” and said there has been some softening of the market following the city-wide fallout from shakeups at Stamford”™s major financial institutions. Yet business has maintained, she said.
“It has been a nice escalation in 2014, 2015 and in 2016 we are seeing group demand up as well,” she said. “The pipeline is up for summer into August and the fall. From where we sit today we are very optimistic for the balance of the year.”
Thomas Madden, director of economic development for the city of Stamford, said there has been some growth in the city”™s convention market.
He cited the Hilton Stamford”™s hosting of the Association of Children”™s Museums InterActivity 2016 conference, a more than 1,200-person gathering in May, as well as the Connecticut Maritime Association”™s Shipping 2016 conference in March, which drew more than 2,500 attendees.
There is opportunity on the horizon with the city”™s more than 300 restaurants, nightlife and developments like Harbor Point serving as assets for making Stamford an attractive location outside of New York, Madden said.
But competing with New York City venues is a challenge, particularly when attracting large expositions, as Stamford is limited by space, he said.
Madden, who is on the board of directors of the state convention and sports bureau, said he and the organization are holding bus tours this summer to expose meeting planners to the regions venue options.
In response to the potential loss of business from key convention market clients, Phelps said the organization has “intensified sales efforts directed toward influential New York City-based meeting planners who seek locations for small- and mid-sized convention, conference and sports events.”
He too noted some positive indicators of growth in the industry, including the honoring of Fairfield University Athletic Director Eugene P. Doris in April with one of several 2016 Bring it Home Awards.
Doris received the award for his involvement in bringing the 2016 NCAA Division I Women”™s Basketball Regional to the Webster Bank Arena in Bridgeport in March in addition to other tournaments like NCAA hockey.
Phelps pointed to Fairfield University”™s newly completed lacrosse venue, Rafferty Stadium, as a possible draw for large sporting events to the region.
Meanwhile, as UBS moves employees into RBS offices, Madden said he is eyeing its Guinness World Record-holdings 100,000-square-foot trading floor.
“That would be a great place for a convention,” he said.
