 St. Charles, MO—In its first full-year, the St. Charles Convention Center has exceeded expectations, with bookings outpacing initial budgeted projections for meetings/events by an estimated 65 percent. According to Global Spectrum, managers of the venue, the St. Charles Convention Center ended 2006 with gross revenues of over $4.2 million, which exceeded projections by 44 percent.
"Global Spectrum has done an outstanding job of securing events, marketing the facility and making the Convention Center a must-visit facility which ultimately benefits everyone in our region," said David Rosenwasser, director, the Greater St. Charles Convention and Visitors Bureau.
Typically, most convention centers operate in the "red" for their first few years due to variety of factors, including name recognition and competition factors. With the still young St. Charles Convention Center, this loss window appears to be closing more rapidly than anticipated—the net financial performance of the convention center finished nearly $500,000, about 63 percent, ahead of schedule with a net loss just under $287,000 versus a budgeted net loss over $770,148. St. Charles officials place credited on this upbeat performance with the venue’s management firm. "Global Spectrum's dedication to customer service and satisfaction is what differentiates our convention center from other similar sized facilities," added Rosenwasser.
 The St. Charles Convention Center hosted an astounding 455 events in 2006, which exceeded the planned for 296 events by 53 percent. The 2006 events drew well over well over 160,000 attendees, and used nearly 23,500 room nights in local hotels. "Thousands of visitors from around the United States have visited this beautiful facility which has and will continue to create new business opportunities for our restaurants, our hotels and our residents," said Patti York, Mayor of St. Charles.
One of the reason for the venue’s performance has been the mix of events, public shows and meetings the St. Charles Convention  Center hosted. Some of the events held at the venue include include a "Dog Whisperer" Seminar by Cesar Millan of the National Geographic Channel program of the same name, which was attended by more than 1,600, Central States Shrine Association, a city-wide event with more than 5,000 attendees and Harley Owners Group Convention , where more than 2,000 motorcycle enthusiasts attended and the venue itself was used for the Harley exhibits, stunts and competitions.
Public shows included the highly successful and highly attended Working Women's Survival Show, which featured 250 exhibitors, Builders of St. Charles Home & Garden Show, and the Boat Show in St. Charles.
 "Global Spectrum has done an excellent job in responding to the community, building partnerships, improving cost efficiencies, and continuously striving to surpass clients' expectations, said Roger Pryor, Chairman of the St. Charles County Convention and Sports Facilities Authority. "We are proud of the accomplishments of the sales staff, exceeding budgeted revenues in 2006 and Shura Lindgren, General Manager of the St. Charles Convention Center, for the fine job she is doing in managing the facility."
The fastest growing type of event at the St. Charles Convention Center has been in the meetings category, in which the center hosted an astounding 296 meetings compared to the budgeted number of 170. An estimated 30 percent of these meetings had hotel room nights attached, resulting in more than 6,000 room nights for the city. In addition, the convention center hosted 19 more trade shows than budgeted and 80 banquets in 2006. "With so many events coming through our facility, we will continue to work to make each client's experience the best it can possibly be," said Lindgren.
 The multi-purpose St. Charles Convention Center opened in April of 2005 and includes a 16,200-square-foot Grand Ballroom, 27,600 square feet of Exhibit Hall space expandable to 35,700 square feet through the adjacent Junior Ballroom and additional meeting rooms including the Partners-for-Progress Executive Board Room, the AT&T Cyber Café, in-house catering, event marketing and management and other unique services.
|
