Nov. 18--Meetings and conventions are lifeblood arteries of the travel industry. But in these recessionary days, the arteries are clogged with worry.

"Meeting planners are just really nervous right now about signing contracts," said Bill Bohde, sales chief for the Kansas City Convention and Visitors Association.

While this year's tally of 24 big citywide conventions exceeded expectations, only 16 are booked for 2009.

Big reasons include the lagtime of three to five years when big conventions typically are booked, and the booking dry spell that Kansas City endured in the four or five years before Sprint Center and the Power & Light District became a reality just one year ago.

Any falloff in business at Bartle Hall next year will trickle down to hotels, restaurants and other visitor industries.

"Our business tracks with the hotels," said Alton Hagen, general manager of Agenda: Kansas City that provides transportation and other services to visitor groups. "We're going to take a hit."

Not all meetings and conventions are mega gatherings that fill hotels for miles around, however.

And that's why Bohde is looking forward to late February and early March when two national organizations will convene here for their own meetings and a first-hand look at whether Kansas City might be a worthy recommendation for their clients' and members' corporate, social and fraternal gatherings.

If Kansas City makes a good impression future bookings could flow for years.

"We're going to get some enormous exposure with people who influence the decision makers," said Bohde.

The March gathering will bring together more than 600 Ohio-based Experience sales agents and others who last year were responsible for booking 3,000 events that filled 4.7 million hotel room nights.

"This is the first time they've ever met in Kansas City," he said, "and it's the first time we'll have a chance to show off en masse our entertainment district and all the other things Kansas City has to offer."

A few weeks earlier, 125 delegates to the Joint Commission on Sports Medicine and Science will be in town representing 65 sports medicine and athletic organizations that hold meetings around the country.

Bohde is counting on attractions like the College Basketball Experience at Sprint Center to help seal future deals.

Meanwhile, Kansas City may be well-positioned to benefit in the long run from any short-term recession.

At the annual meeting here last week of the multistate Heartland chapter of the Professional Convention Management Association, more than 100 meeting planners and others were told "second-tier" convention cities like Kansas City are getting more looks from organizations that typically book their meetings in first-tier cities such as Orlando, Fla., Las Vegas and New York.

"I've seen it starting to happen in just the past four or five weeks," said Robin O'Connor, Midwest sales manager for convention authorities in Baltimore, Fort Worth, Texas, and Sacramento, Calif.

"It's a financial decision," she said, that reflects increasing sensitivity to attendees' pocketbooks and the prices they'll have to pay for airfare, food, lodging and getting around in a host city.

On those levels and others, Kansas City has always been a midpriced bargain.

Kansas City International Airport director Mark Van Loh told delegates the $139 average one-way ticket price for flights to and from the city's main airport is about $10 below the national average and is lower than convention competitor cities Dallas, Denver and Minneapolis.

The really good news, said Van Loh, is fuel prices are currently falling along with fares.

It's a buyer's market out there, and these days every penny saved can help to sell a city.

The National Business Travel Association last week predicted a 5 percent to 8 percent increase in travel costs next year.

Oscar McGaskey, director of the city's Convention and Entertainment Facilities department is seeing the effects already. Last week he told a city oversight panel that planners for a handful of events booked next year at Bartle Hall have alerted the city they are scaling back.

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Meeting drought Kansas City Convention and Visitors Association officials have long foreseen 2009 as a soft spot in the city's growing convention and meeting industry. But 2010 and beyond could be rebound years, with advance bookings running at or ahead of agency goals. "The pipeline is looking very good for us," said association president Rick Hughes.

Here's a three-year snapshot of the bottom-line numbers for all events, large and small, booked by the association. (Events booked by area hotels and other venues are not included.)

Year Events Hotel room nights Attendees 2007 273 346,004 292,417 2008 290 358,375 374,376 2009* 148 256,736 220,068 *Booked to date.

To reach Rick Alm, call 816-234-4785 or send e-mail to ralm@kcstar.com. Source: Kansas City Convention and Visitors Association

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