Conventioneer opinion of Atlanta (how much, hotels, neighborhoods)

[ATLTJL]

It's no secret that convention traffic is hugely important to Atlanta's economy. Atlanta's CVB for many years has tried to figure out how to brand Atlanta and attract more convention traffic.

I would like to present a case study.

As a former and to some degree current nerd, I used to attend a convention called E3, or Entertainment Electronics Expo. E3 is the trade show for the video game industry. It formed back in the early 90s when the video game section at CES got too large and the industry decided to make its own convention.

Most of you have probably never been to E3. It is enormous. It fills convention halls for 3 full days with flash. More importantly, the attendees are people who work in the video game industry. These people are young, have money, and like to spend it. We are talking about an extremely lucrative 50,000 or so people to have in town.

E3 takes palce in Los Angeles. Could Atlanta ever get this show? Actually, it did. Riding on the post-Olympic hype, E3 was at the GWCC for 1997 and 1998. It was supposed to be there for 1999 as well, but the contract was cut short. So happy to leave Atlanta was E3, that the very first thing announced at the keynote address in 1998 was that it would be moved back to Los Angeles in 1999, to a rousing ovation from the crowd.

Why the hate? By most metrics, the GWCC is a better venue than the Los Angeles Convention Center. There are more amenities nearby, there are places within easy walking distance to eat to avoid nasty convention center food, and the facilities are newer and better.

It should be noted that virtually all video game development happens on the West coast, so most attendees did not know what to expect in Atlanta. Therefore, the number one complaint was heat and humidity. Using the tried and true method, I'm sure Atlanta sold the convention using weather data indicating the average temperature is 77 degrees (averaging daily highs and nightly lows) just like they did for the Olympics.

Even in 2005, IGN said one of the best things about E3 was that at least it wasn't in Atlanta:

[SIZE=4]It's Still Not in Atlanta
[/SIZE]For all of the bitching we do every year about how E3 sucks, we can bless our lucky stars that it's still in Los Angeles. The homeless people might sadden you, they might be aggressive, and the parking is a total rip-off, but it's still not in Atlanta, GA. The Atlanta years sucked ass. It's hot and humid in Atlanta, the Internet connections blew, and the first year we were there the security was so bad our equipment was stolen. Stolen right out of our booth at night by some crummy thieves! Las Vegas still seems like the ultimate place to hold E3, but for now, LA isn't so bad. See, we turned a negative into a positive! OK, smile for the camera and tell them how much you love E3!

The Five Best and Worst Things of E3 - Xbox360 Feature at IGN

Here's a thread where people were discussing Atlanta as late as 1996: Why don't they move E3 back to Atlanta? - Page 2 - NeoGAF


This is the trade show that I am most familiar with and Atlanta burned its bridge with it forever. People in the industry still laugh about what a disaster Atlanta was.

I guess my questions are this:

* Are there any other trade shows that have had similar issue?
* Are there any that completely love Atlanta?
* We can't control humidity, but why doesn't the city address the valid things people hate about Atlanta?

[testa50]

Dude, that was 15 years ago. Downtown Atlanta still has a lot of the same issues it used to have, but a lot of things have also improved.

I've heard conventioneers talking on MARTA trains to and from the airport about how they like Atlanta because it's so easy. They can take a cheap, fast train ride straight from the airport to their hotel, and at that point everything is within easy walking distance.

Given how concentrated video game design is (and, particularly, was in the 1990s) on the west coast, it makes lots of sense people would be pissed flying all the way to Atlanta for the convention. The dominant complaint on the linked thread was proximity. They probably would have been pissed to go anywhere else over here sans New York.

[waronxmas]

Meh, I think that opinion can only be taken with a grain of salt (a large, pompous grain of salt). Most likely the main reason there was applause for E3 moving back to Los Angeles is that the vast majority of game developers and attendees are based in California. Flights would be cheaper (if they even needed to get on a plane) and travel time would be greatly reduced.

[athensvaasi]

I have often wondered how the 1996 Olympics international crowd (from major international cities) must have felt having to shell big bucks to come visit us in Atlanta!

[Saintmarks]

Couldn't they schedule the convention in a month other than July or August? Atlanta weather is pretty agreeable the rest of the year, even in winter months.

[ATLTJL]

They could have done their own research, but at the time Atlanta officials for some reason thought they would be doing the city a favor by selling it as having "mild summers."

Even the Olympic officials pretty much slammed Atlanta for not having transportation worked out, for letting too many crappy and shady merchants in the Olympic village, and not regulating price gouging. It is well documented that the IOC president closed the 1996 Olympics by simply saying "well done" instead of declaring it the best Olympic games ever, which he had done in every ceremony since and started doing again after.

I'm sick of seeing Atlanta drop the ball on conventions. It's hard enough to draw people here with no real draw, but when you let panhandlers run rampant in the "no panhandling zone" and then get rid of the most famous nightlife district in the city, is it any wonder that some major trade shows don't want to come here anymore?

I really don't think proximity was an issue for most of the video game developers. Road crews and similar personnel handled the heavy lifting, all most exhibitors had to do was get on a plane. Most 22-35 year olds aren't going to have that much of an issue with a direct transcontinental flight. The developers from Japan, I can understand the travel being too much....but for young guys with time and money, I don't think that was the main issue. They wouldn't mind traveling at all if they thought they were going somewhere cool.

Downtown has gotten much better since that time, but there is still so much more that we could do to make it better.

[hal2814]

It's also worth noting that Interop also left Atlanta back in the early 2000's. Interop isn't nearly as California-centric a trade show as E3 is and still has shows in at least LA, NY, and Tokyo. Proximity doesn't explain why that one left. COMDEX also used to have a show in Atlanta but I think that one leaving was more of a COMDEX issue than an Atlanta issue.

[K-SawDude]

I know more about reactions to the academic convention side of things, and the primary complaints I hear from friends visiting the ATL are the following:

(1) Ultra-aggressive panhandling
(2) Lack of local "scene," including restaurants, around the downtown hotels

A couple of my friends were flabbergasted when they saw how supercool the Westside is, and they wondered why there couldn't be more distinct restaurants and bars, and much less Hooters and such, in the downtown area.

I was recently at a conference in Seattle's downtown, and it's SO much better than our downtown area IMO. Way more fun "oh, what a cool fusion cafe!" sorts of finds, more pedestrian friendliness, better signage, etc.

I'm sure our downtown is better than it has been in the past, but I agree that we need to step things up if we want to compete with the big boys.

[johnatl]

Originally Posted by hal2814

It's also worth noting that Interop also left Atlanta back in the early 2000's. Interop isn't nearly as California-centric a trade show as E3 is and still has shows in at least LA, NY, and Tokyo. Proximity doesn't explain why that one left. COMDEX also used to have a show in Atlanta but I think that one leaving was more of a COMDEX issue than an Atlanta issue.

COMDEX left over the size of the GWCC. The only facilities large enough to host them are the Orlando and Las Vegas convention centers.


There are two shows in particular that truly love Atlanta and return every year - the international egg & poultry convention (don't laugh), and the international woodworking show. They both pull attendees from all over the world.

[waronxmas]

Originally Posted by ATLTJL

Even the Olympic officials pretty much slammed Atlanta for not having transportation worked out, for letting too many crappy and shady merchants in the Olympic village, and not regulating price gouging. It is well documented that the IOC president closed the 1996 Olympics by simply saying "well done" instead of declaring it the best Olympic games ever, which he had done in every ceremony since and started doing again after.

No, the Olympic officials didn't "slam us for not having transportation worked out". Some people in the foreign press did for boarding a chartered bus (not MARTA) to an event and the driver, having been from out of town and just working here for the games, got lost. Contrary to this oft repeated meme, MARTA performed admirably during July and August of 1996 and had a daily ridership of over 700,000 making it for that month the second most used transit system after NYC. You can verify that here: http://www.apta.com/resources/statis...rship_APTA.pdf. Tt's also good proof for all those that say that MARTA is inefficient and cannot handle large crowds. We racked up serious ridership during that time not only due to the all the visitors in town for the games (which probably didn't number more than the amount of people show up during Pride weekend) and locals opting to use transit rather than drive to work because they thought traffic was going to be horrendous. In a bizarre twist events, traffic was no existent during the Games and transit was heavily used. Makes you think what is possible if more people stop believing in the false convenience of their cars.

It is true the press came down on some of the merchants in Olympic Village merchants for some of the kitsch factor, but I think everyone knows that 16 years ago Downtown and most intown neighborhoods were just recovering from the effects of urban renewal and white flight. Plus you must also consider the kitschyness of American culture at the time played right in to that (something else the foreign press no doubt despised).

As for Samaranch not declaring the Atlanta games the best ever, I want to throw up in my mouth every time someone uses that as a way to say the Olympics here was a failure and conveniently forget we had a freaking terrorist attack 6 days before the closing ceremonies. He would have looked like a serious d-bag for saying the games were the "best ever" with that fresh on everyone's mind. Besides, it's not like we need that sort validation. We got what we wanted from the Olympics (international fame and $$$), and Vancouver did such an amazing job at messing up the 2010 Winter Olympics that our missteps look small in comparison.

Originally Posted by ATLTJL

I'm sick of seeing Atlanta drop the ball on conventions. It's hard enough to draw people here with no real draw, but when you let panhandlers run rampant in the "no panhandling zone" and then get rid of the most famous nightlife district in the city, is it any wonder that some major trade shows don't want to come here anymore?

I really don't think proximity was an issue for most of the video game developers. Road crews and similar personnel handled the heavy lifting, all most exhibitors had to do was get on a plane. Most 22-35 year olds aren't going to have that much of an issue with a direct transcontinental flight. The developers from Japan, I can understand the travel being too much....but for young guys with time and money, I don't think that was the main issue. They wouldn't mind traveling at all if they thought they were going somewhere cool.

Totally disagree and it is backed up by the fact that Atlanta remains a top convention city. Sure we'll lose a few as the years go on, but the idea that we're "dropping the ball" on conventions just doesn't add up. If the environment for conventions was so bad, there'd be a lot more not showing up.