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IPO Hopeful 6 – Tourism and Convention Bureaus
Continuing from the last post, every city has a local “Convention and Tourism Bureau”, responsible for the convention center and all of its business, and also responsible for managing the city’s tourism bureau.
With it’s “billboard” in every guestroom, their brand is perfectly positioned to impact both of this key revenue drivers for every city. In the last post we dealt with the local tourism industry, in this post lets talk about the city’s convention business.
Typically, local trade shows, industry events, and major conferences are held at the city’s convention center, generating tens of millions of tourism dollars for their city, hence making this is a key focus for the local government’s economic development efforts.
Now, with hotels equipped with these tablets, all relevant information for convention attendees can be delivered with just one click! For instance, the welcome message can be tailored to say, “Welcome to [Event Name],” and the tablet content can automatically display the event schedule to conference attendees staying at the hotels!
Exhibitor advertisements can also be broadcast right into the attendee rooms of the meeting, with interactive, clickable ads and measurable results. Events and their exhibitors pay heavily to advertise to attendees, this new medium is the best way ever to get their name right out in front, and drive traffic to their booth!
As a result, the Convention and Tourism Bureau is anxious to partner with them to help them meet the convention managers and get them using the services, a better experience for everyone.
Oh, and speaking of this, he laughed and mentioned that they hold several patents in this area, then showed me a lengthy document full of dense patent details. 😂
But every time I hear about dealing with the government, I cringe. I asked, “Are you sure you can pull this off? Working with the government involves long cycles, significant human resources, and layers of approval processes, and there’s no guarantee it’ll work out in the end. Are you certain this is a worthwhile investment?”
Kevin just smiled and said, “Who said we’d be handling it ourselves? One of our earliest investors and shareholders owns the largest advertising agency in the U.S. specializing in serving these type of city government clients.
They have the relationships, and all the manpower, resources, and channels ready to execute. This way, they have a shortcut right to those local governments that have been the agency’s clients for years, the work gets done smoothly, he benefits, and so do we—a win-win-win.”
Fair enough, I was impressed. Their team includes former senior executives from hotel groups who managed technology and suppliers and secured the master agreement. They also have a top-tier advertising supplier and media buyer for the government on board, allowing them to bring the government directly into the ecosystem. At the end of the day, the success boils down to having a strong product and an attractive structure. The hardware is user-friendly and free for hotels, while the hotels not only get to upgrade their equipment for free but also earn a share of the profits. What’s not to love?
Kevin concluded, “Do you know how in-room movie services were introduced to hotels back in the day? Look at their growth back then, and you’ll see where this is heading in the future.” Till next time!