Convention Center Handles First Citywide With Ease

While the Hawai'i Convention Center has been the site of more than 30 conventions since its opening last year, the first true city-wide event took place Oct. 9-12, when 30,000 delegates met for the American Dental Association's annual convention.

Many people had questioned whether the center and the city could deal with such an immense event, and observers from several other organizations were on hand to see how well it was handled. However, ADA members liked the event so much, a grass-roots movement sprung up among them to move their next Hawaii gathering ahead from 2009 to 2004. Jim Sweeney, the group's associate director and the person in charge of the convention, said it's under consideration.

Attendance figures weren't quite as high as in some other destinations where the ADA meets, but Sweeney was satisfied. "We think we got a reasonable number," he said. "Attendance ranges all the way from the high 20s to the mid 60s. Las Vegas and Orlando pull the largest numbers, but we have a lot of drive-ins in those places."

While 750 exhibiting companies bought only 1,100 booths, compared to 1,600 booths sold for last year's convention, Sweeney believes that will be less of a factor when ADA returns to Hawaii.

"The exhibitors were concerned about price — but if you asked them now, they would say they would have brought more staff and booked more space if it was available," he said.

The lower exhibitor turnout this year didn't hurt ADA at the bottom line, according to Sweeney. "Labor costs are lower here, so we didn't lose revenue on the event, even though we had 200,000 square feet less for exhibits than in the past," he said.

Another activity that generates revenue for the group is the sale of day-tour programs. About 15,000 tickets were sold. "If we sell 8,000 in other places, that would be a lot," Sweeney added.

It was nothing to do with the center itself but rather with the logistics of trans-Pacific transport that proved the biggest challenge for the ADA, and some delegates who would have liked to attend were unable to get airline tickets. "We definitely had a challenge with seats," Sweeney said. "All of the nonstop flights were sold out for four days. We worked with airlines to get them to switch from DC10s to 747s."

United did make the switch on some flights from the West Coast. However, some delegates were forced to pay full fares, though others booked wholesale packages including air and land services.

Getting enough hotel rooms for the delegates and pre- and post-meetings and tours was not a snap, either. "Most hotels on the Neighbor Islands were sold out before and after," Sweeney said. ADA delegates stayed at 53 official hotels in Honolulu.

In addition to attending the conference, members of 112 specialty groups held meetings of their own. Like a group of dental examiners, which took over the Hawaii Prince Hotel, most of these groups met on Oahu before the main conference, while some assembled on various Neighbor Islands afterwards.

Maui and the Big Island's Kona coast were the destinations for most pre- and post-tour programs, but many delegates booked other places independently.