Sure, losing Outdoor Retailer trade shows is painful, but it’s hardly a killer to Salt Lake County’s convention business, Mayor Ben McAdams and hospitality-industry leaders insisted Tuesday.
“It always hurts to lose a big convention,” McAdams said of the owner‘s decision to move the two annual Outdoor Retailer trade shows — and the $45 million they brought to Utah’s economy — out of the state, in protest of Utah’s public-lands policies and its objections to the designation of Bears Ears National Monument.
“But let’s put it in perspective,” he added at a news conference outside the Salt Palace Convention Center. “It’s not the only show here. It’s not even the largest show.”
For the past three years, said Visit Salt Lake President and CEO Scott Beck, that honor has gone to doTerra, a multilevel marketing company in Pleasant Grove that sells essential oils.
Just last week, doTerra’s global convention attracted roughly 30,500 people to the Salt Palace. That’s a few thousand more than attend the Outdoor Retailer Summer Market, the larger of the two departing trade shows.
“The distinction of being the largest citywide convention is significant,” said Beck, noting that doTerra convention attendees booked 60,000 hotel rooms in Salt Lake County over the four days of meetings, contributing $29 million to the economy. “And you could smell the lavender everywhere,” he joked, referring to the fragrance associated with many doTerra products.
Beck and Kirk Jowers, doTerra’s vice president of corporate relations and European markets, said Salt Lake City’s ability to handle large conventions is a credit to the cooperation between the main partners in the local convention industry — Visit Salt Lake, which brings meetings in; SMG, the company that operates the Salt Palace and the SouthTowne Exposition Center in Sandy; Utah Food Services, which feeds everyone who comes into those facilities; and PSAV, the firm that provides audio visual services to conventions.
Those companies concurrently received a certificate of sustainability from the national Events Industry Council, reflecting lengthy efforts to make the facilities truly environmentally efficient — a characteristic certain to enhance Salt Lake City’s appeal to “green” organizations, Beck said.
“We chose this goal as it would have the most impact on changing our everyday processes,” said Dan Hayes, SMG’s general manager over the Salt Palace and SouthTowne. “It’s no longer enough to say ‘we’re green’ and offer recycling bins. We’ve changed our practices and now can demonstrate the results of our environmental initiatives through audited processes.”
After the doTerra convention, for instance, Hayes said Utah Food Services delivered 1,600 surplus meals to Catholic Community Services to feed the hungry. Carpet installed specifically for the show was taken out and given to Habitat for Humanity for the homes it builds for needy people. Stages were disassembled and distributed to several public schools.
“It’s way easier to throw things into the dumpster, but that’s not the right thing to do,” said Hayes.
doTerra’s Jowers also applauded SMG’s expertise in making the Salt Palace work for clients, noting that his company usually uses the Utah Jazz’s arena as well as the convention center but couldn’t this year because Vivint SmartHome Arena is being renovated.
“Thanks to these great people, we were able to fit all 30,500 [doTerra visitors] comfortably and very professionally into the Salt Palace,” Jowers said, the pounding of a giant jackhammer in the background signaling the early stages of construction for a new hotel across 200 South from the convention center.
“As we see hotels go up, we’re excited that our show could grow to 40,000 or 45,000 in our home state,” he added. “No place on Earth could hold this type of convention so successfully.”
McAdams said the departure of Outdoor Retailer has not diminished Salt Lake County’s interest in helping a private hotelier build a headquarters hotel near the Salt Palace. For the past 18 months, the county has been negotiating with St. George-based real-estate company DDRM to pick a location and build a 700- to 800-room hotel.
The county, Salt Lake City and the state each have pledged about $25 million in tax incentives to help a private developer build a hotel, expected to cost about $300 million overall.
“A convention center hotel was important for Outdoor Retailer,” McAdams said, “but we’re doing it for other conventions as well. We lost many conventions because we didn’t have one.”