North of Deep Deuce, Producers Co-op? Were those recommended by a consultant, or just valued opinions?

Without cheating remember 4 possible locations mentioned: the MAPS 3 featured one adjacent to the Park and the Coop site. Don’t recall the other two….

east of the park, the cotton co-op, north bricktown where parking lots are now, and west of Ford Center.

The Co-op is the only one that makes sense. Walking distance to the Hotels and restaurants. I thought mayor mick wanted OKC to be a walking city.

The other three besides south of the FC were the Co-op, North of BT and I think the last one was near the Oklahoma River.

Gary is right, right?

I know this isn’t the place or time but how about putting it on the south side of the river so there is a reason to walk across the new Skydance Bridge?

Matt, there is no infrastructure down there. No hotels, no restaurants. No nothing. Convention visitors should be able to walk to the convention center from the surrounding hotels and walk to restaurants to get lunch.

Plus, the Skydance bridge will cross the new I-40, not the river.

The upside to placing it south of the ford center is that we could refer to the area as SOFO.

….please…..no sofo.

…producers co-op could be POCO

…wouldnt that be PROCO?

Yet again, more suggestions that only focus on how the convention center can fit the needs of locals, or drive development in other areas that aren’t equipped to properly service the actual USERS of the convention center. They miss the fact that what serves the city is for the users to come here in the first place.

Money spent by the visitors is what benefits the the city and locals, not the propping up of other development, at the expense of making the venue itself unattractive to groups.

Here’s an idea: let’s build one that first and foremost functions well as a convention center. Meaning, a place where thousands of people can easily circulate back and forth ON FOOT between the meeting place, their lodging and their off-hours entertainment options. If we build a place that’s not easily walkable to the hotels and to Bricktown, it fails as a convention center, groups won’t want to book it, and we’d might as well not build it at all.

I do not remember a consultant talk about a site. I just saw pictures of a convention center in Core 2 Shore

Janet, I like your thinking. However I would just make sure you realize that there isn’t really any kind of selling out we can do in terms of the convention center that will make it a more attractive site. What will matter most is our AIRPORT, our own CORPORATE community, and the overall attractiveness of our CITY and any strategic advantages that OKC AS A WHOLE can offer.

It matters not if we have corny bells and whistles, stick it in the middle of our downtown, next to a pretty park, or demolish all of downtown for a huge parking lot for the convention-goers. Those are not strategic considerations, they are SIDETRACKS. And when it comes to the convention industry, I think you can trust me, Janet.

I know South of the Ford Center and the Producer’s CoOp. But, the other two were vague. I read about the Deep Deuce location, but I thought they were considering the empty lots east of the Lofts. They never specified in the article I read. The 4th site, I had no clue until I read the comments in this post.

I’m not sure I understand what you’re getting at, Nick. All I am saying is that if we want to get our money’s worth out of the convention center, our number one consideration HAS to be getting as many quality conferences and conventions booked as possible. Their attendees bring new money to the economy. A convention center without conventions is what? A center?

The convention industry is incredibly competetive. The ways you rise to the top in that cutthroat business are straightforward:

1) Build a space that functions well inside (nobody is currently debating here what makes for a good INSIDE, so we won’t go there)

2) Build on a location that gives convention-goers the easiest-possible route to and from the other places they will be, ie their hotels and quality dining/entertainment. We already have ready-made downtown hotels and entertainment, and are highly competetive in those areas. Currently, we also have a high-quality walkable location from the convention center to them. This allows our CVB to get bookings it probably would otherwise have no shot at, considering the inadequate building they are working with.

In other words, the walkable nature of the curent location makes us surprisingly competetive.

The people who book conventions place a very high priority on the convention facility, the hotels, and dining/entertainment being WALKABLE to each other. Providing this connectivity puts you at the head of the class for bookings. Not doing so means you drop off quickly and everything else (lack of direct flights, etc.) are looked at with that much more of a critical eye.

People flying in for conferences and conventions would prefer to avoid car rental, taxi fares, motorcoach rental, and other items dictated by a poorly located convention center. They don’t WANT a parking lot. They don’t want to park at all, or if they do, they want to park at their hotel and walk.

We now have a chance to build a convention center the way it is SUPPOSED to be built. Perhaps we shouldn’t squander this opportunity because of priorities that have NOTHING to do with maximizing the success of the convention industry.

Again, if you’re not going to build it right, why build it at all?

Look at Dallas, where the convention center was isolated in south Downtown. The CITY OF DALLAS is building a 1,000 room hotel adjacent to the convention center in order to better serve the convention business.

Also, the city could never get private enterprise to build a hotel next to the convention building because it is not busy every day and its location is remote.

Kudos to Janet. She really gets how convention centers work in the real world. I don’t know if Janet works for the CVB, but if she doesn’t, she should!

All posters are advised to read and memorize Janet’s posts, because they best reflect the reality of the convention marketplace. Yes, airport, etc., also matter, but OKC has a great airport–now.