For seven years, Kate Williamson worked hard to persuade a variety of groups to hold their national conventions in Salt Lake City as convention director for the Salt Lake Convention and Visitors Bureau.
In her new job as events director for the Salt Palace Convention Center, Williamson can see the fruits of her labor as the various meetings come to town.Williamson has been in her new job for only a few days after appointment by Clifford Rippetoe, Salt Palace general manager, and admits she has plenty to learn so that the conventions will go smoothly and the visitors have a positive experience.
She'll get into her job quickly because the Outdoor Retailer Association trade show comes to the Salt Palace this week with more than 15,000 people, the largest convention the Salt Palace has ever hosted. It's so big that two extra pavilions with 70,000 square feet have been constructed to augment the recently refurbished and expanded convention facility.
Williamson was instrumental in getting the Outdoor Retailer Association to Salt Lake City and also convinced the group to return after a brief hiatus while the Salt Palace was being expanded.
The Outdoor Retailer group has been booked for winter and summer meetings through 1999, and Williams is holding dates for further trade shows through 2007. She said the people displaying their outdoor products in the closed setting like the Salt Palace and Salt Lake City because of the closeness of the hotels and compactness of the surroundings.
When she was employed by the bureau, Williamson sold conventions just like any saleswoman would sell cosmetics. She traveled some and made plenty of telephone calls to associations telling the conventions managers about the advantages of holding meetings in Salt Lake City.
To do that, she had to be upbeat and have plenty of information about the hotels, restaurants and the city. She said Salt Lake City is a great place to hold meetings because it is "comfortable and safe."
Williamson is directing five event managers in her new job, each responsible to ensure that everything goes smoothly. In the event a manager is not available during the convention, Williamson will have to know enough about conventiongoers' needs so she can fill in.
In her new job, Williamson must communicate with all departments of the Salt Palace to make certain stages and platforms are in place, microphones are working and there are plenty of chairs. With more than 400 contracted events scheduled in the Salt Palace during 1997, that is a big job.
It isn't difficult to sell the Salt Palace to convention managers once they come to town and see what's available, Williamson said from her new office on the third floor of the Salt Palace.
She believes the number and size of the conventions will continue to grow because of the city's good facilities.