CONVENTIONS
impact they have and the fact that we were able to go a year and a half without them ... just shows the domestic popularity of Miami and Miami Beach.
MH: Many are doing business meetings and conventions online or using a hybrid model — does this worry you for the future of conventions? The Herald recently covered the SeaTrade cruise convention and in-person participation was low.
DW: It’s a convention of the cruise line industry, one of the hardest hit industries. ... So SeaTrade was a unique situation, but [the cruise industry] will be the first to tell you that people are missing in-person [gatherings]. We’re hearing this from our clients, they’re missing in-person meetings, the kind of things that happen at them — the conversation in the hallway at the sponsored client event, that personal touch.
I’m relatively new here, but in my previous work in Chicago, a lot of our largest conventions were going to have satellite conventions and maybe not everybody together all at once. There’s been a great disruption in conventions. You talked about the hybrid model, and there is the potential for new, smaller meetings. So we’ll have to see how the conditions change.
MH: Which cities do you see as your main competition?
DW: Because of our building’s expansion, now we’re able to compete with some buildings that we weren’t necessarily competitive with before, and that would include Washington, D.C., and would include Orlando. We’ll want to compete with [those cities] now that we have the size. We’re half the size of McCormick Place in Chicago or Las Vegas. But the rest of the country, Look out, we’re coming for business, and we now have one of the finest convention centers and one of the most attractive destinations in the country. We have huge, huge expectations.
MH: Where do you think that you need to raise your game?
DW: One of the things we know is that we can never outdo ourselves, or excel enough in, is customer service. Because of the disruption to the workforce ... restaurants are struggling to get all their employees back. Hotels are struggling to get all their employees back. We need to look at replenishing the workforce. [Restaurants, hotels and airlines] will share their absolute commitment to bring our service levels back and that’s going to require a lot of focus and commitment.