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| 2019 CAPPO Conference |
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102nd CAPPO Annual Educational Conference and Supplier Expo January 14-18, 2019
Sheraton Grand Hotel & Sacramento Convention Center Sacramento, CA
Conference Report - 3.31.2019 Darryl Sweet, CPSM, C.P.M. President 2018-2019
Below is shortened version of the recap report; Download the full version here.
This is a reporting of our association’s annual conference held in January in Sacramento. Before launching into the nitty-gritty of the event, I wish to thank everyone who was in attendance. The conference committee put a lot of extra time and effort into putting on the best possible conference. To have you in attendance, and to see the positive energy of attendees from learning, networking, and enjoying your time is truly rewarding.
Background I began looking at properties late in 2015, primarily in the SF Bay Area. At that time the RFP document provided to hotel & conference facilities had the following specifications:
CAPPO members: 1,300 Estimated Attendees: 300-350 Estimated Expo vendors: 120 Estimated room nights: 1,000 Peak night rooms: 250
It was truly a learning experience submitting the RFP to properties and receiving the responses. In December 2015 I attended a trade show attended by nearly all the property representatives in the state. I made dozens of contacts and sent each of them the CAPPO Conference RFP.
San Francisco. Of the 10+ San Francisco properties I approached, only one had a week open in January 2019. Every other property responded that they were booked five-plus years out (I was looking a little over three years ahead of time). The one hotel in SF that did have availability was the Hyatt Regency Embarcadero. It looked promising… but only for a short time. I was excited to speak to them, and arrived ready to talk through the RFP.
The Hyatt’s lowest room rate was nearly double that of prior years. Parking was slated at $60/night and was strictly non-negotiable. Conference space could only handle 90-92 vendors. My hope of a conference in the City quickly faded.
San Jose. San Jose was similar to the SF situation. There was no availability at properties where we fit, and nothing in January at all; also, there was simply no expo space, as it had been booked years prior. Responses from the Napa region said we were a too big for their facilities.
Oakland and Sacramento each responded. The Oakland property had a lot going for it. I can see us there in the future, but for 2019 I could not justify the room rate, parking, and F&B premium for the Oakland site compared to what Sacramento offered. Sacramento put forth the right combination of room rate, food & beverage costs, travel accessibility, scalability, and more. The Sheraton Grand and Convention Center in Sacramento paired up, approached me with a great proposal, and walked me through exactly what they could do for CAPPO.
Annual Conference 2019
Another huge thanks for the folks who volunteered to put on the Sacramento event. Words are not enough to express my gratitude for your efforts. And you produced such a successful conference. Here is the committee that stepped up to put together the 2019 event for you:
2019 Conference Details Earlier I provided the RFP specifications. Here are the membership and attendee breakdown for 2019. CAPPO has 1,865 total members.
Conference Attendee Breakdown
2019 Conference Budget to Actual
A year and a half prior to the conference, in July 2017, the original budget (left column) was developed based on historical conference spend combined with the year-to-year changes the association had experienced in the few immediate prior conferences. In September 2018, the budget was revised (center column) based upon member and vendor activity, which caused us to amend projections with some real data to back it up. Primarily, we monitored room nights, conference registrations, and supplier expo registrations.
The right column is the 2019 conference actuals as of the latest reporting in mid-February. Income, while less than originally budgeted, wound up higher than the revised budget. Actual expenses were below both original and revised budgeted amounts. From this, and the supporting detail that backs it up, the Sacramento Conference wound up a little bit in the positive column, netting about $36,800. We have historically budgeted conferences to break even.
Financial Reports
2019 Conference Presentations
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A huge thanks to my conference chair, Hugh Smith, C.P.M., Past President and retired CAPPO Business Officer. Hugh told me he’d get it done! He did. Thank you.
The conference committee worked very diligently, hard, smart, and with care in order to fulfill the conference vision.
