RUSSELL

By Reid Creager

Because there’s less political uncertainty surrounding this year’s Democratic National Convention than four years ago, local communities hope that translates into more time for media, delegates and the general public to focus on activities and attractions in their areas.

“Four years ago, we were pretty sure who the nominee was going to be for the DNC -— but it was kind of still touch and go,” said Bill Russell, president of the Lake Norman Chamber. “Hillary [Clinton] still had a chance, and nobody really knew who Obama was and who Obama’s running mate was going to be. So there was still a little bit of that air of suspense.”

Since that’s not the case this year, “there’s probably going to be a little more time for the delegates themselves to enjoy the surrounding area than perhaps the delegates of 2008, who had to develop a plank and had to pick the delegates and had to focus on the politics.”

Russell and Courtney Wolfrom, marketing manager at Visit Lake Norman, know that it’s not just about the delegates. Media members are expected to make up about half the expected 35,000 people on hand during the week of Sept. 3. How they’re taken care of — and their perceptions of the region — could be even more crucial than the estimated $1 million-$2 million economic impact the DNC will have on the Lake Norman area.

“We’ve done a lot with working the media end of it,” Wolfrom said. “That’s where we look to capitalize on the opportunity. You can’t put all your eggs in one basket on a three-day convention. What you need to do is find the other ways that you can capitalize on that. Having the media attention on this event on a national and international event is quite phenomenal.”

Wolfrom said the recent surprise announcement that the event will be three days instead of four has its pros and cons. Assuming that many media members have already made their plans in terms of length of stay, “Having the Monday open hopefully does open that up for more people to get out and about and see the area.” On the other hand, the shorter duration of the event could affect the number of nights that general visitors will stay.

Website resources

For several months, Visit Lake Norman has had a whole website section devoted to the DNC — http://www.visitlakenorman.org/dnc/ — that features local vendor and business opportunities, upcoming events and an event planner resource page. Wolfrom said that “once everyone has their events all planned out, we’ll be the resource for all of that.

“Not only will we have a full events listing on the website, we’ll be putting out (materials) where they will actually have printed documents with events on it, as well as being able to access that database on our website. That’s connected to the host committee’s site for the DNC.”

Online help for DNC visitors is also a big part of Cabarrus County’s tourism efforts. “We are in the process of launching a new website to provide visitors with more dynamic information on everything Cabarrus County has to offer — from the racing experience to Historic Downtown Concord to Reed Gold Mine,” said Melissa McGill, communications manager for the Cabarrus County Convention & Visitors Bureau. “Our new 2012-2013 Cabarrus County destination guides will be completed in time for the DNC as well.

“Also, we are planning a special direct mail piece to the delegations that will be staying in Cabarrus County hotels. This is our way of introducing Cabarrus County and enticing them to experience the county’s attractions and restaurants in addition to staying in our hotels. Our sales staff will also assist as the delegations look for venues for special events they plan host during the convention.”

Concord Motor Speedway, one of Cabarrus’ major attractions, has planned a Labor Day family festival to kick off DNC week. Designed to welcome Carolinians, tourists, media and delegates to the host city, the Sept. 3 event will be a free, non-partisan community celebration of the South. The family festival will feature live entertainment, activities and exhibitions that showcase Charlotte and the Carolinas. Beyond that, a CMS spokesperson said that the track currently has no specific DNC-related plans.

Hotels on hold

With many Golden Crescent communities just 15-20 minutes from uptown, local officials hope media, delegates and visitors will opt to stay in an area that doesn’t have the traffic and potential chaos near the DNC-related events. Visit Lake Norman says it worked with the Democratic National Convention Committee to secure 12 hotels in Cornelius, Huntersville and Davidson for the period surrounding the event.

But as is the case for VLN, the CVB and other tourism efforts, much is on hold for hotels until the committee has determined delegate placement for states (scheduled to be announced in February). “The DNCC isn’t giving out a lot of information yet, because I don’t believe there is any,” said Brad Marsico, vice president of sales for SREE Hotels. SREE has 14 hotels in the Charlotte area, including two Marriott products in Huntersville and four in Cabarrus.

“We’ll really know once the delegation knows how many rooms and where they’re going to be staying. That’s the key. If they say Iowa is staying in this hotel and Vermont is staying in this hotel and the press is staying in this hotel, that’s when we’ll know where we stand.”

The situation with delegates dominoes into plans for media members, Marsico said: “I could have sold each of my hotels out five times over if I took all the press rooms that I’ve been called about. But I’m not because we’re holding rooms waiting to hear from the host committee who is staying where and how many rooms they need.”