Selling Maine as a convention destination: Balancing attractions with lack of space for larger events

New England square dancers, global seaweed leaders and American adventure travel executives are all coming to Maine this year for annual conventions. Not so the Maine Bankers Association, which traditionally goes out of state for its 400-plus yearly gathering.

The Westbrook-based trade group, which met in Bretton Woods, N.H., in 2021 and Newport, R.I., in 2022, will pitch up in Boston this September. While the association holds other meetings in Maine throughout the year, it hasn’t found a venue here big enough for convention goers to meet and stay under one roof.

“Earlier this year, we explored holding a future annual convention in Maine, but locating a venue that can accommodate a group of our size with overnight accommodations and meeting space in one property proved difficult,” says Jim Roche, the association’s president. Asked what it would take to hold the September event in Maine, he says: “A single, attractive venue with adequate overnight accommodations, as well as adequate space for 400-plus attendees. Area attractions and tours for attendees are an important consideration, too.”

While Vacationland boasts plenty of unique attractions and tour possibilities, the state’s lure for large meetings and events is limited by various factors. Disadvantages include the absence of a major airport and having only one convention-and-visitors’ bureau for the whole state. Unlike national meeting meccas like Chicago or Orlando, Maine also lacks a convention center with breakout rooms and other amenities. That means challenges as well as opportunities for a small, regional market like Maine.

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Photo / Courtesy Husson University

Lee Speronis is the head of Husson University’s School of Hospitality, Sport and Tourism Management.

“Gone are the days when you have a huge convention at a hotel featuring Jimmy Buffett as the lead entertainer,” says Lee Speronis, a former industry executive who leads and teaches at Husson University’s School of Hospitality, Sports and Tourism Management, part of the Bangor institution’s College of Business. “That doesn’t mean you can’t try, but what assets do we have in Maine that make us different? … You can have a two-day meeting here and then go whitewater rafting or parasailing. There are so many things you can do here that you can’t do in Chicago or Orlando. We need to promote how awesome we are.”

That is what Rachel Sağıroğlu aims to do at Experience Maine, a Portland travel concierge and event planning company that offers multiple venue and retreat options for business confabs. She also owns and runs the Maker’s Galley café, store and space for events from lobster-roll making to wine tastings and pop-up chef dinners.

“There is an appetite for meeting planners to get creative, and to maybe do things that are not just in the boardroom or in the conference room, like a meet-around in the city,” she says. Because of Maine’s short summers, that’s not always possible in the traditional conference months of April or October, she notes.

Sağıroğlu, who would like to see more meeting rooms than restaurants at new Portland hotels, sees competition for conferences heating up everywhere, making it even harder for Maine to stand out: “I think we compete with the world now that the world is back open,” she says.

Global demand ‘roaring back’

Out of more than 5,000 planners nationwide surveyed this spring by the Northstar Meetings Group, 57% are more optimistic than they were two months ago, while only 14% are less optimistic. But with less lead time to plan meetings, planners’ concerns about factors from higher costs to hotel staffing are increasing.

In terms of where planners are looking, demand is growing for cities and city centers, and hotels and resorts that can provide both meeting and lodging services, according to the report.

At global level, in-person meetings and events “are roaring back,” American Express says in its 2023 forecast report.. Two-thirds of 580 planners surveyed around the globe said they expect the number of in-person events to return to pre-pandemic levels within one to two years. Even in North America where respondents reported the highest percentage of completely remote workforces, off-site staff meetings and retreats have already surpassed 2019 levels.

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Photo / Courtesy Visit Portland

Visit Portland President and CEO Lynn Tillotson

In Maine, Visit Portland President and CEO Lynn Tillotson says that “things are finally starting to pick up,” amid a jump in queries from planners about Maine. As of mid-April, the nonprofit had assisted with 135 leads for Greater Portland, 15 of which are booked.

‘Bucket-list’ pitch

As the state’s only convention and visitors’ bureau after Bangor’s folded during the pandemic, VisitPortland teamed up with the Maine Office of Tourism for a campaign launched in 2021 to put Maine on the map as a conference and events destination.

Efforts include a mainemeetings.com website plugging the state as a “one-of-a-kind destination.” Put another way, as Tillotson relayed at Visit Portland’s annual meeting last month: “Discover our bucket-list destination for your next meeting.”

Results of the “Maine Meetings” campaign so far include 2 million impressions and 17,775 clicks on targeted Facebook ads, and 3.3 million impressions and 11,000 clicks on Google Ads.

But selling Maine as a meeting destination is no easy task for Visit Portland, a membership-funded organization that downsized from 11 people pre-pandemic to eight today, including Tillotson. And while she believes the pitch would be easier were there an actual convention center, she has no expectations of that happening anytime soon — putting Portland at a disadvantage not just to bigger cities, but also to regional peers like Hartford, Conn., and Providence, R.I.

Bullish nevertheless, Tillotson says, “One of the biggest selling points about Maine is that it’s Maine … Maine drives attendance, and that really helps with what we call ‘bleisure’ events — business plus leisure.”

Similarly, Maine Office of Tourism Director Steve Lyons says it makes sense for Maine to focus on smaller meetings, even for as few as 15 to 20 attendees.

“It does give some economic impact to some of those smaller communities that might be able to attract these smaller groups,” he says.

That’s not to say that Maine can’t host larger events, like last year’s National Governors Association three-day summer meeting in Portland. On food and drinks alone, 1,200 attendees spent close to $450,000 during their stay, and the overall economic impact was $4.2 million. Gov. Janet Mills, who lobbied to bring the event to Maine for the first time since 1983, hosted events including a lobster buffet dinner with live entertainment at Cape Elizabeth’s Fort Williams Park.

“We outdid ourselves last year,” Mills remarked when accepting Visit Portland’s “Meet in Maine” award last month for her efforts..  “We fought to get this [event] back here.”

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Photos / Ian Wagreich Photography

The National Governors Association meeting in Portland last June.

As much as Visit Portland would like to attract more gatherings of that scale to the state, the focus is on smaller conferences as convention tourism picks up.

Coming attractions

Among 2023’s coming attractions, one — an international aquaculture conference in September called Seagriculture USA — will be in Maine for the second time. Last year’s two-day debut in Portland brought 150 overnight attendees who spent $50,000 plus on lodging alone.

While attendees come from all over the world, around 60% are from Portland, says Kuno Jacobs, managing director of DLG Benelux, the Netherlands-based conference organizer.

“For our specific audience,” he says, “being close to where the action is, is crucial.

He also notes that despite Portland’s relatively small size, “the city exudes a cosmopolitan atmosphere and provides exceptional cruise and sightseeing opportunities.”

While the group has a conference in Europe in a different country every year, it aims to create a solid foundation before expanding to other locations on this side of the Atlantic.

Making its Maine debut this year is the Adventure Travel Trade Association’s AdventureELEVATE from May 8-11. The education and networking conference, taking place at the Holiday Inn By the Bay in Portland, kicks off with a day of outdoor excursions in the Portland area and the southern coast—most of which sold out early.

“The ATTA is thrilled to be able to come to Maine,” says Russell Walters, the Kingfield-based North America regional director for the global group who also runs the Northern Outdoors resort in the Forks. “It’s been on the radar for a long time, and I’m excited to see 300 of the leaders of outdoor active adventure travel come to Maine and experience it and hopefully come back and bring their guests.”

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Photo / Jim Neuger

Russell Walters is the North America regional director for the Adventure Travel Tourism Association and president of the Northern Outdoors resort in The Forks.

Auburn, Augusta and Westbrook

Outside of Portland, some cities are pro-actively seeking to attract meetings.

Auburn, for example, is taking a two-pronged approach, says Mayor Jason Levesque.

The first is to make use of Norway Savings Bank Ice Arena to attract trade fairs such as the annual Maine Home Show and Vacationland RV shows recently held in the 24,000-population Androscoggin County city. As the state’s only ice arena with two rinks, either can easily be removed for a trade show without cutting into too much ice time.

“The second approach we are working on is to bring large sports tourism events at the NCAA level to Auburn,” says Levesque. The city recently landed its first coup on that front, as host of the collegiate roller-hockey championships in April 2024. Levesque estimates that the event could have an economic impact of $2.4 million.

Levesque is keen to bring other college sports events to Auburn, saying, “Once you get the first one and you have a great review, the other ones start chasing you. The first one is always the most difficult.”

He also notes that the centrally located Hilton Garden Inn Riverwatch hotel hosts a number of smaller in-state conventions to trade groups of all types.

“One limiting factor is hotel space,” he says. “Ours are packed all the time, which leaves little room to absorb the influx of visitors a large convention would draw.”

In Maine’s capital city, the strategy is to promote the Augusta Civic Center as central Maine’s premier venue for sports, entertainment, conferences and conventions. Built in 1973, the 49,000-square-foot, 5,000-capacity venue houses a main auditorium, two ballrooms, 23 flexible-capacity rooms and full catering services. Proximity to I-95 and nearly 1,000 area hotel rooms are also big pluses.

“The city is committed to continuing to provide a quality visitor experience” says Keith Luke, Augusta’s economic development director. The first thing he tells an out-of-state group seeking a meeting space in that city: “The Augusta Civic Center continues to be your best choice in central Maine for meetings, conventions and trade shows — only an hour from Portland, Bangor and Maine’s popular midcoast destinations.”

And in Westbrook, where Waterstone Properties Group aims to have an event center built at the Rock Row mixed-use development by 2027. Mayor Michael Foley says a venue like that “would be a tremendous benefit to the state and region with the attraction of large events that we normally cannot even support today.”

Longer term, the hope is that Maine employers will stay in state for larger corporate gatherings.

“Large companies in our region like WEX and IDEXX are required to leave the state for such conventions,” Foley  says, “and hopefully someday we could host them right here in Westbrook.”

That also happens to be the home of the Maine Bankers Association.