Events take a village. By working with Visit Bellevue, the planners for Lenovo Tech World 2024 show the transformative power of partnership.
Lenovo Tech World is the global technology company’s annual event, and as events at this level go, it’s an enormous undertaking for the planners organizing it. After the 2023 event in Austin, the planners from Event Strategy Group (ESG) looked towards the Pacific Northwest for the 2024 gathering, “Smarter AI for All.” They chose the tech-forward city of Bellevue, located just east of Seattle.
Through the involved, supportive relationship they built with Visit Bellevue and working closely with destination sales manager Marty McCormack, ESG’s Renee Scullin, president, and Allison Swank, senior event manager, were able to make Lenovo Tech World 2024 a complete success.
Choosing Bellevue to Host Lenovo Tech World 2024
Meeting Attendee Needs
Bellevue is a major tech hub in the Pacific Northwest, which made it a top choice right off the bat. With a large number of attendees coming from Asia, the West Coast location provided an unmatched ease of travel, and its proximity to Seattle made it even easier, being less than a 30-minute drive from Seattle and SEA-TAC Airport.
As the destination sales manager at Visit Bellevue, McCormack shares that Bellevue really is a very upscale, “Smart City” destination. Its position as home to numerous tech companies makes it a prime choice for tech meetings in particular.
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Strategic About Size and Scale
McCormack addressed the benefit of meeting in a smaller city, saying, “We definitely are a little bit of a smaller tier city, but we still have so much to offer, and it’s very easy to get around when a group the size of Lenovo Tech World comes. They really took over the city while they were here.”
Scullin adds, “It’s a very walkable city too. Even though we had attendees at many different properties, we were able to walk around. We could run to the convention center to go grab something and then run right back.”
The smaller size of the city also provided unique, more exclusive opportunities. Scullin says, “We were able to brand some of the flagpoles that were on the path to the convention center. There were opportunities for us to buy out different destinations and evening event venues that we might not have had access to in a larger city.”
Scullin and Swank knew their expected number of attendees; they had a vision for the design, and ideas about how they wanted the general session and a number of exclusive evening events, respectively, to work. With all of this in mind, they knew that Meydenbauer Center, Bellevue’s conference center, alongside other activation spaces throughout the city, worked to meet those needs.
How working with the CVB helps meet attendee needs
When planners work with the local CVB of their chosen destination, communication is key.
Scullin and Swank’s overarching goal was to make a memorable edition of an annual large-scale event. By getting to know their program, needs and vision, McCormack was able to go above and beyond curating their options.
On the Same Page
“Many of the people who come to Tech World have been to Tech World before, so we wanted to show them something new and fresh,” says Swank. “We need to stand out and make our client look like the best, provide the most memorable experience, beyond the show or keynote, and Marty really helped us get there, especially for our evening events. Having Marty, who understood the group and what we were looking for, and who was really patient with us as we exhausted every inch of Bellevue and the surrounding area, and thought of some really wild, out-there ideas, was really important and helpful.”
McCormack worked hard to comprehensively understand their program. He says, “If we’re getting together and I just start talking about how great-value this activity is, or look at this other activity, I don’t know what they want. I have to listen to what they’re saying and try to get a feel of what they’re describing to me, who their attendees are and what’s important to them. This was a premier event for them, and they made that clear.”
His job, he says, is to hear them. “It’s all about getting all that feedback, if something is a good fit or if it doesn’t work so well, and letting it sink in,” he says. “And then, hopefully, bringing that DMO knowledge to recommend certain places or activities to see if we’re all on the same page moving forward.”
Thinking Outside the Box
One of the most important events at Lenovo Tech World is the evening event. “This event is for invited, exclusive customers and partners from all over the world. So, they’re high-level attendees, and we wanted to do this special evening event,” says Scullin. “We had AJR coming to perform, and we spent so much time with Marty trying to find something within Bellevue, because we didn’t want to take attendees out of Bellevue, and we were so worried about coordinating transportation to Seattle.” Finally, though, they decided to hold the event at MoPop, the Museum of Pop Culture, at Seattle Center.
“We were so worried about the transportation, but it turned out to be nothing. It was fine. Nobody minded; even the most high-end attendees of the over 1,000 people were more than willing to take a 25 minute trip into Seattle for a cool event, a cool venue and a great band,” she says.
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McCormack adds that, as the CVB representative, his greatest priority was to do whatever was in his power to make their event as successful as possible. “It was an exhaustive search, and as a DMO, I’m not going to push them into a place that doesn’t quite fit and then risk the event going bad. That’s not good for anybody,” he says. “I mean, in Bellevue, they could have used Meydenbauer Center, but they were already using Meydenbauer Center [for the general session], so we couldn’t really use that. And they wanted something unique, and MoPop is a really great, unique space to go.”
The CVB as the Planner’s Advocate
This ability on the part of the CVB to serve as advocate becomes especially handy in those last-minute uh-oh situations. Swank recounts that the event had a bus show up to transport attendees to an off-site, but they didn’t have a permit to stage it in the area. The situation came to light about 20 minutes before people needed to be picked up. “We had Marty on our side to knock on the city’s door and say, ‘Hey, this is legitimate.’ Having this kind of advocacy is completely helpful.”
The CVB has local relationships that can bring the planner many steps ahead of where they would be working on their own. “Marty having those on-the-ground relationships really did help, because he was able to validate that we were serious about things and wanted it to work,” says Scullin.
When Scullin and Swank came to learn that they wouldn’t be able to fully buy out one hotel alone, McCormack’s relationships came to alleviate some of the burden of managing contract negotiations and room blocks for multiple properties. “What I’d say I helped with,” McCormack says, “is calling and knowing the local person at the hotel, saying, ‘They need some more rooms, so what can we do to get to this number?’ We’ll work with the local contact and find out what’s important to them as far as their revenue.”
Through the advocacy McCormack was able to provide, Scullin says, “The contract negotiations were as breezy as they can be, and when we had some changes and we did grow, we needed more rooms, and they were still willing to give us more rooms even towards the end, which was really helpful.”
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The Partnership Advantage
From the CVB perspective, McCormack says, it’s all about being a partner to the planner while in the thick of it.
“We’re trying to understand the program, and we hopefully have a good idea of what they’re looking for. And hopefully, we’re making their job easier, putting them in touch with the right people, which is probably one of the most challenging parts,” he says.
Having a go-to CVB contact can save planners lots of time when it comes to getting in touch with the right people, rather than the planner going through two or three contacts before finding the right person. The CVB representative’s advocacy to these organizations also plays a big role because the organization knows, based on the CVB representative’s testimony, that the planner is serious.
In many cases, Swank says, working with CVBs can be viewed as a complication or an unnecessary set of extra steps. However, this isn’t always the case, and much of the time, working with the CVB can provide a distinct advantage. “Especially if it’s a complicated program like Tech World, it helps to have someone advocating for you who understands the full scope of your program,” says Swank.
“[The CVB] provides someone that can understand the needs of your event and help with your transportation, your executive needs. It’s like having a planner on your side who knows the city like the back of their hand and truly does want to help you.”
