Estimates are that about 6,000 delegates from every state in the nation will participate in the four-day convention that will stretch across Labor Day Weekend 2012. From Statesville to Rock Hill, they'll be sleeping in our hotels, eating in our restaurants, trolling our retail establishments and exploring our tourist destinations.
Just what the economic bump, if any, will look like is a bit difficult to quantify, but David Parker, chairman of the North Carolina Democratic Party, says it's not all about the delegates.
"As conventions go, it's not that big a deal," Parker told more than a dozen small business owners at last week's Lake Norman Chamber of Commerce "Focus Friday" event. "It's not so much about the delegates that show up, it's about the 'pop.'"
That pop, he says, will come courtesy of the more than 18,000 members of the national and international press expected to descend on the area long before the delegates do. Parker says the Minneapolis-St. Paul region can testify to that theory, where officials estimated the public relations pop to come from the 2008 Republican National Convention held there generated somewhere in the neighborhood of $400 million.
"It's an opportunity for the world to get to know Charlotte on a first-name basis," Parker said. "That is your 400 million bucks right there."
Not all of those dollars are expected to wash up on Lake Norman's shores, but convention officials and local business proponents alike see an unprecedented opportunity for the towns of northern Mecklenburg and southern Iredell counties to cash in on the cachet of such a high-level event.
"This is a game changer," said Sally Ashworth, executive director of Visit Lake Norman (VLN), the region's convention and visitors bureau. "We've never had anything like this, and if we properly market our Lake Norman region, we can get a bigger piece of that pie."
A key ingredient in the pop pie, said Ashworth, is the online vendor directory that VLN and the Charlotte host committee for the convention have developed. It's estimated that there could be as many as 400 party functions and about 800 private group events during the delegates' four-day stay.
Event organizers will be looking for local expertise to pull off that many parties, and Ashworth encouraged all local businesses to register their wares with the online directory. Parker agreed that, regardless of the type of business, registration with the vendor directory is critical.
"They'll be looking for stuff to do during the day," Parker said of the convention-goers, as actual convention events will likely not begin until late afternoon and will continue into the evening. "Lake Norman has an awful lot to offer, and I think we can entice delegates to come up and spend a half a day in the area. ... What matters is where the people go during the day and the experiences they take back home with them."
Torre Jessup, the deputy executive director of the convention's host committee and a Huntersville resident, agreed that it is critical for visitors to get the sense of this region's uniqueness.
"The lake, our quality of life, our Southern hospitality, these are wonderful attributes of our community that the world needs to be aware of," Jessup told the business owners. He also encouraged local businesses to get involved in the vendor directory, adding that his experience at the 2008 convention in Denver was that area businesses truly benefited from working together to make the most of the delegate onslaught.
As to how the delegates and the media trailing them will spend their nights, hotel placement decisions will be made by the Democratic National Convention Committee (DNCC) beginning early next year. Ashworth said 12 Lake Norman-area hotels have already committed nearly 12,000 room nights from which the DNCC can choose to assign to the delegates.
Any way you slice it, Ashworth is optimistic about what the convention will mean locally, both in dollars and visibility.
"It doesn't get any better than this," she told the group last week. "This is a wonderful opportunity to start another chapter in our book."
Need 'pop'?
Local businesses can register with the Democratic National Convention vendor directory by visiting www.visitlakenorman.com or www.charlottein2012.com.
