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Managing Entertainment

Memorial Hall

Pueblo, Colorado

Memorial Hall in Pueblo, Colorado, was built in 1919 and was dedicated by President Woodrow Wilson. The nearly century-old auditorium underwent a $12 million renovation and restoration and reopened in July 2013, just as Global Spectrum took over its management.

Before Global Spectrum stepped in, Memorial Hall booked about four events per year; in 2014, it hosted 65 events ranging from local meetings to national acts such as Chris Isaak and Peter Frampton, said Brian Hoffman, general manager of both the Pueblo Convention Center and Memorial Hall.

Because Global Spectrum is both an event and entertainment company, planners who want to book entertainment there have access to a national network of entertainers. The hall is only two blocks from the Pueblo Convention Center.

“With managing both properties, we like to think we have a leg up on others to provide that extra entertainment or general session meeting place,” Hoffman said.

When helping planners with entertainment, the staff first finds out what is already planned at Memorial Hall and offers a convention discount. If no entertainment is scheduled, Global Spectrum “will reach out to our contacts and try to tailor some kind of off-site evening event,” Hoffman said. The company also brings acts to the convention center, which is getting a 40,000-square-foot expansion that is slated to be complete in May 2017.

www.pueblomemorialhall.com

 

Visit Wichita

Wichita, Kansas

Planners often come to Visit Wichita, the city’s CVB, seeking help with entertainment. They usually fall into one of three categories, said Maureen Hofrenning, vice president of sales for Visit Wichita.

First are planners who want off-site entertainment that will allow their attendees to experience the destination. Then there are planners who want help bringing in entertainment to their event. Finally, if a group will have a free evening, many planners seek the CVB’s help in recommendations for the night, such as setting up a dine-around, a pub crawl or simply getting them to Wichita’s historic Old Town district.

“Each group is really different in terms of what their needs are,” Hofrenning said. “We can be a great source of information for them on what would be a good fit.”

For off-site entertainment, she often recommends Prairie Rose Chuckwagon Supper, a 77-acre Old West-style venue where cowboy entertainers sing songs and tell stories. In the same Western heritage vein is the Old Cowtown Museum, a 23-acre living-history museum that re-creates life in an 1870s-era Great Plains town.

For on-site entertainment, the CVB works with local acts such as the Diamond W Wranglers, Curtis the Mentalist and comedians from the Loony Bin Comedy Club.

One of the most unusual requests Visit Wichita ever received was from a group that wanted a flash mob to surprise attendees by serenading them at the event. Hofrenning reached out to the music department at Friends University and arranged for students to mill around in the convention center then suddenly break into song and dance.

“Because we have those relationships, it’s easy to come up with those kinds of things,” she said.

www.visitwichita.org