The first of the four KPIs we'd like to highlight is the Minneapolis Convention Center (MCC) revenue. There is no other American city where the local destination marketing organization (DMO) has direct responsibility for revenue generation in the primary convention facility. That may not sound significant, but one of the most divisive internal disagreements that a convention city has is the inherent conflict between the convention center that is charged with generating direct revenue for the facility and the local DMO that is responsible for generating hotel room nights for the community. The rub comes at the times when a discounted convention center or other incentives are required as a condition of sale for the convention organizer.

With our unique partnership, Meet Minneapolis is responsible for both hotel room night production and MCC revenue generation. This dual responsibility mandates a balanced and sensible approach to building a successful local convention and meetings industry. It also keeps the peace and allows Meet Minneapolis and the MCC to focus on our customers. Our Senior Vice President of Destination Sales, Brent Forester, served in a similar role in Milwaukee before returning to his home here in Minneapolis. His former city actually sent a small delegation here to study our model, and our counterpart cities across the country frequently lament their DMO-convention center relationships, which are often dysfunctional.

As of today, the Meet Minneapolis team in conjunction with the MCC’s award winning operational staff is on pace to exceed $17 million in revenue for the year, an all-time record. I asked MCC Executive Director Jeff Johnson to provide some context, and he said, “2015 is turning into a historic year for the Minneapolis Convention Center. The convention center continues to break revenue records with our best half year ever and now our best October revenue month in our history. But that is not the whole story. We also expect November to break another record, culminating in a record total revenue at year end.

“Records are achieved through hard work and great partnerships. Meet Minneapolis and the City of Minneapolis forged a unique results-based, One Team approach to our partnership that is reaping great rewards through focused efforts that provide thousands of jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars to our community.”

The all-time MCC revenue record for October that was set last month was anchored by hosting Railway Interchange, a consortium of four railway industry associations that met with us for the second time. Their event was so successful that they actually ran out of name badges for their attendees!

The news is just as promising for our other KPIs: group room nights, leisure room nights and private revenue generation. Stay tuned for a look at these in upcoming Meet Minneapolis Minute issues.

The first of the four KPIs we'd like to highlight is the Minneapolis Convention Center (MCC) revenue. There is no other American city where the local destination marketing organization (DMO) has direct responsibility for revenue generation in the primary convention facility. That may not sound significant, but one of the most divisive internal disagreements that a convention city has is the inherent conflict between the convention center that is charged with generating direct revenue for the facility and the local DMO that is responsible for generating hotel room nights for the community. The rub comes at the times when a discounted convention center or other incentives are required as a condition of sale for the convention organizer.

With our unique partnership, Meet Minneapolis is responsible for both hotel room night production and MCC revenue generation. This dual responsibility mandates a balanced and sensible approach to building a successful local convention and meetings industry. It also keeps the peace and allows Meet Minneapolis and the MCC to focus on our customers. Our Senior Vice President of Destination Sales, Brent Forester, served in a similar role in Milwaukee before returning to his home here in Minneapolis. His former city actually sent a small delegation here to study our model, and our counterpart cities across the country frequently lament their DMO-convention center relationships, which are often dysfunctional.

As of today, the Meet Minneapolis team in conjunction with the MCC’s award winning operational staff is on pace to exceed $17 million in revenue for the year, an all-time record. I asked MCC Executive Director Jeff Johnson to provide some context, and he said, “2015 is turning into a historic year for the Minneapolis Convention Center. The convention center continues to break revenue records with our best half year ever and now our best October revenue month in our history. But that is not the whole story. We also expect November to break another record, culminating in a record total revenue at year end.

“Records are achieved through hard work and great partnerships. Meet Minneapolis and the City of Minneapolis forged a unique results-based, One Team approach to our partnership that is reaping great rewards through focused efforts that provide thousands of jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars to our community.”

The all-time MCC revenue record for October that was set last month was anchored by hosting Railway Interchange, a consortium of four railway industry associations that met with us for the second time. Their event was so successful that they actually ran out of name badges for their attendees!

The news is just as promising for our other KPIs: group room nights, leisure room nights and private revenue generation. Stay tuned for a look at these in upcoming Meet Minneapolis Minute issues.