The Value of CVBs: Essential Partners in Event Planning
Convention and Visitor Bureaus (CVBs) play a vital role in helping planners create successful events. These nonprofit organizations—sometimes referred to as Destination Marketing Organizations (DMOs)—share a common mission: to attract visitors and support events within their communities. They’re dedicated to helping planners create memorable, successful gatherings—offering expert guidance, strong community connections, and local know-how every step of the way.
At RCMA, we’ve seen firsthand how valuable these partnerships are. CVBs and DMOs provide trusted recommendations, meaningful relationships, and regional expertise that help planners find the right fit for their events. According to our 2024 planner survey, our members deeply value these organizations (below). To explore what makes these relationships so impactful, we spoke with professionals from some of the country’s most respected CVBs and DMOs. Their insights shed light on how these partners make a lasting difference—especially for faith-based meetings and events.
What are the biggest advantages of starting your event planning process with a CVB?
Tom: Think of your destination sales representative, or CVB rep, as your eyes and ears on the inside. We know our cities and towns inside and out, from venues to hotels to transportation options and off-site venues. We also know the calendar and city schedule. Do you know if there is a major marathon affecting traffic patterns on your arrival day? We do. Do you know if there will be a major construction project happening around the convention center over your dates? We do. Do you know when an arts festival is happening which could enhance your attendees’ stay? We do.
Allow your DMO or CVB sales representative to get to know you, your event, and your attendee demographics. We are here to provide you with recommendations tailored to your group’s specific needs. When you consider a destination, your CVB partners can facilitate a site visit to help educate and build your familiarity with the destination. This visit is your chance to immerse yourself in the flavor of the city, keeping in mind your attendees’ experience. After you book with a bureau, allow us to support your event’s marketing initiatives to help build awareness and excitement.
Jerrine: CVBs are your destination experts and one-stop shops to streamline your planning process. We are your trusted local partner offering complimentary and expert guidance every step of the way. Our focus is on saving you time, reducing stress, and connecting you with the right venues and vendors to help deliver a memorable experience.
Lacy: It will save you a ton of time and set you up for success from the beginning. Starting your planning process with a CVB provides invaluable local expertise and connections to venues, accommodations, and service providers, saving you significant time and effort. Additionally, we often offer complimentary marketing assistance, meeting enhancements, and other resources to help promote your event and attract attendees. Think of us as your on-the-ground meeting concierge.
Andy: Using a CVB to start the planning process at the time of sourcing is such an advantage. Ideally, it starts even before working on a specific event by developing the relationship with the CVB team so they already know about your events and how the destination would be a good fit for when the time comes. This builds trust and confidence that is a must when sourcing, booking, and hosting an event in a destination. When working together from the beginning, the CVB team can use their resources and intel to be an advocate about the group when working with the hotels, venues and partners. This increases opportunities for personalization and unique solutions that can leverage many valuable resources from the beginning of the planning all the way through the final wrap up of the event.
How can CVBs help planners save time, reduce costs, and avoid common planning mistakes?
Lacy: Working with a CVB can significantly save planners time by providing readily available information on local venues, hotels, and vendors, eliminating extensive independent research. We have established relationships that also help secure better rates and negotiate contracts, thus reducing costs. Often, we can offer incentives to bring your meeting to our city and provide local expertise to avoid frustration related to logistics, permitting, and understanding the destination's unique requirements.
Tom: Well,“we know a guy”. Our team is well known across our tight-knit city and as a result we can make introductions to the appropriate venues and providers who understand our business. When you are referred to a local vendor or partner by the CVB, you have instant buying credibility and power, and rest assured, the vendor has been vetted. Our partners understand the business we are in and the value our clients bring to the destination. Our services team, which steps in once the city is booked, has decades of experience. Typically, service professionals are very consultative and believe me, they’ve seen and heard it all before. They know the best ways to activate meeting spaces, plan transportation routes, select offsite venues and caterers, and can tell you what pitfalls to avoid.
Jerrine: We offer personalized support from day one, sourcing multiple venues and hotels to gather rates, dates, and space—saving you hours of work. Our destination services team provides a suite of complimentary resources to reduce costs, and some meetings may even qualify for grants or incentives. Instead of navigating alone, let us customize a site visit that connects you with the destination, introduces you to key players, and highlights the hidden gems that make our destination special.
Andy: Our Visit Cincy team saves valuable time for our planners by quickly understanding the hotels, event spaces and dates that work best for their particular program, and if there are any special incentives to help offset costs to the group including complimentary housing services, financial underwriting support, hotel room rebates and special concessions and reduced or complimentary event space rental based on F&B, AV and Wi-Fi minimums.
How does your team customize support for faith-based events?
Lacy: In Fort Worth, our team customizes support by understanding the specific needs and values of your organization. We can connect you with venues that align with your requirements, provide information on local resources that cater to your attendees, and help create a memorable experience for your attendees with the Fort Worth flair.
Tom: All groups, whether faith-based, corporate, national association, or sporting events, have unique and special needs. Customization should be the norm. When it comes to faith-based programming, it’s important that the destination understands the group’s faith and practices. Different groups of faith may require specific dietary restrictions, worship needs, prayer times, or Sabbath observances. Seating for worship or devotional services may require extra space or a special setup. We ask qualifying questions to ensure we have a clear understanding. In addition, some groups require cultural sensitivity and our team can ensure the hotels, restaurants, and venues are prepared to serve, placing these sensitivities at the forefront to ensure a great experience for all. To cater to the faith-based groups’ unique set of needs, the PWCVB has a dedicated salesperson who works specifically with these groups. Kerri Furtado has worked with dozens of faith-based groups over the years and receives high accolades from her returning client base. She knows the market inside and out and is well-equipped to serve the needs of faith-based communities.
Jerrine: At Visit Richmond, VA, we take pride in tailoring support to fit the unique needs and values of faith-based events. We are your partner on purpose and will work closely with your team to understand your mission and align our services accordingly. We offer a customized welcome program to ensure your attendees feel a warm and genuine connection to our destination upon arrival. Our team has experience assisting with everything from straightforward needs like coordinating volunteers for registration to more detailed logistics such as managing shuttle transportation.
Andy: Our Visit Cincy team connects directly with each organization and their planners to understand their specific needs and objectives before compiling a bid. Understanding these unique requirements and requests allows us to personalize our approach to consider what is most important to their decision including a range of options from local and regional support, engaged volunteers, unique venue options, multi-generational activities and support (for example, additional transportation for elderly guests or child support for kids traveling with their parents) and many other options that ensure all attendees enjoy a memorable experience.
What are some ways planners can fully take advantage of everything a CVB has to offer?
Andy: Develop an ongoing relationship with the CVB, experience opportunities for FAM trips and site tours, provide historic data related to hotel rooms, F&B and AV used and share what is most important to the group when selecting a destination. Take time during the bid process to get an overview of all of the CVB support, not just sales. The services team and welcome program, group housing options, local support, marketing, social media, public relations and inclusive hospitality are so beneficial, and planners that use them can receive the additional value for the entire group and all their attendees.
Jerrine: You can take full advantage of the CVB resources when you reach out early and share your event goals and vision. The more we know–your objectives, past success, challenges, and specific needs - the better we can tailor our expertise and resources to support. Open communication allows us to become true partners in the success of your event!
Lacy: As a planner, you can fully leverage a CVB's offerings by engaging with them early in the planning process to tap into their local knowledge of venues, vendors, speakers, and services. Utilize our complimentary services like site inspection coordination, proposal assistance, and marketing materials to save time and resources. Additionally, build a strong relationship with your CVB contact to benefit from their expertise in navigating the local landscape and potential challenges.
Tom:
#1 – Look for that prominent “contact us” button on our website (goprovidence.com). Reach out! We want to learn about you, your needs, and your attendees' expectations.
#2 – Simply shopping for rates, dates, and space does not allow us to provide the customization and experience you are seeking. We need to dig deeper to ensure we understand you and what you need to be successful. Write a comprehensive RFP that clearly outlines not only the physical needs of the event, but also how you want the attendee to feel upon arrival, during the event, and following the event. This information is key to helping us set the stage.
#3 – Ask us about promotions or incentives. During certain seasons or days of week, we may have an incentive available to help offset some costs.
#4 – Take time to conduct a thorough site visit. Your CVB rep loves nothing more than to show off their town. This is also the time to build the relationship and teach the destination about the nuances associated with your group.
#5 – Once booked, engage with the CVB service team to ensure they are meeting each and every need from start to finish – you may need to add a group outing or sponsored dinner at the very last minute, and our team can help with that!