Elsewhere, centers have their own sites, with links to the CVB sites. Square feet of exhibit space, number of meeting rooms, expansion plans, policies, ADA accessibility, etc. Meeting planners will be able to look at a room and its possible configurations and get a feel for how the room looks, say, with a classroom setup or theater setup. The drawback is that users need Apple QuickTime. Clients whose shows are listed on the calendar can link their Web sites to ours, so that people who want more information about an event can immediately go to the producer's site and find out more.
Some centers have special areas for exhibitors and attendees.
In Austin, says Hall, they are proposing an exhibitor checklist of all the center's services, much like the standard printed form for such services. With one click of their mouse, it will be e-mailed to our utility services group, who will enter the information into its database. When the exhibitors show up at the event and go to the utility booth, we'll run their credit card. The many useful, informational sites on the Web have increased people's expectations of what they can find on any and every site, including CVB and convention center sites. Only a year or two ago, visiting Web sites wasn't part of most show managers' lives.