The Super Bowl of Events

Cyndi Lesher, president of the Minneapolis-Saint Paul Host Committee for the 2008 Republican National Convention, says that of the 45,000 to 50,000 visitors expected for the first four days of September next year, 15,000 will be media professionals. “When we did the Super Bowl, there were 3,500, to give you some kind of comparison,” she says.

The convention will also bring in 2,000 delegates and 2,000 alternates and, it is estimated, 15,000 family or guests of attendees.

Not surprisingly, Lesher is enthusiastic about the effect all those visitors and media attention will have on the Twin Cities. “If you can do a political convention, you can do anything then and people know that,” she says. “People I was talking to in Chicago said that’s the reason they’re bidding the Olympics—they were able to transform and take their city to a level it wouldn’t have been at before. And that’s what a political convention does for you. So it opens us up for just fabulous things to come after this.”

We asked Lesher to tell us what meeting and event professionals specifically can expect from the convention, and how they can seize the opportunities it represents.

Twin Cities Business: What type of events typically happen in conjunction with a political convention?

Cyndi Lesher: There’ll be tons of events. There’s always a media party, which is generally the night before the convention. And that’s always well-attended. There will also be delegate parties for the various state delegates that are here. Some of those . . . like California is a big state so they’ll probably have their own party. Some smaller states sometimes go together.

You’ll have corporations or companies that will sponsor parties. They’ll want to entertain important customers or board members or industry associations or members of Congress who they know and are involved with their business.

TCB: We know that the host committee has asked the hotels in town to reserve space for the convention. Is it just hotel rooms?

Lesher: The Republican National Committee has the Committee on Arrangements, you’ll commonly hear called the COA, whose job is to put on the production of the convention. The RNC-COA secures hotel rooms, and they have secured 17,000 hotel rooms. The host committee, which I’m responsible for, secures the venues. We have about 70 to 80 venue sites.