Year after year, the Salt Lake CVB’s Convention & Client Services department excels at taking care of its clients to ensure successful meetings and encourage repeat business. As part of an on-going effort to provide exceptional service to incoming associations and conventions, complimentary local media relations support is offered, a unique service among convention bureaus and one sure to set a trend. 

Recent conventions taking advantage of Salt Lake’s value-added benefit have been impressed with the program’s uniqueness and the effectiveness of having a local public relations professional ‘on their team’ at no additional cost.

“The foresight of the Salt Lake Convention & Visitors Bureau to offer this service to visiting meetings and conventions is a great value, not only to the sponsoring entities but to the exhibitors that spend a great deal of money to attend these type of shows,” commented representatives of Hearth, Patio & Barbecue Association.
 
“Our convention & client service team is regarded as one of the best in the business,” states Scott Beck, who initiated the program shortly after being named president and CEO of the Salt Lake Convention & Visitors Bureau. “Our services department continually goes above and beyond to provide a wealth of services to make each client’s event a success from start to finish. We now combine those resources with complimentary PR assistance, taking the initiative to help promote the group’s mission and economic impact within our community. And the positive response from these associations has been overwhelming.”

The Salt Lake Convention & Visitors Bureau utilizes the services of Karen Boe, a local public relations and communications professional with more than 20 years of experience and a thorough knowledge of local media opportunities. Boe works closely with each incoming group’s communications professionals to ensure optimum message pickup; assists with tactical local media relations strategies designed to gain maximum exposure and visibility with a highly targeted message; creates customized media lists, researches and writes, then localizes each group’s media materials and conducts extensive media outreach and story pitching; and books and scripts television coverage, arranges for radio and print interviews and provides complete clip lists. 

Paula Keys Kun from the American Alliance for Health Physical Recreation and Dance was astounded with the results. “Working with the background information I provided, Karen was able to get AAHPERD more publicity in a convention city than I have ever seen in my many years here. I would seriously consider hiring such a PR professional in every convention city; it will be money well spent.” 

Additional accolades of the Salt Lake Convention & Visitors Bureau’s complimentary Local Media Outreach Program:

Rotary International: June 2007
“Your expertise regarding the local media was the perfect complement to our approach to media outreach. You are ‘relentless’ when it comes to media -- just what we needed! We should be so fortunate next summer in L.A.” Wayne Hearn, Senior Media Relations Specialist North America, Rotary International

Outdoor Retailer: August 2006
“I want to thank you for your help before, during and after Outdoor Retailer. Your energy and preparedness at 5:30 a.m. is truly amazing!  I look forward to working with you again soon.” Sara Nazarro, Mullen for Outdoor Retailer

Acoustical Society of America: June 2007
“For a scientific conference, we received a remarkable amount of local publicity. Karen's proactive efforts and constant assistance played a huge role in this coverage. Karen's enthusiasm was infectious. She helped us believe that we could get significant local media coverage, and we did. Her enthusiasm for Salt Lake also heightened our enjoyment of the city while we were in town. I've never experienced this degree of assistance from any local contact, let alone a CVB staff member. Karen is a treasure. From a media perspective, this service makes Salt Lake a uniquely appealing place to hold a conference. We are truly grateful for Karen's hard work.  It made our meeting in Salt Lake a very special one in many ways.” Ben P. Stein, Acoustical Society of America Public Relations Committee

Hearth, Patio & Barbecue Association (HPBA): February 2006
“You were a great help in managing the local media and your contacts were invaluable.  And, at 5:30 a.m., you were unbelievable!” Leslie Wheeler, HPBA

 “On behalf of the HPBA’s media team, I would like to bring to your attention the fabulous efforts of your media relations professional, Karen Boe. Being from out of town, our effort to attract local media was a struggle, especially as we were competing with a consumer trade show in Salt Lake area at the same time. With Karen’s help, we were able to get coverage from all of the city’s top publications. We could not have expected to achieve such great local results without Karen’s help.  In addition, her enthusiasm, professionalism and fresh ideas helped make the event that much more memorable for us.” Johanna Spangenberg Jones, StrataCom and Jennifer A. Quermanm, V.P. Fleishman Hillard

Council for Exceptional Children: April 2006
“I want to say how much I appreciated Karen’s help with the press coverage for Council for Exceptional Children’s convention.  There is no way I could have done it without her.  She is a pleasure to watch in action and a real PR pro – in the right sense of the term!” Linda van Kuren, Council for Exceptional Children

Kappa Kappa Gamma: July 2006
“Thank you for everything!  You made my job extremely easy and I appreciate your knowledge and expertise in the PR world. We are all thrilled with the great coverage we received.” Stacy Bjarnason, Kappa Kappa Gamma

National Association of Home Builders: August 2006
“We’re very happy with the efforts you made. You were incredibly helpful and worked hard on our behalf, and I appreciate that. Thanks again!” Niki Clark, Manager, Public Relations, National Association of Home Builders

The Salt Lake Convention & Visitors Bureau is a private, non-profit corporation responsible for the promotion of Salt Lake as a convention and travel destination. Salt Lake is a unique fusion of metropolitan city and quaint mountain town; the towering Wasatch Mountains that embrace Salt Lake offer a dramatic backdrop to the vibrancy and activities of downtown. Having recently undergone a $58 million expansion, the Salt Palace Convention Center now boasts 679,000 square feet of exhibit and meeting space, ideal for groups of all sizes and needs. For more information on all that Salt Lake has to offer, visit www.VisitSaltLake.com.