Business View Magazine - August 2016 105
and then we continue to fill the building with local busi-
ness. What happens is that local events want week-
ends, and association events want during the week, so
it kind of works out well for us.”
Sarah Britt is the CMCC’s Director of Sales. She be-
lieves that being a “boutique” center both allows and
requires that the facility extend a high level of cus-
tomer service to its attendees. Center management
communicates constantly with event planners, before,
during, and after an event. “We get to know each one
of our clients and their event to the point where we
even know their favorite kind of wine,” she states. “And
because we’re limited on exhibit space, it allows us
to do an extremely high volume of food and beverage
events and conferences. The culinary that we provide
is unique for a conventions center; we customize more
than 80 percent of our menus.”
Andrea Mensink, Director of Communications for the
Midlands Authority for Conventions, Sports & Tourism
adds, “Our team goes above and beyond, acting as
consultant and helping make meetings be as success-
ful as possible. There’s a high level of trust between
the planners and the members of our team.” And that
strategy seems to be working – approximately 80 per-
cent of the CMCC’s bookings come from repeat cus-
tomers.
If the facility has any problem at all, it is one of space
– there’s not enough of it. “We’re fuller than we can
handle,” says Britt, “and hoping for expansion.” Stone
agrees. “We are too small,” he says. “We are turning
away business.” But what is going to control the facil-
ity’s potential future growth is whether or not it can
find enough parking for its patrons. “There is a park-
ing lot that we can put another 75,000 square feet of
