Some good ink about conventions in small cities

Two articles about conventions in smaller cities from today's news:

Sacramento's Convention Business Picking Up

High hotel rates in cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco are driving many planners to select smaller cities like Sacramento for meetings and conventions, officials said.





Sacramento is among the top five smaller cities seeing the biggest growth in inquiries from groups looking to hold meetings.





"It absolutely is a cost savings to come here," said Tina McCarty of the Sacramento Convention Center

Small cities welcome big conventions: Northern Colorado tourism leaders hope region takes advantage of trend. A snip:

Exorbitant hotel room rates in places such as New York and Washington are a good thing for Northern Colorado, said Jim Clark, chief executive officer of the Fort Collins Convention & Visitors Bureau. Clark said he expected the trend of conferences moving to smaller cities.





“We’re hoping that wave catches up with us soon here,” Clark said.

As someone who used to work in Fort Collins, I'd give it a big two thumbs up for small conferences. There may not be much downhill skiing, but the mountains are gorgeous, access to Estes Park easy (in the summer), and the people are great. And the room rates are a lot cheaper than some other mountain destinations.

As the sellers market continues to drag prices upward for the big-city destinations, I bet we'll see more of the second- and third-tier trend for conferences and conventions small enough to fit into them.

Update: I forgot I had this one from USAToday sitting in my in-box: Smaller cities roll out red carpet for big conventions.