When a military group is in town on a site inspection visit, it certainly doesn't hurt if they happen to bump into a couple of war heroes, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and former Sen. Bob Dole (R-Kan.).

That's exactly what happened in Rochester, Minn., where McCain and Dole were in town for a speaking engagement when they ran into officials from the Enlisted Association of the National Guard of the United States.

Military meetings are quite common in Rochester, explains Brad Jones, executive director at the Rochester Convention and Visitors Bureau. It is one of the city's largest market segments. “We have an extremely good reputation with military groups,” says Jones, who hosted the 173rd Airborne Brigrade's annual reunion this summer. “We've established a reputation of good value and good service, and word-of-mouth spreads pretty quickly through those organizations,” he adds.

It helps that the city has a Soldier's Field Veterans Memorial, a large park downtown, which includes a wall or remembrance and stone murals of past wars. Furthermore, Rochester is the home of the world famous Mayo Clinic, which the CVB also calls upon for guest speakers for groups. On the lighter side, it's also the address of SPAM Museum, which, given SPAM's roots as a ration for soldiers in WWII, most of the military groups hit when they are in town. “The military groups get a kick out of it,” says Jones.

EANGUS' Unique Approach

All of these factors were looked at when looking at Rochester, but EANGUS's site selection process goes deeper than that, explains Roger Hagan, president, EANGUS, based in Alexandria, Va. The unique system starts in the 54 local chapters — one in all 50 states, plus Washington, D.C., and the three U.S. territories. States that want to host the annual convention submit a proposal to the national office, listing three cities in the state as options. If more than one state submits a proposal, a committee recommends the proposal package it feels is the best. Once the state is selected, EANGUS taps its consultant, HelmsBriscoe, to assess the capabilities of those three cities to handle a reunion of 1,700 attendees. HelmsBriscoe looks at several factors — including air access; hotel availability; proximity, size, and accessibility of convention center space; and cost — then presents its findings to EANGUS officials.

In the case of the 2009 convention/reunion in Minnesota, the state chapter recommended Minneapolis as its first choice, St. Paul second, and Rochester third. “But looking at the numbers, it was evident that we could not touch Minneapolis or St. Paul at all in August,” says Hagan. The room rates were too high and weren't negotiable. “We're trying to entice younger people to come to our conference and the out-of-pocket cost is really a serious consideration.” Rochester proved to have reasonable rates and met the necessary requirements for facilities, transportation, and amenities. “The eagerness of the CVB and the willingness of the hoteliers to work with us was pretty phenomenal,” says Hagan.

This summer, the reunion is in Oklahoma City, and next year its in Savannah, Ga. EANGUS is currently accepting proposals for the 2010 convention.

More Education

The national EANGUS organization provides most of the funding for the events, while the state chapters, with the help of the national office, handles the theme, the program, and the logistics. EANGUS does not hire a third-party planning company, but if the convention continues to grow as it is expected to, that might be something to consider, says Hagan. In recent years, the convention has added more training and education sessions, which has spurred attendance from about 1,300 to about 1,700. “We're probably going to come to the conclusion that we're going to need greater services than just the contract negotiation piece.”

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