Birthday parties are easy. Many restaurants will provide a room for up to 20 or 25 people free of charge, provided they eat meals. Children, of course, prefer their parties to be at children oriented establishments, not at a conference center. Many churches will provide a free or low cost room in their fellowship hall for birthday and anniversary parties of their members. The supply of locations to have birthday parties is so large that it is doubtful could not make a significant contribution to the operations of a local conference center.
Civic clubs holding their meetings at the conference center was also mentioned. For years, Southlake Mall had a community room in which they allowed civic clubs to meet. I do not know if they still do, and if so at what cost. Like with birthday parties, many restaurants will freely provide a meeting room provided that many of the attendees also purchase a meal. I know of at least one civic club in the county which owns its own building and, the last time I had reason to check, occasionally rented it for meetings at a reasonable cost.
Hotels also provide meeting rooms. Holiday Inn South has for decades been an active conference site. I have attended countless classes and functions there, as well as other motels within the county.
I have the opportunity to attend classes related to my profession on occasion. Usually, these classes are held in the conference room of a motel under the arrangement that the sponsor of the event will receive a free hotel room and/or meeting room provided that a specific number of rooms are rented to those attending the class.
Certain government and quasi-government agencies also provide similar facilities. I have attended classes, meetings and functions at libraries, colleges, parks, bank conference rooms, city facilities and many other similar locations.
Over the years a number of "banquet" facilities have come and gone in the county. These facilities tried to provide somewhat similar services as is planned for the Morrow conference center. Off the top of my head, I can not recall any that have made it over the long haul.
The problem with privately owned dedicated facilities is the cost of owning the facility is so great that in order to make a profit off of ownership and management the rental rates you must charge for an event can be exorbitant.
Your customers do not realize that you must build into their rent the cost of owning and maintaining the space during the time it sits unused between events. This is why event space is often provided by business which can benefit either through direct event related sales or community goodwill resulting from offering the space.
I also see much of the problem as being not so much the availably of event space within Clayton County as there is no single place to go to discover who offers such space. To find a place to hold a meeting can take hours of phone calls, not to mention the considerable amount of time inspecting the space offered to determine its suitability for the anticipated event. (As part of the Whisper of Clayton County web site, Brande & I may consider offering such a listing of event facilities.)
What I do not know is if such a facility can cover its cost. I hope that the City of Morrow has had a feasibility study conducted to determine if there is sufficient demand to support such a facility. In order to justify such a risk of public funds, the demand must not only be evident, it should be substantial.
I would hope that such a study would indicate the probable sources for the demand and their relative impact. In other words, where would the business come from and roughly how much from each source? This is not to say specific users must be identified and analyzed, but market segments should be.
I think a study of the economic impact of the proposed venture on existing businesses within the market area would also be in order. While such an enterprise may help some businesses, what effect will it have on existing private businesses which already provides event space in the community? Even though the existing motels may not use their meeting facilities as much, will additional room rentals from conference center attendees more than offset the loss?
It would also be useful to know the habits of those attending functions at such a facility. What percentage of attendees only attend the function and spend no money within the community otherwise? What percentage will browse the mall and possibly spend money there. What percentage will venture out into the local community and spend their money with other local businesses?
Certainly there have been studies elsewhere across the nation which can shed some light on these questions. If nothing else, the businesses along Main Street in College Park could be polled to see how much business they derive from that city's convention center.
A successful conference center can be a real asset for the City of Morrow. But, the financial success of the venture itself can not be the sole criteria for determining its success. To be successful the venture must bring more revenue into the local private sector than existed prior to the venture. It must promote the creation of local private sector jobs and it must enhance the desirability of the city as a place to live and conduct business. Otherwise, the public's money should be used for a more deserving purpose.
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