How to be a Grand Host (and benefit Grand Rapids in the process)

Etiquette experts say being a good host requires making guests feel welcome, setting a mood, serving food and drinks, anticipating needs and encouraging conversation.

Being a Grand Host is considerably easier. All you have to do is tell Experience Grand Rapids about organizations or associations you belong to that hold regional or national gatherings. If that information leads to us booking a meeting, conference or convention in Grand Rapids/Kent County, you will be officially recognized as a Grand Host.

The Grand Host program is an essential element of Bring it to Grand Rapids, an EXGR initiative encouraging local residents to help us identify sales leads. Bringing a meeting, conference or convention to the area has a much bigger impact than you might think – Grand Rapids/Kent County hosts hundreds such events each year, contributing significantly to a local tourism economy that totaled $2 billion and directly supported 18,164 jobs in 2024.

Helping us Bring it to Grand Rapids also delivers benefits to a Grand Host – it boosts their profile within their organization and delivers a real sense of civic pride. (Who doesn’t like to show off the place they live? And boy, does Grand Rapids have a lot to show off.)

Potential Grand Hosts can be involved as little or as much as they want during our sales process – from simply giving us a name and contact information to working closely with us to organize and host the event.

How Experience Grand Rapids can help

“Mary got excited and she literally came and met me in person in our office.” Chandra explained ASP’s cohort, the science and his need to attract 300+ people to town for the Annual Meeting. “How can you help me?” he asked Mary.

Manier explained all the planning tools, attendance-building promotions and on-site services EXGR could bring to bear for ASAP.  Chandra says the first question that came to his mind was, “How much do you charge?” But “They said no. These are volunteer services.”

With Chandra’s blessing, EXGR sprang into action, providing materials for use in member communications and working to secure PR for the conference. They coordinated with DeVos Place Convention Center and ASP’s host hotel, the Amway Grand Plaza, to ensure a first-class on-site experience. They also organized volunteers to host information kiosks during ASP’s stay.

“Where can I go to sightsee? Where can I go for a trail? Where can I go to just have some fun?” Chandra says those are the types of questions ASP attendees wanted to know for after-hours leisure, and EXGR had all the answers for them. “Typically, when people do not know (an area), you don’t seem them outside, they will be in the hotel eating and that’s it.” But during conference breaks at lunch and in the evening, he saw attendees “all around the town … walking and talking to each other.”

Communication was key to making Chandra feel confident about EXGR. “What should we do? What is the schedule? What is the floor plan when we should come? What days are the most important? All these communications happened through email,” he says, and he always got answers within 24 hours. “I knew we were in good shape because we were communicating all the time.”

Meet a 2025 Grand Host

Amit Chandra, a 2025 Grand Host, is an example of the latter. His organization had already chosen Grand Rapids as a host city when he contacted us, but he needed help enticing members to come to Grand Rapids and ensuring that they would have a great experience here.

In his day job, Chandra is Chief Advisor for Botanical Innovation at Grand Rapids-based Amway, a business owner-led company that manufactures and distributes nutrition, beauty, personal care and home products in 100 countries. Chandra is also

Organizing Chair for The American Society of Pharmacognosy (ASP), a non-profit organization dedicated to the promotion, growth and development of health benefits derived from plants and other natural products.

ASP hosts an Annual Meeting each year, bringing 300+ members together to hear and connect with expert speakers, share new research, attend workshops and more. ASP was originally scheduled to come to Grand Rapids in 2021, but the meeting was canceled due to the pandemic. When it was rescheduled for 2025, Chandra was charged with making it go smoothly – part of which required convincing members to come to a city many had never heard of.

“Grand Rapids is one of the Midwest’s best-kept secrets. I know that because I have been living her for 26 years,” says Chandra. But he wasn’t sure how to communicate that to his ASP colleagues. “So I went out to seek help.”

Someone at Amway recommended Experience Grand Rapids, and Chandra reached out to EXGR Vice President of Sales & Services Mary Manier.

You can bring it again

Chandra says he’s “very satisfied and happy with how the city received” ASP and its members – so much so that he plans to connect EXGR with other organizations he’s involved with, in hopes of convincing them to come to Grand Rapids.

We look forward to the opportunity – and the potential to name Chandra a Grand Host for a second (third, fourth, fifth) time!

Do you belong to an organization or association that holds regional or national meetings? Do you already have a Grand Rapids meeting scheduled and need help making it great? Call us at 616.258.7388 or email sales@experiencegr.com to tell us about it. We’d love to make you a Grand Host!