Roughly half the groups who meet in Grand Rapids each year are Michigan-based and half have a national focus  – but national groups have an edge when it comes to the number of attendees who come to town and spend money in local businesses. National organizations have larger memberships and bigger budgets, so they can make an outsized impact on the local economy.

Booking a national meeting is more challenging because many of the decision-makers are unfamiliar with Grand Rapids. National groups also have many more options on where to meet. Our convention sales team has to introduce them to Grand Rapids and prove that the city can capably accommodate their convention, meeting or conference. Michigan-based groups already know and appreciate Grand Rapids, so the sales process tends to be much shorter. Booking a national event can take years of relationship building!

Getting to the National Table

Our sales efforts have certainly been helped by the flurry of national recognitions Grand Rapids has received of late. In 2024-25 alone, we’ve been named America’s #1 City on the Rise, Best Beer City, #3 Outdoor-Friendly City, #8 Best Town to Visit and many more. These honors have raised our national profile and given us an “in” with groups that many not have paid us any notice before.

We’re also benefiting from a meetings industry trend that has national clients looking to smaller cities for lower costs, fewer hassles, unique cultural experiences and homegrown hospitality. Grand Rapids excels on all four counts.

But we still have to assure prospective clients that the city can deliver everything they need, from adequate airport, hotel and meeting facility capacity to a range of leisure opportunities for attendees. Then we have to discuss rates and dates. It’s a long and complex courtship that requires deep knowledge, intense listening, creative resourcefulness and constant communication with our local convention and hotel partners.

Tools of our Trade

Trade shows are an effective national sales tactic for us us – and they often lead to site experiences, when we invite clients to visit Grand Rapids in person. Our team attends multiple shows throughout the year, often with our custom-made taphouse booth, which leverages the city’s craft beverage expertise. We recently returned from the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) Annual Meeting in Los Angeles, where we connected with several new clients who had never before considered Grand Rapids. One is coming to tour our facilities in September for a future meeting.

We also attend Religious Conference Management Association (RCMA), a trade show for religious planners, each year. (Our taphouse booth converts to a coffeehouse theme for faith-based trade shows.) Several years ago, we connected with the meeting planner for Gideons International at the show. She said she’d consider Grand Rapids as a host site if we could muster local support. We secured that from the Michigan Gideons and brought the International team to Grand Rapids for a tour. They loved the city and booked their 2025 convention here. It was such a success, they’re considering us again for 2033.

One-on-one meetings are another valuable tool in our sales kit. We visited a national client in May to extol the virtues of Grand Rapids as a meeting destination and received an RFP (Request for Proposal), which we completed in conjunction with our downtown convention center and hotels. We’re now waiting to hear if Grand Rapids wins the bid, which would generate more than 4,000 total room nights – a big win for us.

National conventions are a big win for the city, too. We hosted two national conventions this summer that combined for more than 6,000 total room nights, which increased summer tax revenues and boosted traffic at local businesses.

While national meetings can bring in big numbers, state meetings are more consistent and frequent. They’re equally important to us and our local partners, and we have team members dedicated to each segment. This dual focus has proven to be a winning sales formula!