Conference Planning Software

While the Las Vegas Convention and Visitor Authority struggles, other markets are surviving, even thriving, in the meetings market. The Memphis Convention & Visitors Bureau, for one, is already 25 percent ahead of where it was in 2008 for convention bookings.

Emily Boling Lynn, director of convention center sales at the CVB, told the Memphis Business Journal that there's a strong possibility of booking 100,000 room nights this year, something that's never happened before in the city. Memphis' Cook Convention Center has events booked to 2017. Conferences planned for 2009 include the National Baptist Convention and the Urban Network Music and Entertainment Summit.

However, positive meeting sales do not necessarily mean that the city's tourism and hospitality business has not taken a hit from the economy.

"Business and leisure travel have been affected to the point where both segments have been greatly reduced," John Oros, executive vice president of the CVB, told the newspaper. "Those two areas constitute 60 percent of the occupied hotel rooms in Memphis. Meetings and conventions are about 15 percent."

To read the full article, visit the Memphis Business Journal. To learn more about the city of Memphis and its opportunities for meeting planners, visit the Memphis profile at the Cvent Destination Guide.