By Scott D. Johnston

Funding a sales and marketing effort is the major recommendation for improving the bottom line at the Ocean Shores Convention Center, made in an 83-page report by Pinnacle Venue Services.

A pair of principals from the venue management and consultant company were at a recent Ocean Shores City Council study session for a presentation of their firm’s $20,000 assessment and analysis of the facility and its market, authorized last fall by the council.

Managing Partner Douglas Higgons, from the company’s Virginia Beach office, and Senior VP Barry J. Strafacci, from St. Petersburg, Florida, visited the area last December, and returned to detail their firm’s findings and recommendations. Both men are former regional vice presidents from public assembly venue industry giant Global Spectrum (now called Comcast Spectacor).

The 29,900-square-foot facility, opened in 2006, is funded primarily via a lodging tax that mostly comes from hotel and motel room rentals. Improving the venue’s bottom line could free up funding for other tourism-related marketing endeavors.

Higgons said convention center is operated by “a very lean staff” of “dedicated, experienced professionals,” who “are part of the solution, not part of the problem.”

He said Convention Center Manager Cheryl Turner “is literally doing the job of three people” and has “zero hours” to do sales and marketing. The report also notes that there is nothing in the center’s budget for marketing.

Turner agreed that a sales pro is “the missing part of the team” and noted that she has been in various aspects of the event business for more than four decades, but “I’m not a marketing specialist.”

Strafacci, who has 35 years experience managing convention centers “of all sizes,” said if Pinnacle was tasked with operating the local venue, it would seek to retain all present employees and add at least two more positions.

“The lack of a true convention/conference sales program makes it easy to minimize the opportunity to successfully solicit and book lucrative new conference business for Ocean Shores,” the Pinnacle report states. “Unfortunately, as it becomes necessary to cut costs, sales and marketing have been the first to get cut.

“In order to reverse the financial conditions of the convention center and improve the bottom line, the City and community must take the approach of ‘it takes money to make money.’ We believe the payback for our recommendations will be seen within 18-24 months.”

Higgons also said “very few facilities similar (to the convention center) turn an operating profit. Facilities like this are not designed to turn a profit,” he said, rather, they function as economic engines that draw outside money into the community. Strafacci said there is “not a similar facility in the country” that actually makes a bottom-line profit.

Pinnacle estimates the convention center’s “direct impact on the local economy was more than$8 million” on total attendance of 121,435 in 2016, and projects this year to top $10 million. The report says that new events drawing a total of 20,000 more overnight visitors would have an additional local economic impact of more than $4 million.

“Visitors can plan meetings at the beach and also benefit from Ocean Shore’s affordable accommodations and an upgraded convention center. No other convention center in Western Washington can offer the same experience,” the report states.

“You have a successful convention center,” Higgons said. “We believe a change in funding can take it to the next level.” That change would be to commit well over $100,000 per year to employ a full-time sales and marketing professional and pay for supporting materials and activities.

The Pinnacle assessment also suggests where that funding could come from. It recommends taking food and beverage operations, including bar service, in-house and estimates that would produce $100,000 annually. That is already underway as the convention center earlier this year named operations employee and local caterer George Lee the facility’s food and beverage manager.

Ocean Shores Mayor Crystal Dingler noted that figure for food and beverage income is a goal that may take some years to realize. And the Pinnacle officials said they are still working on identifying a legal method for the venue to generate income from bar services.

The Pinnacle report also notes that some lodging tax monies may be freed up after 2018, when loans from several years back will be paid off.

The report, which can be found online at www.osgov.com, offers a lengthy list of detailed recommendations. Strafacci said they are concepts for better venue operation systems and processes to help the convention center “keep more of the dollars it brings in.” Turner noted that several of the recommendations are already being implemented.

One that comes up repeatedly is dedicating resources to a major upgrade of the facility’s website, social media presence and public relations effort, all of which are vital enhancements to marketing efforts and the overall view of the venue.

City Council member John Lynn said that “the city sometimes has a lack of patience” and asked of a dedicated, ongoing marketing effort, “How long will it take to show success and what is the estimated annual cost?”

Higgons said meeting planners typically are working to book venues 12 to 18 months in advance, although some annual events that rotate through several venues may take much longer. For example, the Washington State Grange convention that came to Ocean Shores last week was booked in 2014.

Strafacci said effectively marketing the facility means “you have to make more meeting planners aware” of what the venue and the Ocean Shores area have to offer “and that takes time.”

He said the Council needs to consider whether to spend, perhaps upward of $200,000 annually to bring an additional $2 million or more into the local economy each year.