< PreviousMARCH 201830 Events DC is Washington’s event programs authority for conventions and meetings, sports, entertainment, and other special events at top-class venues across the city. While the organization is government-related, it does not operate like a traditional government agency. Greg O’Dell, president and chief executive officer, reports to a board of directors, and the organization runs much like a corporation. While it receives no funding from the city, it does act on its behalf to attract and increase city experiences. This drives events, which in turns stimulates tourism. The group’s main focus is to put people in hotels and restaurants and to generate economic benefit for the city. Greg shared some of the history and the organization’s work with us.Written by Pauline MüllerEvents DC has clients from across the globe and three main lines of business within the district. One of these is organizing conventions and meetings, which includes corporate functions at the local convention center and at Carnegie Library. Another line of business includes sports and entertainment events at venues like RFK Stadium, which is cur-rently being redeveloped, Nationals Stadium and DC Armory, amongst others. Events DC’s third line is its special events division, which is an umbrella department for all the other events that the company hosts and organizes in the city. The team works in conjunction with its partners which are not restricted to Events DC’s venues, but can nominate venues throughout Washington. A good example of one of its very popular local initiatives is the National Cherry Blossom Festival. This huge spring celebration draws large numbers of visitors to the city and runs for four consecutive weeks. Not only is Events DC the largest sponsor, but it also holds and manages the festival.Events DC came into being through the amalgamation of two previous agencies. Through his consulting background in economic development, Greg had the pleasure of running both legacy agencies. Initially, he ran the sports and enter-tainment commission, where he was primarily responsible for getting the local baseball stadium built. After a year of serving there, he was selected to run the Convention Center Authority, which was founded in 1994. In 2011, the need arose for a focused body to run all events in the city, and the two entities became Events DC.The envisaged team would be able to efficiently allocate resources across Events DC’s many services and functions to be able to achieve greater economies of scale. Both of the original organizations brought events to the city, and because the underpinnings were similar in terms of capabilities, skill sets and promotion, it made sense to merge the two and focus on developing the city’s tourism industry. Events DC’s opportunities became tenfold. Customers who tra-ditionally came to the city for conventions or meetings, suddenly wanted to host sports, entertainment or festival experiences. Today, the team uses this to introduce clients to the many expe-riences available and makes its venues available in flexible and unique ways for different types of events to be held there. The venue that is causing the most excitement, however, is the NBA Washington Wizards team’s brand new training facility, one of the more unusual facilities in the country. This combined, state-of-the-art arena has 4,200 seats and will also host the women’s WNBA team, the Washington Mystics as well as the NBA D-League, a development league.Since Events DC owns and operates the site, other world-class events like concerts, e-sports, boxing and additional amateur sporting events will also take place here. The facility is being erected in an underdeveloped part of the city, making it a catalyst for development for the greater area.The Events DC team consists of 290 full-time employees, as well as scores of contract employees, contractors and part-time staff. 31 BUSINESS IN FOCUS Crowd sizes are diverse, and the company must be equipped for any scale event that comes its way, while taking the utmost care to give each customer the best experience possible.While part of its business is leasing its venues and arranging events for clients, a portion of its events portfolio is all about creating and producing its own events. “Our focus is on the experience. We are in the experience business, providing big customer service along with the traditional core services we provide. We promote authenticity in our city and in our brand,” says Greg.Events DC teams up with Washington’s Restaurant Association and other marketing partners in the city to achieve this authenticity. It has a formal marketing agreement with the association whereby establishments are informed of all major events. Participants solicit members, who provide customized experiences like custom menus, discounts and a myriad of little details that extend the overall impression beyond these citywide events. Of course, dedicated people are what make attention to detail possible, and Events DC is packed with go-getters ready to make any mega-event a raging success. These creative people are also part of charting the way to its next frontier in terms of the organization’s growth. Two of these employees are Chinyere Hubbard and LaChelle Harrison. Harrison was selected Convention Services Manager of the Year by the Event Services Professional Association (ESPA), a national industry organization, while Chinyere runs the marketing communications department and has been instrumental in successfully taking a different, more practi-cal approach to marketing the brand, the city and its events. “Events DC have taken great, bold strides in the city and we would not have been able to do so without our staff and our board’s strength, direction and support,” says Greg.The organization recently started a new strategic initiatives department, which is essentially a mini-start-up. Subsequent growth has been substantial with Events DC becoming instru-mental in the development of the city’s new arena. It is also investigating new technologies that could be utilized to support the organization’s various lines of business and new market segments. Another field of enquiry is in making Washington the national hub of the latest international craze: eSports events. These are typically professional, multiplayer video game compe-titions that can include sporting simulations and other competi-tive activities such as battles and war games.Washington is a great place to visit as a business and leisure destination. This hip city has two thousand restaurants, is perfectly walkable and has many cool accommodations and luxury hotels, plus quality entertainment. It is quite an excep-tional experience to attend a large event and have so much to do right on your doorstep.For Events DC, the best award is new business, and it has seen a lot through all three of its main lines of interest over the past few years. Its growth is made possible by a series of flagship events, one of which is the redevelopment of Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium, also known as RFK Stadium. It was home to the Washington Redskins football team and, until recently, the DC United Major League soccer team. The campus was 198 acres, and with the two teams leaving, Events DC now has the wonderful opportunity to re-imagine the future of this area. It has embarked on a two-year-plus study and engagement of the community about what the campus should look like. It may include a football stadium or a new arena. To accelerate the long-term project, the organization has an aggressive half-a-billion dollar short-term program that includes the addition of multi-purpose fields to benefit the community as well as youth sports. Construction of these fields could start as early as the fall and will be done in the spring of 2019.Sports and recreation has been high on the list of ideas of how to develop this over 300,000-square-foot facility. After-school programs and fitness centers for communities are also high priority and the goal is to create a concept similar to Chelsea Piers in New York City. A vibrant food hall is set to make this part of the Greg O’DellPresident and Chief Executive OfficerMARCH 201832 city a great destination, while some new pedestrian bridges are also planned to ease the mile that takes one across the site. Events DC is erecting a memorial in honor of Robert Kennedy, as the stadium was named after him. It has already had talks with the Kennedy family, and the design is underway. As the land is owned by the federal government, there are many legal procedures that must be followed, but the team is dedicated to declaring the first phase of the project open in spring 2019.As is evident in its concern for and consideration of local com-munities, its goodwill and contributions to local causes are vast. “We spend a lot of time engaging with communities, and we hold community meetings on a regular basis,” Greg says. Local residents get preference when new staff is appointed, and Events DC even structured and negotiated a special benefit agreement with the local community at its latest facility. It provides benefits including scholarships and support for existing community events, as well as job opportunities. It also makes a point of surpassing its goals for hiring small or minority businesses in the areas it develops.It aims to exceed customer expectations by anticipating their needs. Events DC prides itself on figuring out what its custom-ers will need before they even request it. In this way, rather than following, it sets the trends and ushers the world of great events into the future. “People are not interested in traditional plenary sessions during conventions anymore. This is why we are making a pretty significant investment in and around the Washington Convention Centre to help people to socialize and network in a way that they can enjoy connected experiences throughout the building,” says Greg. Since many of its projects and initiatives are geared towards how it sees the world changing, Events DC sets the overall industry benchmark. It supports tradition in a non-traditional way and it does its best to ensure that Washington is a place of serious collaboration and development, as well as grand fun.“The organization recently started a new strategic initiatives department, which is essentially a mini-start-up.”33 BUSINESS IN FOCUS Hunting TripPhoto credit: Karen CampbellMARCH 201834 Myths are what the County of Grande Prairie is trying to dispel. It seems that potential national and inter-national investors as well as others have miscon-ceptions that the County is located in a remote region of the province, and lacks access to adequate transportation, ameni-ties, and opportunities that enhance overall quality of life. Nothing could be further from the truth. One of Canada’s fastest-growing regions, the County of Grande Prairie is experi-encing exceptional growth, and is engaging in substantial new development. The County warrants a closer look. Efficient transportation systems are present including the Canadian National Railway and major highways such as Highway 2 and Highway 43 connecting the region to cities such as Calgary, Edmonton, Grande Prairie as well as British Columbia’s interior. The Grande Prairie Airport also has numerous daily flights to Calgary and Edmonton and weekly international flights. “We have done some major investment into infrastructure,” states Chris King, the County of Grande Prairie’s Economic Development Manager. Investments include those for projects The County of Grande Prairie, located in northwestern Alberta, is the province’s first county, incorporated in 1951, following the County Act of 1950. The County is home to a growing population of approximately 23,000 and surrounds the City of Grande Prairie. The region is part of the Peace River Country and shares its border with the province of British Columbia.Written by Anne Lindert-Wentzellsuch as the multi-modal rail hub located in Clairmont, at the intersection of Highway 2 and Highway 43. This eighty-acre rail hub “will provide an area for off-loading and loading of rail cars in the area.” Clairmont will also have a new water reservoir and regional sanitary lift station. The lift station will, “give us two square miles of new developable land,” explains Chris. These projects are in response to the growth of Clairmont and the proposed 1,200-acre greenfield development of Clairmont Heights, a rural downtown core which will offer mixed residen-tial, retail, commercial space, connections to Highway 2 and 43 and amenities. Clairmont Heights will have access to Clairmont Lake with its thirteen kilometers of shoreline and view of the Rocky Mountains. This development will be ready for con-struction in 2019. Currently, the residents of Clairmont must travel into the City for most everyday amenities. With the growth and devel-opment of Clairmont, new oppor-tunities present themselves for Bikes, Bikes Everywhere Bikes!!Photo credit: Vicky FoxAhhhPhoto credit: Sharon Stanich35 BUSINESS IN FOCUS those investors interested in the commercial, residential and retail sectors. “Downtown Clairmont Heights will include 550,000 square feet of commercial space and 1.4 million square feet of residential space,” says Chris. “There is some commercial on the north end of Clairmont Heights. So there are two large areas of commer-cial activity,” he notes.“Our median income is much higher than the city of Edmonton, yet our cost of living is only ten percent higher.”Several service-ready industrial parks are located throughout the County. There is a large park directly south of the City, one in Clairmont and one in the community of Dimsdale, located two kilometres south of Highway 43, west of the City of Grande Prairie. Throughout the County, vibrant economic sectors contribute to the region’s sustainability. Some of these include agriculture, Go Outside!Photo credit: Terri CorbettChicks on SticksPhoto credit: Stephanie MackayMARCH 201836 energy, forestry and tourism. As the County continues to grow, there has been, “fairly high residential growth,” says Chris, “but the commercial growth has been lagging behind.” He feels that the reason for the commercial shortcomings can partly be attributed to retailers not fully comprehending what the County represents and the number of residents that call the region home. “That’s been a big focus for us – getting people educated on what this region is and what our demo-graphics are – what demands there are for commercial and retail services.” The City, with a population of approximately 64,000, is encom-passed within the County. When speaking of Clairmont’s devel-opment, Chris states, “I don’t think that we’re competing with the city as much as we’re trying to provide services for our own residents and to provide opportunities for the County to densify our residential development.” He notes that within development circles across the globe there is a need to resist the sprawl of residential growth. “This is a way that we’re helping to do that – to densify up.” This new development is Clairmont’s chance to create a community the right way.Outdoor SoccerPhoto credit: County of Grande PrairieCool downPhoto credit: Mark Hatton37 BUSINESS IN FOCUS The County wants to be acknowledged as a source of opportu-nity, especially for the youth who are just starting out and are not necessarily seeking a single-family home yet. “We do have a very young population,” says Chris. “There is a great demand for young professionals who are coming to fill positions… They’re looking for a condominium or an apartment that they can leave and go do other activities.” Additionally, the County is home to an aging population, many of whom struggle to maintain the family homes of their past and subsequently leave when they require other forms of housing. “So to give people the opportunity to have additional condo-miniums, apartments and those sorts of things with amenities close by is an advantage,” says Chris. “We’re trying to meet the needs of our young population and our aging population and, at the same time, not be somewhat irresponsible in terms of sprawling our residential development all over good farmland.”When asked about the challenges of such growth Chris relates that, “I think the biggest challenge is going to be staging it properly. By that, I mean if you try to do commercial develop-ment before you have enough rooftops to sustain it, it does not Hang on tight...Photo credit: Sharon StanichKicking up the turf...Photo credit: Sharon StanichMARCH 201838 work well. Inversely, the attempt to construct too much resi-dential development without maintaining services means long commutes for residents seeking these amenities. It becomes less attractive for them to live there. So it’s trying to balance both the commercial and residential growth to stage the commercial growth appropriately based on the growth of the residential.”“With the growth and development of Clairmont, new opportunities present themselves for those investors interested in the commercial, residential and retail sectors.”The County offers a number of benefits for potential investors and residents including Grande Prairie Regional College (GPRC), located in the City, low municipal mill rates, lower provincial personal income tax, and the only province with no sales tax. The region is located in a large natural gas field called the Montney Basin. Chris explains that, “It’s projected that, by 2030, this formation will account for fifty percent of all natural gas extraction in Canada.” Teepee ChucksPhoto credit: Lynn ConnellNext >