3 min read October 2023 — In an interview with Invest:, Martha Sheridan, president and CEO of Meet Boston, discussed the organization’s recent rebranding, the Greater Boston region’s unique strengths and challenges for sustainable growth. “We would love to see a bit of expansion in our major facility, the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center. The second challenge for us is convincing people that you can, in fact, meet in Boston during the winter months from December through March,” she said.
How has the rebranding to Meet Boston impacted the organization and what does it mean in terms of objectives and priorities?
We had been the Greater Boston Convention and Visitors Bureau for decades and that is a very traditional name for organizations such as ours. Many of my counterparts have done the same, which is deciding to move away from a name that is too long, difficult to remember and has the word bureau, which makes it sound bureaucratic and like a government entity. We wanted to select a simple brand, to the point and that accurately shows what we do, what our goals are and what our mission is. Meet Boston rose to the top because we were looking at it as a double entendre. We want you to meet the new Boston, which is constantly evolving and in motion, and we also want to bring meetings, conventions and conferences to our community. The “meet” moniker works quite well with our other goal. We launched in December and we’ve had nothing but positive feedback on the new name, the new palette and the look of the brand. We’re very pleased.
As an organization, what specific factors or strengths are you looking to draw from when considering the Greater Boston region as a whole?
First and foremost, we want to share the fact that Boston is a city in constant motion and the Greater Boston region, obviously, is alongside us. We want people to know that one of our key cornerstone differentiators is that we were founded but never settled. We are always striving and seeking to do more and do better, and we are now focusing on doing all of this through the lens of diversity, equity and inclusion. Many people do not equate Boston with diversity or a diverse population but the fact is that we are a minority-majority city with 23 vibrant neighborhoods. Over 50% of our residents are people of color yet common perceptions of Boston are of a predominantly white city. This is simply not true. Our mission is to tell authentic stories about Boston that talk about where we’ve been but also where we’re going and who the key storytellers in our region are, as they can help us share this narrative and we want to amplify their voices through our platforms.
What are some of the key challenges Meet Boston is tackling to ensure sustainable growth?
For us, we have a very robust meeting, convention and tourism sector and we are consistently booked with large citywide conventions. We have two convention centers in great locations but our challenge right now is the size of our facility. We would love to see a bit of expansion in our major facility, the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center. The second challenge for us is convincing people that you can, in fact, meet in Boston during the winter months. We have a very specific goal of generating more meeting, convention and event business and leisure visitation to our city during the first quarter and also the latter part of the summer when we’re not at capacity. We have launched several campaigns that are geared toward filling need periods, as we like to say, both on the meeting side and on the leisure side. We are seeing some very positive results in that regard.
How is the Meetings Mean Business Coalition contributing to Meet Boston’s mission and objectives and how are you leveraging this collaboration?
The Meetings Mean Business Coalition was formed many years ago in response to the economic crisis in the early 2000s and its goal is to continue to keep the value and importance of face-to-face meetings top of mind for our stakeholders, clients and communities. From my perspective at Meet Boston, this is particularly important because as we came out of the pandemic, we were one of the hardest-hit cities in the country and we had some of the most restrictive limitations on gathering in Boston and the Commonwealth. We had a lot of work to do to convince people locally and nationally that we were open for business and that face-to-face meetings still have incredible value. I think we are accomplishing that by walking the walk. We conduct all of our business in person as an organization and we work alongside my co-chair Stephanie Glanzer from MGM Resorts International to talk nationally about how meetings are a very intrinsic part of our culture, communities and economic base. Those are the pillars that we talk about, which translates to what we’re trying to accomplish at Meet Boston.
What does the shift from membership to partnership mean for the organization, and how does it impact Boston’s visitor economy?
I worked alongside my executive vice president, Hilina Ajakaiye, who is a mover and a shaker in her own right, and we worked with consultants because we knew that we had challenges in appealing to a broader cross-section of businesses that wanted to be introduced to the tourism economy. Our entry price point was too high and there was a lack of basic understanding of our value proposition and what we could bring to these businesses in the form of support, education and promotion. So, we embarked on a nine-month effort to dig deep into what our existing members need and how their needs have changed over the years, as well as trying to source and work in smaller communities via the Main Streets program to introduce ourselves to businesses that could be viable in the tourism space but haven’t known how to access it. We changed our entire pricing model, going from the term membership, which sounds exclusive, to partnership, which feels more inclusive.
The results have been fantastic and those who served with us on our steering committee, focus groups and other players are extremely pleased with the outcome. We have added over 50 new partners since this shift. We will continue to roll out new elements of that plan as we move forward, such as more robust educational sessions and more engagement between members in specific sectors so that they can learn best practices not just from experts but also network with one another to talk about challenges and solutions. It has been incredibly well-received.
What regulations or legislation, both at the local or federal level, are you monitoring for potential impact on the industries you serve and the work you do?
From a federal perspective, we work closely with the U.S. Travel Association and advocate for several initiatives and issues. One of our top priorities is investing more in infrastructure and we heavily lobbied for the recently passed infrastructure bill. We also focus on airport infrastructure and recognize the need for improvements, as many international airports in the United States do not compare to places like the new Heathrow. Another crucial issue we advocate for nationally is reducing visa wait times. We’ve seen unreasonably long wait times for visas, hindering visitation to the United States. This directly impacts Boston as we rely on international visitors for our student population, medical facilities and leisure visitors, accounting for about 10% of our pre-pandemic visitors.
What is your outlook for the next two to three years and how is this influencing the priorities Meet Boston will be focusing on?
We are on a quick trajectory toward full recovery from the pandemic, expecting to see it happen in the hotel sector by next year or the following year. However, we need to see more international travel and corporate transient travel to reach our goals. Our meetings and conventions are almost back to pre-pandemic levels from an attendance and volume perspective. Once international visitation fully recovers, we’ll see more robust attendance, as we host many conventions with international delegates. We’re also struggling with corporate transient travel, which we believe will enhance if businesses go back to the office to some extent.
We’ve made a concerted effort to promote not just the central core of Boston but also Cambridge and all the neighborhoods within those two cities. These areas have authentic cultural experiences and are more diverse than the Downtown central core. We’re working with these neighborhoods to bring them on board as part of the tourism economy and to tell authentic stories from the people who reside and work in those areas. It’s crucial to focus heavily on these neighborhoods to provide visitors with a genuine experience of the Greater Boston area while building more equity within the travel economy and where visitor dollars are spent.
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