Hundreds due in city for real estate meeting|[11/30/06]

Published 12:00 am Thursday, November 30, 2006

Organizers are asking for community involvement next week as Vicksburg hosts another in a growing series of larger conventions.

The Mississippi Association of Realtors will bring its statewide meeting to the city Tuesday through Thursday at the Vicksburg Convention Center. The group will have its hotel headquarters at the nearby Horizon Casino and Hotel with other conventioneers staying at the Hampton Inn and Suites, Holiday Inn Express, Comfort Inn and the Rainbow Hotel.

Angela Cain, chief executive officer of the Jackson-based Realtors association, said she expects about 500 people to attend.

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&#8220That’s about 400 Realtors, about 100 sponsors and exhibitors and spouses,” Cain said.

Cain said she doesn’t believe the Realtors have ever had a convention in Vicksburg. They did have a small gathering in the city last year in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

&#8220Katrina redefined conventions,” said Larry Gawronski, executive director of the Vicksburg Convention Center and vice president of Compass Facility Management, the company contracted to manage the Vicksburg Convention and Visitors Bureau. &#8220It has given the inland cities a chance to show off.”

Pam Beard of Vicksburg, owner and broker of BrokerSouth GMAC Real Estate and president of the Mississippi Association of Realtors, said she was excited to have her fellow Realtors meeting in her hometown.

&#8220We have been trying to get them here for years,” she said, &#8220at least the past 10 years.”

In those years, she said, Vicksburg has made great strides in making itself more attractive to larger meetings.

&#8220First we had no convention center and then they said we had no hotel at the convention center,” she said. &#8220It took some convincing them that we could pull this off.”

Getting the Realtors convention in Vicksburg means a lot to her personally, Beard said.

&#8220I am so proud of Vicksburg,” she said, adding when she goes to national Realtor meetings she promotes the whole state, but when she is meeting with Mississippi Realtors she pushes Vicksburg.

&#8220This is going to bring people to Vicksburg who have not been here in years,” Beard said, adding she would like to see local businesses make those attending the convention feel as welcome as the people of New Orleans made the 26,000 at the national convention feel. The group had committed to meeting in New Orleans before Katrina and its meeting there was the first large convention there since the storm.

&#8220They were so appreciative,” she said. &#8220I hope we will be as appreciative.

Gawronski said the convention’s theme is Red Carpet Rendezvous and by rolling out the red carpet for the conventioneers, the meeting could mean more than $1 million to the local economy. He said he came to that figure by multiplying an average spending of $125 per day per person, which is an amount proved by historical industry records, by the number of people who could attend by the number of days they are expected to stay. Based on that, direct spending could be as much as $500,000. The remainder of the impact comes from industry figures that 60 percent of the spending stays in the local economy and turns over at least four times.

The convention center, completed in 1995, has just ended a record business year.

The Realtors are used to meeting in resort areas and the Gulf Coast and will talk about Vicksburg for a long time if they are given a warm welcome, Gawronski said.

&#8220We are asking Vicksburg to roll out the red carpet,” he said. &#8220Something as simple as putting a sign on the door welcoming them can come back 100 fold.”

Cain said the sponsors who will be attending include such entities as banks, law firms and mortgage brokers, while the exhibitors will be many of the same organizations that are sponsors plus businesses who sell multiple listing services, promotional items and customer gifts to Realtors.

Cain said the meetings at the convention center will be for Realtors and associates.

&#8220We will bring in national speakers who will conduct courses in continuing education,” she said.

The association also plans to have a golf tournament as well as a welcoming gathering Wednesday at the BB Club on Clay Street.