Corporate Events, on Campus

The following is an excerpt from an article in:


The New York Times
Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Corporate Events, on Campus

By AMY ZIPKIN

The description of the meeting center was effusive: “The conference center has a million-dollar panoramic view of the Manhattan skyline that will leave you breathless.”

But this was not for some fancy hotel. It was for the center at Montclair State University in New Jersey, less than 20 miles west of Manhattan. Montclair, like hundreds of colleges and universities around the country, has experienced increased interest in its conference centers as companies seek more frugal sites for their corporate meetings.

“It’s a question of optics,” said Kristin Kurie, president of the Wilderman Group in Charleston, S.C., a company that manages meeting and event sites. “Companies don’t want to appear to be spending lavishly.”

Chuck Salem, president of Unique Venues in Johnstown, Pa., a referral service for about 500 college and university conference centers, said he had seen a rise in inquiries in the last several years. In 2009, he said, his staff followed up on 2,087 leads. By 2011, that number had jumped to 9,721, with 55 percent from corporate or business planners.

For their part, many colleges and universities have long had conference centers, though they were primarily for academic conferences. Now, they are eager to find new sources of funds.

“There’s a built-in market,” said David E. Arnold, co-president and chief executive of PKF Consulting East Coast, a hospitality management consultant in Philadelphia. Not only do the collegiate conference centers make money by marketing to outside groups, he said, they can also burnish a university’s image.

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