Following an in-depth study and review of the Event Impact Calculator's use and methodology, DMAI presents a selected case study on how Albuquerque CVB harnesses the power of economic impact data for its destination and meeting planner business.

1. DMAI’s Event Impact Calculator
Albuquerque Convention
& Visitors Bureau
ith year-round “blue
skies, calm winds and
mild temperatures”
and proximity to the desert
beauty that inspired the likes
of Georgia O’Keefe and Tony
Da, Albuquerque, New Mexico
continues to attract visitors to
participate in events that range
from ballooning to sports to
corporate retreats.
With 29,000 employees in
Albuquerque welcoming about
6.1 million visitors in 2013,
travel and tourism is the second
largest private sector industry
that generates over $69 million in
local taxes annually, with meetings
contributing $65 million in direct
spending. However, reaching
this estimate independently was
a considerable challenge for the
Albuquerque Convention and
Visitors Bureau (ACVB), as Valerie
Lind, CPA, Vice President, Finance
and Administration explains.
“ACVB was utilizing a formula
which took room nights multiplied
by average daily rate (ADR),
and added additional spending,
which we defined as the number
of attendees times number of
days times percentage peak times
average daily expenditure (ADE),”
Lind said. “We used a standard
ADR and ADE depending on
whether the group was meeting
at the convention center, within a
single hotel property or if it was a
sporting event. Additions to the
formula also included exhibitor
ADE and association spend should
the group meet our city-wide
criteria.”
Needless to say, due to the
complexity of applying such a
calculation consistently, ACVB
found it increasingly difficult to
conduct the research to update
the calculation’s underlying data,
which ultimately underestimated
W

2. DMAI’s Event Impact Calculator
At the end of the year, we had left about $7.5 million
of unreported direct spend on the table.
“ Valerie Lind, Vice President of Finance & Administration
Albuquerque Convention & Visitors Bureau
the economic value of the DMO’s
booked meetings. “Our most recent
formula had been in place for seven
years with no changes to ADR or
ADE values,” added Lind.
“Our formula represented only
direct spending, and we did not
include any economic ‘rollover’ to
evaluate or present total economic
impact.”
Therefore, when DMAI released
the Event Impact Calculator as
the new industry standard for
calculating the economic impact
of meetings and events in late
2011, ACVB was one of the first
destinations to sign on. The
primary reason for doing so was to
lift the burden of research from the
DMO and allow the organization
to capitalize on the tool’s annually
updated data sources, which
localized impact numbers down to
the county level.
“Due to the considerable research
of multiple conventions, meetings
and events, along with the
evaluation and analysis provided
by DMAI and Tourism Economics,
we felt the calculator had been
thoroughly vetted to provide the
most accurate data for a specific
meeting or event,” Lind said. “
As the calculator also takes into
consideration local taxes and
spending averages, the calculator
became destination-specific,
providing us a higher level of
comfort with its results.”
Not relying simply on faith,
however, Lind and her team
performed a thorough analysis
during the first year of use, running
their old formula side by side
with the Event Impact Calculator
to compare how the different
models estimated impacts using
the same event data. What Lind
discovered was that their old model
lacked the flexibility to account
for different event types, as well
as organizer spending depending
on the meeting’s location. As a
result, ACVB had been grossly
understating the direct spend of
some groups while overstating
others. As a whole, Lind shared,
“At the end of the year, we had left
about $7.5 million of unreported
direct spend on the table.”
The challenge was especially
apparent for sporting events. As for
many destinations, ACVB found it
extremely difficult to track sports
room nights. At best, they could
only obtain information on actual
players if a team happened to
contract a hotel, which clearly did
not truly represent the spending
that a sporting event brings to
the city. Since the release of the
Sports Module to the Event Impact
Calculator in October 2013, ACVB
have finally been able to provide
accurate data in terms of the type
of event, total attendees, room
nights and direct spend for this
important and growing segment.
Transitioning from a highly
onerous process of manually
calculating the economic data,
however, to the Event Impact
Calculator required some
adjustment, but ultimately, ACVB
found it more straightforward to
populate the correct input fields
collaboratively than to run long
formulas individually and risk
calculation error. During the RFP
process, the sales manager obtains
the necessary information from
Albuquerque, New Mexico | User Case Study

3. DMAI’s Event Impact Calculator
the meeting or event planner.
Meetings and sports managers
have a standard list of required
information to collect on their
groups, and then are expected to
enter this data into customized
fields within ACVB’s CRM
database, which interfaces directly
with the Event Impact Calculator.
The DMO continues to collect
meeting historical information
through DMAI’s Meetings
Information Network (MINT)
database, or through previous
DMOs and hotels.
Lind currently has one staff person
input values into the calculator
and cross-check results with other
data like requested or contracted
room nights and previous meeting
history. Upon confirming that
the findings correlate, the direct
spend amount is officially logged
in the CRM record and becomes
reportable. If any variance
is discovered, however, the
responsibility goes back to the
sales manager to return to the
planner for more information or
correct initial values in the original
RFP. On occasion, the DMO may
also identify a specific piece of
business that requires significant
hosting costs on the part of the
organization. In these cases, the
calculator is used to determine if
the ultimate return on investment
result justifies the group incentive.
“As a standard component of the
calculator, the return on investment
number can be helpful in making
those hard decisions,” said Lind.
The level of due diligence with
which the DMO approached
the new method of calculating
economic impact paid off with
its Board Finance Committee. At
the beginning of the year, ACVB
provided an overview of the tool
and demonstrated how data was
entered and how source data was
collected and incorporated into
the model. Currently, the DMO
uses room nights generated to
set its sales goals, in addition to
historical production. That, along
with direct spend numbers are
published in the organization’s
President’s Report, used for press
releases on specific groups and
shared in all City Reports that
communicate the value of business
being brought to Albuquerque.
The DMO’s Audit Committee also
reviews on a quarterly basis, a
random set of bookings to ensure
inputs and results being reported
are accurate as well. In fact, the
tool has inspired such confidence
among stakeholders as a third-
party, industry-vetted software,
that the ACVB’s contract with the
city now specifically requires they
use the Event Impact Calculator to
estimate its direct spend numbers
for events.
“We are extremely satisfied with
the Event Impact Calculator,”
concludes Lind. “The level
of expertise brought into the
adaptation of the calculator as well
as the ability to provide specific
inputs based on the event type,
have brought a stronger level to
what meetings and events provide
to our destination as a whole. The
tool ensures that moving forward,
we continuously provide the
most accurate direct spend and
economic impact information for
our meetings and events industry.”
Reflecting on the industry as a
whole, Lind and her team are
interested in hearing what other
destinations are using from the
calculator’s reporting, as well
as uncovering best practices,
including applying the tool’s
summary exports and using the
interface with a CRM solution
to adjust input values or export
summaries. •
Albuquerque, New Mexico | User Case Study

4. Valerie joined Albuquerque
Convention and Visitors Bureau as
its Vice President of Finance and
Administration in 2011.
She has an extensive accounting
background in many industries
ranging from engineering,
manufacturing, construction and,
most currently, the hospitality
industry but what remains the
same is her love of accounting and
“playing with numbers” all day.
As an Albuquerque native, she
loves what the destination has to
offer and is excited to share that
with the world. Although fairly
new to the hospitality industry,
she feels it is her ultimate career
“destination”. As an occasional
consultant, she has had the
privilege to teach accounting to
local small businesses and start-
ups.
About Valerie Lind
Vice President of Finance and Administration
Albuquerque Convention & Visitors Bureau
DMAI’s Event Impact Calculator Albuquerque, New Mexico | User Case Study