Hotel Renovations Revitalize Mobile Bay

Quick: Name the birth- place of Mardi Gras. You may be surprised to learn it was Mobile Bay, Ala., in 1703. And if you haven't been to Mobile Bay recently, you're in for some more surprises.

"We're going to be a new city in one-and-a-half-years," said Leon Maisel, president and CEO of the Mobile Bay Convention & Visitors Bureau. Luckily, the area escaped major damage during Hurricane Katrina, and the downtown is in the midst of a $330 million renovation project. The Renaissance Riverview Plaza Hotel - with a skywalk to the Arthur R. Outlaw Convention Center - is receiving a $60 million facelift. This 375-room hotel will offer 32,000 square feet of dedicated, flexible meeting space when completed next May. The hotel is remaining open throughout the renovation.

Mobile's historic Battle House Hotel is also undergoing a $162 million restoration, and plans to reopen with 238 guest rooms in January 2007. The Radisson Admiral Semmes Hotel has been renovating its public spaces, and upon completion of its room upgrades, will have spent more than $5 million.

Located on the waterfront, the Arthur R. Outlaw Convention Center features outdoor terraces, riverwalks, and expansive riverfront windows affording views of passing ships on the Mobile River. The 317,000-gross-square-foot center includes a 100,000-square-foot exhibit hall, 42,000 square feet of meeting rooms and ballroom or banquet facilities, and a 52,000-square-foot prefunction area. Recent past conventions hosted at the convention center include Travel South (1,200 attendees), and the 2,300 attendee-Alabama Farm Federation. The National Senior Games Festival with 5,000 attendees is one of the many upcoming meetings Mobile Bay will host.

Government Responds to Pandemic Flu Threat

The White House released a 228-page report last month (www.whitehouse.gov/homeland/nspi_implementation.pdf) that provides a response plan in the event that a pandemic flu, such as the avian flu, reaches the United States. The report is based on a worst-case scenario where 40 percent of the workforce would be absent. The plan is a follow-up to a strategy President Bush outlined in November.

No one knows when a pandemic will occur, but experts fear that a bird-flu virus that is now spreading across the globe could spark one should it mutate and develop the ability to spread easily among people. The plan provides some idea of what could happen if a pandemic does occur. In terms of conducting business.

At work, employees would be advised to avoid hand-shaking and maintain a 3-foot distance from co-workers. Flexible work hours and telecommuting would be recommended. Face-to-face meetings would be substituted with teleconferences.

Closing the border would be difficult, but airline travel may be restricted and business travel curtailed. Ill passengers could be isolated and fellow travelers quarantined.

The report says the government is committed to expanding a stockpile of anti-virals and developing a vaccine, but it reiterates the message that disasters are local events and require local responses.

Condo Hotel Boom

The May issue of Convene discussed the growth of condo hotels and its implications for meeting planners ("Going Condo"). As proof of the condo hotel development boom, a new organization, the National Association of Condo Hotel Owners (www.nacho.us) has been formed to provide consumers with information to help them evaluate a potential condo hotel purchase. According to Smith Travel Research, as of March 2006, condo hotel rooms make up 19.5 percent of the hotel rooms currently under development in the United States. The top market for condo hotels is Las Vegas, representing nearly one third of the new product.