10 steps to getting conventions booked in Alaska: Alaska's convention and visitors bureaus work to sell the state as a convention and meeting destination.

• Author: Campbell, Melissa

Orlando's got nothing on Anchorage as far as Tina Cab bagestalk is concerned. Neither does Detroit. At least that's what she thinks now that she's actually visited Anchorage. Before her trip, she said you probably couldn't have dragged her up here. Now, she plans to encourage her organization to hold a convention in Alaska in the coming years.

Sales people for the state's convention and visitors bureaus work hard to convert people like Cabbagestalk, a representative of the National Business Aviation Association. She came to Alaska in May as part of a group of convention planners on a familiarization trip, known in the industry as a FAM. The Anchorage Convention and Visitors Bureau holds three FAMs a year in an effort to entice people like Cabbagestalk to hold their organizations' conventions in Anchorage. The full retail value of the trip for each delegate would total about $2,000. But airlines offer free or greatly reduced seating for FAM attendees; hotels offer free rooms; and visitors bureau members offer free or reduced prices for the fun activities, such as flightseeing, horseback riding or a rail excursion. The ACVB pays for the rest.

Because it cost little more than her time, Cabbagestalk flew to Anchorage from her association's headquarters in Washington, D.C. She'd already attended FAMs in Orlando and Detroit, other cities vying to book the Aviation Association's convention. But when she came to Alaska, Cabbagestalk said, she was amazed.

"Oh, Anchorage is the best," she said as she snapped photos of floatplanes landing on Lake Hood. "I don't think pictures do this place justice. When you come here, you really get a feel for it. I'm so surprised by this place."

Conventions drop millions of dollars into a state's economy--an estimated $81 million in Anchorage last year--so the competition to get them is fierce. But Alaska's convention sales people say they have an advantage over most other states: The calving glaciers, the resident backyard moose and the big-as-a-barn-door halibut aren't tales you'll ever hear coming out of Detroit. But they're common in Alaska.

"Alaska tends to be a notch on the belt," said Tina Lindgren, president of the Alaska Travel Industry Association. "You know, 'I've been to the Caribbean, been to Hawaii, now I need to go to Alaska.' There's a certain mystique about Alaska because it's so distant. People don't know what to expect; they don't know if they can do it"

CVBs work to help allay those concerns and get people to the state. Here are some of the steps Alaska's convention and visitors bureaus take to compete with the rest of the world in getting convention bookings.

1. Find Potential Conventioners. The first step to booking any convention...