'We book business for this community.' (10th anniversary of Bill Elander, CEO and president of Anchorage Convention and Visitors Bureau) (Interview)

• Author: Ralby, Don

This month Bill Elander celebrates his 10th anniversary as president and CEO of the Anchorage Convention and Visitors Bureau. In that time, convention bookings in Anchorage have more than doubled, the organization's staff has increased in size and efficiency, and Elander now finds himself in the position of occasionally having to turn business away because the convention centers or hotels were previously booked. And remember - the convention business is seasonal. Anchorage doesn't have the hotel space in the summer to do conventions, so these gatherings take place in the fall, winter and spring, a nice way of extending Anchorage's visitor season.

ABM: If I understand your history correctly, you were working in Las Vegas when you applied for this job.

ELANDER: Actually Reno. I was working for the MGM Grand there, and I left the hotel just before they sold it. I had equity property in a corporation in Steamboat Springs (Colorado) and I worked on that for a year and decided that it could run by itself. I then had an opportunity for the position here in Anchorage. It was advertised in the Wall Street Journal.

ABM: Had you ever been up here before?

ELANDER: Oh yeah, I was up here in the Air Force. Not stationed here, but I came up here on temporary duty and flew out of Elmendorf on exercises back in the '60s and '70s.

ABM: So you spotted an ad in the Wall Street Journal, turned in an application, and...

ELANDER: It was a catchy ad the way they talked about the convention bureau. I had worked with the convention bureau in Reno, and there were a lot of issues with my operation and the bureau that I didn't agree with. The ad itself kind of alluded to the fact that you would have a chance to make a difference on the Last Frontier - it was an opportunity to express yourself. That's exactly what it's turned out to be. Kind of a free hand to build something that wasn't then moving in the direction that the industry wanted.

ABM: Obviously the board found your qualifications to their liking. What did you find about Anchorage that you liked?

ELANDER: Well, the words of that ad, "You have a chance to make a difference," were real. First off, it's a wonderful product for a marketing organization, and it gives me joy to go out here and share it. I came here with some fixed ideas, albeit to me they were not tested ideas, and I had the opportunity to try them.

I had the total right to hire and fire and to build a team, and build it the way I wanted to. I did not want to present Anchorage to the world with individuals like myself who were from out of state who had no roots in the state or this community. For the most part I chose Alaskans to market our community. I wanted people to tell the story of Alaska in the way it should be told, and not to bring anybody in from another city who used just traditional sales techniques. Alaska is unique, and that's the story I wanted told.

Our employees are the key to our organization. We take care of our people. We have a very low turnover. We have a policy of allowing quite a bit of self-initiative. Our work force has, I guess, on average been here six years. So we have a very good team.

ABM: I saw a chart on your wall about convention business that shows a steady rise.

ELANDER: For 10 years we've had a constant, steady growth pattern of convention production and actual conventions and meetings that were held here.

When you sell a convention it's usually three to five years after you contract with an organization before the people are actually in town. Your number of sold meetings are always more than your held meetings if you're selling more and more each year.

I think it was about four or five years into our program that the community started realizing the impact of our sales. When those growth rates started taking hold and they started recognizing it - the lodging industry, retail trade and transportation all started taking notice. In my opinion, it was the process of signing the conventions not in the summertime. We don't have the hotels in the summer, so we're selling fall, winter and spring. Our best months to sell are of course September in the fall and May in the spring.

Then the cruise lines saw an opportunity, so they in turn extended their season right into my convention...