|
Convention & Visitors Bureaus
and
Convention/Show Facilities as Partners
The Association of Collecting Clubs (ACC) works with over 5000
collecting clubs, societies and associations. Most of these groups are
located in the United States and Canada, but many other countries are also
represented. These clubs have a combined membership of around ten million
collectors, dealers and investors and hold over 10,000 events annually.
The Role of Collecting Clubs
Most collecting clubs support a specific collecting area, such as
coins, dolls, stamps, glassware and vintage automobiles. Most are more
specific, i.e. Lincoln Cent Society, Strawberry Patch Dolls, American Air
Mail Society, Carnival Glass Society or the Model T Ford Club of America.
The membership of most clubs represent the backbone of the knowledge base
for the collecting area they serve. Clubs are a vital segment of the entire
antiques, art & collectibles industry, serving the 200 million collectors
in America and those in virtually every other country of the world.
Club size ranges from under 50 members to over 100,000. Their shows,
conferences, conventions and other events are held in local fire halls,
Elk's Clubs and county fairgrounds... and also in the largest convention
centers and hotel/resort complexes in the nation. They are a major audience
for convention and visitor bureaus.
Association of Collecting Clubs (ACC)
The Association of Collecting Clubs started in March of 2002. It's
major object is to support the leadership of collecting clubs and the club
membership. This includes club promotion, membership recruitment, reaching
new members, club management, global marketing, leadership styles,
strengthening club publications, websites and events - particularly club
conventions and shows.
Most collecting clubs are volunteer driven. Many change officers
annually which means a continuous retraining process. This is particularly
true relating to events when convention chairmen and committees often means
"new people".
Collecting Clubs, ACC and CVB's
In working with collecting clubs, ACC found one of their major needs
was help with their conventions and other events. ACC attended the 2006
Destination Showcase and met with dozens of CVB representatives. Many did
not have collecting clubs on their targeted audience list whatsoever. One
of ACC's goals is to bring collecting clubs and CVB's together. Since our
first exposure to CVB's and facility promoters, ACC has gotten to know
dozens of staff and consider this group to be one of our most important
partnering groups. A number of CVB's now have a staff person assigned to
working with prospective collecting club customers.
While ACC does not contract for club conventions, nor make the
decisions on locations or facilities, we act as a catalyst, assisting club
leadership in making the best decisions to fit their needs in choosing a
location and a facility for their events.
Two ACC publications for clubs have been produced: Collecting Clubs
Event Guide - Working with CVBs and Collecting Clubs Event Guide - Facility
Checklist. (We are planning another publication, for CVBs, on understanding
and working with collecting clubs.)
ACC has a Collectors Trade Show on our website - a virtual trade show
including aisles of booths providing services and products of interest to
clubs and to collectors. There is a special aisle just for CVB's
(Convention Sites and Host Cities) and two additional aisles, one for
Meeting Facilities and another for Travel & Lodging. These booths are
promoted to the leadership of all collecting clubs. ACC helps design the
booth, based on the CVB's website and the booth costs $100/year.
http://TradeShow.Collectors.Org
Staff members at CVB's and meeting or convention facilities who have
responsibility for contact with clubs and organizations are encouraged to
join this partners program for CVBs and convention facilities by becoming
an ACC partner or affiliate. Check out both options in the Advertising
section on the Collectors.org homepage. Becoming an Affiliate costs
$25/year. Becoming an ACC partner at the $100 rate provides a complimentary
booth in the Collectors Trade Show - a $100 value.
All partners and affiliates are listed on the Collectors.Org website.
ACC/NAC members are informed of partners on a regular basis, and of this
program. You also receive the ACC/NAC Update electronic newsletter, and the
ACC/NAC Partners electronic newsletter.
There are a number of information sources ACC provides that can be
helpful to your staff. The ACC Club Directory is the largest and best club
directory on the Internet with over 5,000 clubs listed along with
descriptions and contact information. By using the search windows you can
usually pull up most clubs in your city or state as one single listing.
http://CollectingClubs.com
The ACC Club Convention and Events Calendar lists upcoming
conventions, shows and conferences by date. This is the only event calendar
on the Internet solely for collecting club information. An event must be
club-sponsored to be listed. See which clubs are having events and where
they are meeting.
http://Collectors.Org/Events
The Association of Collecting Clubs welcomes CVB's and convention/show
facilities as partners in playing the role of conduit between your staffs
and collecting clubs and associations. We look forward to continuing,
expanding and strengthening our relationship in support of collecting clubs
and welcome your suggestions and your expertise.
Larry Krug & Rick Moses
Association of Collecting Clubs
National Association of Collectors
18222 Flower Hill Way #299
Gaithersburg, MD 20879
301.926.8663
info@collectors.org
|
It's FREE!