ST. LOUIS • The city's convention planners could have played it safe and held the concert Saturday night inside the Edward Jones Dome.
August weather in 50¶È»ÒÊÓƵ is hot and humid and thunderstorms were looming in the forecast.
But when you are hosting thousands of guests who are in town to see if 50¶È»ÒÊÓƵ is a place suited to hold conventions, that's no time to hold back. So the opening-night ceremony for the American Society of Association Executives convention was a concert under the Gateway Arch featuring a diverse mix of music that has deep roots in 50¶È»ÒÊÓƵ, from ragtime to rap.
"We have one shot at this," said Kitty Ratcliffe, president of the 50¶È»ÒÊÓƵ Convention and Visitors Commission. "There's no better experience. We need to make the right statement."
That statement, she said, is to show off the city's best assets and present 50¶È»ÒÊÓƵ as a clean, safe place with a bounty of culture and entertainment. About 5,000 members of the ASAE are in town through Tuesday for their annual convention, held last year in Los Angeles and scheduled for next year in Dallas. It was last held in 50¶È»ÒÊÓƵ in 1979.
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Among the conventioneers are executives from 1,400 associations looking at 50¶È»ÒÊÓƵ with a critical eye.
"It's really all about the venues," said Gary LaBranche, president and CEO of the Association for Corporate Growth in Chicago. 50¶È»ÒÊÓƵ marks his 29th ASAE convention.
"Is the convention center configured well? Is it modern enough? Then you start looking at the hotels" including their locations, quality and prices, he said.
"Then it's the ancillary things, like safety and cleanliness of the city," said Deborah Bowen, chief operating officer for the American College of Healthcare Executives, which has about 35,000 members. Equally important, she said, is how convention-goers are treated when they arrive, from easy registration to transportation.
LaBranche and Bowen both said any negative image that a city might have can be easily overcome if the experience is a good one.
"If all the elements are in place, you can overcome the perception," LaBranche said. "It's what happens while they are here that they take back with them."
Ratcliffe and other city leaders worked hard to make sure downtown is seen in its best light. Ratcliffe sent a list of about 30 items that needed attention to Jeff Rainford, Mayor Francis Slay's chief of staff.
She pointed out orange construction barriers and a wooden pallet on Locust Street in front of a vacant building and a large dip in Washington Avenue just outside America's Center, left by a utility worker.
On Friday afternoon, Rainford was driving downtown streets with Sam Dotson, City Hall operations director, looking for anything out of place. They found a fallen MetroLink sign at Sixth Street and Washington and a car that had multiple tickets on it parked outside the Gateway One building.
"Have that towed," Rainford said to Dotson.
"Overall, we think things look really good," Rainford said. "We're being a bit more persnickety than normal. The impression we hope to leave with them is that 50¶È»ÒÊÓƵ is a vibrant place, and cleanliness is part of it."
Police also stepped up patrols downtown.
Ratcliffe said the sources of the $1.5 million to host the convention include $1 million that the commission saved in the last four years for this event and $250,000 from 50¶È»ÒÊÓƵ County's hotel and motel tax. In-kind contributions helped cover the rest. She estimates that those who attend will spend $5.7 million.
"While the convention in and of itself is a great piece of business, the key to this is our opportunity to sell 50¶È»ÒÊÓƵ to others, to customers who we could not have gotten our foot in the door otherwise," Ratcliffe said.
The cost to run the convention included a requirement by ASAE that shuttle buses run all day between 12 downtown hotels and the convention center. Putting on the concert also was a large expense, which included hiring extra security and bringing in generators because there is no access to electricity on the park grounds.
Four members of the Building Owners and Managers Association of Greater Los Angeles were among the first to arrive Saturday, not thrilled with the heat. None of them had been to 50¶È»ÒÊÓƵ before, and they knew little about it.
"The Arch. The Gateway to the West," said Tonya Burns.
"The Cardinals," added Dodgers fan Desmond Brown.
They planned to check out City Museum and the Delmar Loop, anxious to find out more about the city.
The lack of knowledge about the city is why organizers are willing to risk sticky 50¶È»ÒÊÓƵ weather to hold three marquee events outside: The concert at the Arch; a reception Monday at the Missouri Botanical Garden; and a block party Tuesday night on Washington Avenue.
"If we don't show our most spectacular venues, we've missed an opportunity," Ratcliffe said. "If they come and don't feel good about 50¶È»ÒÊÓƵ when they leave, that's something that actually works against us."