Following an in-depth study and review of the Event Impact Calculator's use and methodology, DMAI presents a selected case study on how Travel Portland harnesses the power of economic impact data for its destination and meeting planner business.

1. DMAI’s Event Impact Calculator
Travel Portland
n today’s world of data-
driven business, DMOs are
less than immune from the
overwhelming demand from
stakeholders for visibility and
robust measurement of their
performance to ensure that the
travel and tourism industry
continues to do for its community
as the community does for the
industry. Portland, Oregon is no
exception, which welcomed 8.4
million visitors in 2013. These
visitors helped ease the tax burden
from residents by contributing
$191.2 million in tax revenues, of
which half were local. In return,
Portland is taking a proactive
approach toward developing its
tourism product, notably through
a Tourism Improvement District
ordinance that passed in 2012,
to enhance the Portland area as
a destination for meetings and
leisure and provide Travel Portland,
its DMO, an alternate source of
funding directly through the hotel
community to promote the region.
It is projected that approximately
13.6% of new funds would go
towards convention sales and
marketing.
Maintaining reliable numbers,
therefore, was and continues to
be a priority for Travel Portland.
Prior to utilizing DMAI’s Event
Impact Calculator, Travel Portland
like many DMOs relied on the
industry’s ExPact numbers, which
had not been updated for several
years. Left with those numbers to
start with, the organization then
created its own formula based
on an internal analysis of their
local data. “We took actualized
revenue at the convention center,
average daily rates (ADR) from
hotels, and more,” Mike Smith,
Travel Portland’s Vice President
of Convention Sales explained, “It
was a lot of averages, but from all of
that, we were able to come up with
a very rough approximate revenue
I

2. DMAI’s Event Impact Calculator Portland, Oregon | User Case Study
We can feel confident about the numbers we are
reporting, both internally and to the community,
especially knowing that the third party is continuing
to fine-tune the data.
“ Mike Smith, Vice President of Convention Sales
Travel Portland
per room night figure that we
utilized across all market segments,
with some tweaks depending on
the group.”
The greatest weakness in the model
however came in the problem of
maintenance, which was addressed
when Travel Portland started with
the Event Impact Calculator when
it released in 2011. “The calculator
got us out of the game of providing
the data. The calculator takes
much more into account when
determining the estimates than
our home-grown formula did,
and hence, is more accurate as a
consistent industry standard for
projecting revenue,” Smith said.
Indeed, Travel Portland’s position
is to strengthen the region’s
economy by marketing the
metropolitan Portland region
as a preferred destination for
meetings, conventions and leisure
travel. While providing evidence
of its effectiveness is part of the
organization’s business, its expertise
is in destination promotion and
not necessarily economic analysis.
As Smith commented, “[The
calculator] got us out of the game
of providing the data. The data
now comes from a neutral third
party that has no ‘dog in the fight’
as to how much revenue our
groups generate. You could say
the Event Impact Calculator is
viewed as more trustworthy than
we are. As industry standards
and estimates change, so will our
calculator, without us having to
try to determine those changes
ourselves.”
The staff, however, still takes
responsibilityfor collecting
accurate inputs and continuously
confirming the calculator’s
estimates to actual numbers
afterward. This method of control
has allowed Travel Portland to
identify where certain inputs need
to be tweaked for greater accuracy
and takes advantage of the
calculator’s flexibility to do so when
the case requires.
“Our sales managers are
responsible for determining, for
every group, the data input fields
via a standardized worksheet. We
have created an EIC worksheet
based on EIC input datapoints
-- each of our sales managers
completes a sheet for every lead
generated. The completed sheet,
containing such information as
Event Start Date, Event End Date,
Room Nights, Persons Per Room,
Overnight Attendees, Convention
Center Rental, et cetera, is given
to an assistant. The assistants then
input the data; run reports based
on the worksheets and enter the
revenue information into our CRM
solution. While many of the fields
required by the calculator merge
directly from our CRM, some fields
may need to be tweaked depending
on the group, which is why we
require a completed worksheet
first,” Smith explains. “Afterward,
convention sales leadership is
responsible for reviewing and
approving results.”
Prior to the calculator’s formal
adoption, Smith and his team
reviewed actual spending data
for a number of past years, while
running new calculations through
the Event Impact Calculator, and
compared the results. While the

3. DMAI’s Event Impact Calculator
figures from some individual
groups differed, the overall results
were very similar, and upon
showing the data to the DMO’s
funding partners they were able to
achieve the buy in to move forward
with the calculator’s use.
Since then, Smith has found
that the calculator provides a
reliable estimated income for our
convention center and community
as a whole. “We can feel confident
about the numbers we are
reporting, both internally and to
the community, especially knowing
that the third party is continuing
to fine-tune the data,” said Smith.
“We do find our convention center
data, when defined as ‘organizer
spending’ in the calculator to be
more accurate and closer to actuals
if we subtract the ‘additional costs’
number. Adding it in seems to
overinflate overall convention
center revenue, so we choose to
include the ‘additional costs’ in our
total event spending figure instead.”
With further research and insights
into how other destinations are
tracking how the calculator is
working for those organizations,
DMAI and Tourism Economics
will continue to make
improvements toward greater
accuracy. “Based on continued
updating and fine-tuning, we
definitely are satisfied with the
Event Impact Calculator at this
time,” concludes Smith. “As new
versions and updates get released,
we gain more and more confidence
in the results.”
So much has been Travel Portland’s
confidence in the tool that the
organization uses the Event Impact
Calculator to help develop future
projections that inform its revenue
goals relating to its convention
center and its overall city spending
goal with the city itself.
Therefore, Travel Portland
publishes future revenue estimates
for convention center business,
single hotel business and also for
overall total city revenue in:
1. Monthly, quarterly, and fiscal
year reports,
2. Monthly newsletters, and
3. To the meeting organization if
requested.
Smith and his team share two
primary estimates, total business
sales as the citywide number
and organization spend for the
convention center, internally with
Travel Portland leadership, Board
of Directors, political leaders
and media as requested. The
organization has also found the
taxes generated and jobs supported
information is insightful as this
level of interpretation was not
available through their previous
model. •
Portland, Oregon | User Case Study

4. Michael Smith serves as Vice
President of Convention Sales for
Travel Portland, which has been
contracted to market the Oregon
Convention Center to potential
users nationally.
Smith received a Bachelor of Arts
degree in psychology in 1972 from
Willamette University, Salem, and
a Master of Arts in Management
Science in 1977 from Webster Uni-
versity, St. Louis.
He is a member of Hospitality
Sales & Marketing Association
(HSMAI), Oregon Society of As-
sociation Management (OSAM),
American Society of Association
Executives (ASAE), International
Association of Exhibitions and
Events (IAEE), Professional Con-
vention Management Association
(PCMA), Meeting Professionals
International (MPI), and the Asso-
ciation of Convention Marketing
Executives (ACME).
Smith is a native of Oregon and
has lived in the Portland area for
twenty-five years. He and his wife
Jacquie have two sons.
Smith has been with Travel Port-
land since 1987; prior to that, he
was with Kah-Nee-Ta Resort for
two years as Director of Sales; and
with La Mansion hotels in San
Antonio, Texas for four years as
Assistant Director of Sales.
About Mike Smith
Vice President of Convention Sales
Travel Portland
DMAI’s Event Impact Calculator Portland, Oregon | User Case Study