BARRY WILLIAMS/Special

Marc Morial, president and CEO of the National Urban League, lays a wreath on the grave of Coretta Scott King. Atlanta's history in the civil rights movement is one of the attractions for African-American organizations that meet in the city.

Kathleen Bertrand, vice president of community affairs for the Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau, tells the story of the city's most recent conference recruit to illustrate Atlanta's status as a premier destination for African-Americans.

George Fraser, who had held his FraserNet Power Networking Conference in Cleveland for the last four years, contacted the visitors bureau last year about moving it to Atlanta for three years. When he visited Atlanta to look at the convention facilities in June 2005, the 100 Black Men of Atlanta happened to be having its annual convention. Public television host Tavis Smiley was among the high-profile guests expected at a reception during the conference, and Fraser asked for help getting in the door.

"We helped him get in, and he met lots of influential people - a congressman, the chief of police - and they were all African-American," Bertrand said. "That night he met Tavis Smiley, who asked him to be on a panel on his show the next day. He wound up being nationally televised."

Bertrand said experiences like that make it easy to close a sale to conventioneers considering Atlanta as a site. After a few highlights like that, the recruiters dropped the "Mr. Fraser" formalities and moved in to bring Atlanta another conference.

"We said, 'George' - we were at 'George' now - only in Atlanta could you meet Tavis Smiley and be on his panel the next day,' " Bertrand said. "He came for three years and left with four."

Fraser had intended to move his convention from Cleveland beginning in 2007, but he committed to hold it in Atlanta beginning this summer. About 5,000 people attended the exposition; 2,300 of them registered for the workshops and panel discussions.

Attendance was down a bit from prior years, but Fraser attributed that to growing pains associated with the relocation. He said he expects that, instead of drawing participants from cities near his hometown of Cleveland, future conferences in Atlanta will draw from Southeastern cities such as Birmingham and Charlotte.

Meeting mecca

Fraser's conference is one of several aimed at attracting African-Americans to Atlanta. Mostly held during the summer convention season, some are as big as a name like MegaFest implies and some are as small as a family reunion.

And with new diversions such as the Georgia Aquarium and the expanded High Museum of Art added to traditional attractions such as the Martin Luther King Jr. Historic District, many of those conference visitors are bringing families and staying a few days before or after the conference.

The visitors bureau estimates that the African-American meetings create an economic boost of $158 million for the city.

Here are some notable ones held in Atlanta this summer:

• MegaFest, a spiritual conference held in mid-July with 150,000 attendees, had an estimated $76 million impact.
• The National Urban League's 2006 conference, held in July with 4,000 attendees, had an estimated $4 million impact.
• Bronner Brothers International Beauty Show, held in early August with 30,000 attendees, had an estimated $30.5 million economic impact.

Fraser cites many of the same factors other convention planners name when explaining why Atlanta is the place to host an event for a large group of travelers.

Atlanta has plenty of hotels staffed with people experienced in pulling off conventions. It's a transportation hub, making it easy to reach by plane from most of the country.

And Fraser mentions things such as the aquarium and the museum as entertainment options for conventioneers during downtime.

But he also points to the historically black colleges at the Atlanta University Center as adding to the atmosphere he wanted as a backdrop to his wealth-creation conference, he said.

"With three major African-American [educational] institutions and the local population, it was the perfect environment for our convention," Fraser said. "And many of the people who came have family or friends in Atlanta."

Rich in culture

Bertrand said the visitors bureau's Web site and brochures encourage convention planners to see Atlanta as a business and pleasure destination for African-Americans by promoting the city's ties to the civil rights era through its Web page and a brochure featuring multicultural attractions.

"What makes Atlanta particularly attractive to African-Americans is the history and culture," Bertrand said.

And, she said, many African-Americans from Atlanta are players on the national stage, so they are often celebrity guests at the conferences, reinforcing the city's prominence.

She points to the list of honorees at the 2006 National Urban League conference at the Georgia World Congress Center: Johnnetta Cole, former president of Spelman College; U.S. Rep. John Lewis (D-Atlanta); and former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young.

The chance to rub elbows with people like Smiley and the VIPs who sat at the National Urban League's head table really gives Atlanta an edge in recruiting African-American conventions, Bertrand said.

"It's more than just great hotel rooms and the Georgia World Congress Center," she said. "We emphasize that what we offer is great relationships."