Sunday January 16th 2000

Buyers and Sellers Seek Matchmakers for GOP Convention
By Jane M. Von Bergen

Edith Stanley needs a caterer. Aaron "The Caterer" Boyd needs a customer. She has a real title, but for practical purposes, Stanley is the convention "mommy" to about 45 staffers from the Los Angeles Times who will cover the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia this summer.

"I take care of the feeding, watering and bedding - no, that doesn't sound right - and I will scream if the toilets aren't up to our high standards," she said, laughing. Among other duties, she has to arrange two meals a day for the Times staff.

Boyd runs a catering business in Mount Airy. He can offer high-end food such as salmon mousse on black bread, baked brie and crackers, sliced ham with pineapples and cherries, crudites with an herb dip.

"I'd like to make about $10,000 off this convention," Boyd said.

But so far, Boyd and Stanley don't know how to find each other. In fact, as the convention, scheduled to begin July 31, nears, many small business people eager for a piece of convention-related business are complaining that they don't know how to go about getting it.

"There is no place to go, no where to go. You ask, "Who do I talk to?' and nobody knows," said Judith Cills, who runs a bed-and-breakfast on Clinton Street in Center City. "Except for the Convention and Visitors Bureau, I haven't the slightest idea who to call and I've been in business my whole life. "Since my taxpayer dollars are helping to fund this I would like the [convention visitors] to know what is going on in Philadelphia, to know that there are florist and marketing companies..." she said.

"What I'm afraid of is that so many small businesses will not get the business they are able to handle because they don't know where to go and what contacts to make." One reason for the confusion is that no one organization is responsible for spreading the word on how this doing-business-during-the-convention works.

Philadelphia 2000, the host committee that brought the convention to Philadelphia, says it intends to play that role. "We want to unveil some kind of buy local campaign," Karen Buchholz, president of the organization said last week. But she didn't say when that would happen. To counter confusion, some business and professional organizations have been quickening the pace of meetings and seminars centered on commerce at the convention.

On Tuesday, for example eighty tour operators, caterers, hoteliers and others in the hospitality business met under the auspices of the Greater Philadelphia Chapter of the Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International and received a report on how the convention would play out, day by day. But when one person asked whether a vendor directory would be available to potential customers such as Stanley, the answer was eventually, electronically, but with no definite date.

In a session on Wednesday, Meeting Professionals International will play host to an evening reception for members at the Four Seasons Hotel to talk about the convention. The next morning, more than 200 business people are scheduled to gather for breakfast at the Bellevue's huge ballroom in the Park Hyatt on Broad Street for a Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce program for members titled "The Republican National Convention is Coming. Are You Ready?"

"This is a briefing to the business community and to the local agencies on how to capitalize on this opportunity," chamber president Charles Pizzi said.

Later that day, the Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau will convene a membership meeting at the Four Seasons to discuss business opportunities for the Republican and other conventions. Some of the current concern cold be eased if Philadelphia 2000's Web site were functioning. Potential vendors had hoped to be listed on such a site. "That's a favor to all businesspeople," said Anna Steele, com-owner of AstraSoft Marketing and Design, a Conshohocken firm that does special events, public relations, and Web site and graphic design. And potential customers such as Stanley could use a site to help find vendors. "I am shocked there is not a web site," she said.

Philadelphia 2000 spokesman Sue Schwenderman said Monday that a host committee Web site would be ready in the spring. The committee had earlier projected a launch in October and in January. "It's very complicated," Buchholz said last week. She said part of the delay lies in wanting to coordinate with the Republican convention organization to readily link both groups' site. "It's still in the discussion stage," she said.

Others have taken up some of the slack. The Convention and Visitors Bureau, the chamber and the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corp. all have Web sites that comer some of the demands. A private company, Gopphilly.com in Manayunk, has organized a business-connection site, at http://www.gophilly.com/, with links to many Republican organizations nationally and to businesses ranging from balloon purveyors to exhibit designers.

Local organizers say that the convention will bring $100 million or more in direct economic benefit to the region and as much as $200 million to $300 million total as dollars trickle through the economy. But will any of those dollars trickle to Susan Shain, the owner of touches, a craft and gift shop on 15th near Walnut Street? She has been to a couple of meetings and seminars about the convention and hasn't found out how for example, she could get involved in the corporate gift business for Philadelphia 2000. "So far people have spoken in great generalities," said Shain. "They haven't gotten to the ABCs and the bare bones of how to get business.

Spokesman for the Republican Party's convention organizing committee and Philadelphia 2000 say they are telling businesspeople to send information and brochures to both organizations.

While businesspeople are trying to figure out how to work the system, Edith Stanley, the L.A. Times "mommy" who visited Philadelphia last month for a press tour of the First Union Center, is relying on the Yellow Pages, a couple of standard tourist guides, and word of mouth to find what she needs.

"What do you know about Steve Poses?" she asked, referring to the Philadelphia caterer who once owned several well-known city restaurants, including the Frog. Stanley's California colleagues "aren't happy with ordinary sandwiches," she said. "they need arugula. Sandwiches with sprouts.

Whether or not Aaron Boyd has enough arugula on his menu to suit Stanley, he is hping his connections with the Convention and Visitors Bureau's Multicultural Affairs Council will help him to land jobs.

He also is the preferred caterer at several area party locations.

"Most people think that if something this big comes to town, the pie has already been cut - that all the business has been given out," Boyd said. "But optimistically, we have to feel that some of the pie is yet to be cut. Maybe I can get a little bit around the edges."

While some are trying to learn how to work the system, others have decided to work around it. AstraSoft's Steele already has lined up about 25 events for her marketing firm. Even before the city got the Republican convention she was working on her contact in Washington and linked p with Epiphany Productions, a congressional fund raising and events company.

"As of now, we have a breakfast, lunches and dinners every day of the week for one client." she said. "For DaimlerChrysler AG, we've negotiated a week's worth of events that will operate 24-7. We've organized a fly-fishing expedition for [House Speaker Dennis] Hastert and members of Congress followed by a golf outing. "I had to find guides. I have to get them completely outfitted in terms of gear. Still under debate is whether we should stock the stream."

I didn't want to wait and be told that someone wanted to do business with me," she said. "A lot of people are waiting in the wings. But nobody has stopped me and told me I can't do business this way."

Also confident that he will get some business is Gary Weiner, president of Russell Reid Co., a Keasbey, N.J., portable-toilet outfit that rents upscale trailers with lights, sound systems, air-conditioning, mirrors, and hot and cold running water.

"Everyone in the RNC has to go to the bathroom," Weiner said.