Administration & Destination Technology


Administration


Signature Event Development Pilot Program

Collaborated with partners and the Greater Raleigh CVB Board of Directors to use portions of the Signature Event Development Pilot Program to help host the NHL Stadium Series™, extend Dreamville Festival to two event days and host two international esports championships: Apex Legends Global Series and League of Legends League Championship Series Spring Finals in partnership with Electronic Arts, Riot Games and PNC Arena.
 

Interlocal small capital projects

Worked with Wake County to measure the ROI and economic impact for the submitted proposals requesting tourism tax funding for the Wake County Small Projects. Also helped review, interview and recommend the distribution of the $8.5 million in available funds to five countywide partners.

Esports

Continued working with the General Assembly, N.C. Department of Commerce and Visit North Carolina in the successful year-two implementation of the N.C. Esports Production Grant fund to help attract esports events to the state. As a result, Wake County hosted six esports events at the Raleigh Convention Center and PNC Arena.
 

Staff leadership

Encouraged and supported staff in taking community and industry leadership positions. As a result, Greater Raleigh CVB staff serves on 63 community and industry committees or boards locally, statewide and nationally.
 

Destination Strategic Plan (DSP) priorities

Continued to collaborate with our partners to move the top four key priorities in the Destination Strategic Plan forward. These include a new full-service convention hotel, enhancements at PNC Arena, a new indoor sports complex in Cary and a future expansion of the Raleigh Convention Center.
 

Workforce development

Worked with Capital Area Workforce Development in the execution of a plan to raise awareness of jobs in the hospitality sector and the opportunities for career paths. Also worked with the N.C. Restaurant and Lodging Association in creating a marketing plan to address career opportunities in the hospitality sector on a statewide level.
 

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI)

Created numerous opportunities for staff to become involved and understand the importance of DEI. This involved attending several local DEI events, bringing speakers to address staff and formation of an internal DEI Committee and book club. The CVB also participated in a Destinations International organizational assessment of our DEI practices.
 

Awards received by the Greater Raleigh CVB

  • 2022 Award of Excellence from Corporate & Incentive Travel magazine—winner is selected by meeting planner subscribers who voted by ballot for CVBs that best served their corporate meeting needs
     
  • Meetings Today Best Of Award in the Best South CVBs/DMOs categoryvoted on by the publication's readers
     
  • Raleigh, N.C., was selected as Best Sports Host City in SportsTravel magazine's 2022 SportsTravel Awardsvoted on by sports event organizers from throughout the country and announced at the TEAMS ’22 Conference & Expo
     
  • ConventionSouth 2022 Readers’ Choice Award (for the eighth time)—readers/meeting planners voted the Greater Raleigh CVB as one of the best CVBs in the country
     
  • 2022 Bronze Stella Award, presented by Northstar Meetings Group's leading publications: Meetings & Conventions, Successful Meetings, Meeting News and Incentive
    • The Stella Awards herald organizations across the globe that consistently deliver superlative service and innovation across all sectors of the meetings and events industry; the Southeast CVB/DMO winners were Visit Orlando (Gold), Visit Tampa (Silver) and the Greater Raleigh Convention and Visitors Bureau (Bronze)
  • Five awards at N.C. Travel Industry Association's N.C. Tourism Leadership Conference:
    • Platinum in the Convention Marketing category for our implementation of SendSites digital bid books and proposals for meetings, conventions and events
    • Gold in the Convention Marketing category for the “Jump Back In” meetings recovery campaign, which ended June 2022
    • Platinum in the Group Marketing category for the series of a dozen aerial videos of Wake County major sports venues created and added to the Visit Raleigh Studio (re-edits of the 2020 CARES Act drone raw footage project)
    • Platinum in the Community Relations category for the first edition of ETA Wake County: Insights from real-time visitor arrival data (our new publication to local stakeholders based on mobile device data provided by Arrivalist)
    • Best Innovation Award (out of all N.C. CVB entries submitted this year) for the aforementioned publication; this is the second consecutive year that the Greater Raleigh CVB won this award
  • Meeting Professionals International Chicago Area Chapter Hall of Fame Organization Award; Greater Raleigh CVB is the first CVB to win the award since the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority in 1999
     
  • Bronze Telly Award in the Travel/Tourism category for "Jump In" leisure visitor market campaign advertisement (minute-long anthem version)

 

Destination Technology


New cloud-based PR solution

In collaboration with the Public Relations and International Tourism Department, the Destination Technology Department completed the transition of the CVB's cloud-based PR solution from Cision to Muck Rack, a more accurate database of PR professionals and journalists. This change was motivated by Muck Rack’s commitment to user privacy, data security and data accuracy, additionally providing the ability to track pitching within the platform and including seamless Outlook integration powered by secure email encryption. 
 

Transition to Google Analytics 4

Planned and gathered data for and executed the discontinuation of the Universal Google Analytics (UA) platform this fiscal year (2022-2023), as per Google's instructions. Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is Google's new analytics platform for website tracking, replacing UA. As of June 2023, ensured our website tracking and reporting aligned with GA4 instructions. The change reflects Google's shift toward user-based reporting and performance measurement, with the goal of providing insights and predictions on the customer journey across devices and platforms.
 

Google Performance Max advertising beta test

Together with the Marketing and Communications Department, beta tested a Google product called Performance Max, which is a new, goals-based campaign platform that allows customers to access all of the Google Ads inventory (search, display, Gmail, YouTube, Google Discover ads etc.) for a single campaign. Machine learning is used to adjust various combinations of creative elements (copy, photography and video), bids and placements to maximize conversion volume. These conversions on native Google platforms resulted in conversions on the CVB's own visitRaleigh.com, including DTN partner ad clicks, Visitors Guide requests and views, CVB email subscriptions and partner referrals. As paid search is the most effective at finding users who are more likely to complete those desired conversions on visitRaleigh.com, the Performance Max beta has emphasized search ad placements the most over the last seven months.
 

Electric vehicle (EV) charging station listings and promotions

In collaboration with the Marketing and Communications Department, began promoting sustainable tourism awareness for EV charging stations in Wake County this fiscal year. The Bureau did this by integrating our Customer Relationship Management platform with a federal open-data database that includes all EV charging stations in the destination. After analyzing this information, it became clear that Level 1 (1.2KW charge capacity) EV stations were being replaced by Level 2 (up to 20KW charge capacity) EV stations, and also that Tesla-branded EV stations were being installed throughout the destination. With this data integration, the CVB created a page listing all EV stations in Wake County, also allowing for the mapping of EV station locations through Google Maps. The CVB also published an article listing notable things to do and dining near charging stations, encouraging visitors to do and spend more locally while charging their vehicles; simultaneously illustrating the number of stations conveniently placed in visitor-interest areas.
 

Threshold 360 tour usage

In working with partner Threshold 360, the Bureau beta tested and launched new 360° tour viewer enhancements, allowing the CVB to promote its partners more effectively through the platform and functionalities integrated with visitRaleigh.com. With Threshold's new V3 viewer and analytics, visitRaleigh.com will be able to provide an enhanced experience for visitors utilizing partners tours. The Bureau will also be able to track deeper analytics for partners, such as a 1:1 engagement rate and click-through rate.