Bakersfield Business Conference set for welcomed encore in 2010
| Monday, Nov 09 2009 02:10 PM
Last Updated Monday, Nov 09 2009 02:10 PM
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Californian file photo
Fireworks shower the skies above the bald eagle as part of the Patriotic Fireworks show at the Bakersfield Business Conference in 2003.
Californian file photo George Martin gives opening remarks at the annual Bakersfield Business Conference in 2004.
It seems no one ever bothered to scientifically quantify the “real cash” benefits. We all just knew: The 21-year run of the Bakersfield Business Conference was a bonanza to the community. Days running up to the one-day conference and days afterward, Bakersfield’s hotels were filled to capacity. You had to wait to get into most restaurants. The city was jumping with excitement. Businesses raked in lots of cash.
But the bonanza wasn’t just about money. It was about Bakersfield — at least for one day a year — puffing out its chest. It was about folks who sometimes were maligned for living in this hot, dusty, Okie-twang town being downright proud of it.
And that’s why, after a five-year absence, just about everyone — from the city’s mayor to the conference’s creator — is celebrating its return.
“The demand never went away,” said George Martin of the Bakersfield law firm Borton Petrini LLP, the conference’s founder. “It will be five years since the last conference. There are new voices to be heard out there.”
Mayor Harvey Hall, who called past conferences the “highlight of the year,” told The Californian its return is “terrific, tremendous. … Remember that 80 percent of the people who used to come to this were from out of town, and they spent money while they were here.”
The “encore conference” will be held Saturday, Oct. 9, 2010. Tickets will sell for $425 each. Past attendees will receive a discount. The location has not yet been determined. The conference theme and speaker line-up still are taking shape. Organizers expect to begin announcing speakers in December.
Martin set up a Web site (bpcbakbusconf.com) to poll past and future conference attendees on speaker suggestions and conference locations. Martin admits he favors an outdoor venue, but he is awaiting the poll results.
“Staff is enthused that we are doing it again,” said Martin, explaining that much of the coordination and work will be done by the attorneys and staff in his firm’s 10 offices. “I have found if you can mix in different things the firm and employees can do, the more inspired employees will become. It makes life a little less dull.”
The annual conference humbly began in 1985 with an audience of 250 assembled in a Stockdale Country Club room. Economist Art Laffer and comedian Pat Paulsen were headliners. Bakersfield businessman George Serban brought out a couple of microphones for the sound system.
But Martin, who promoted rock-and-roll bands when he was a Yuba City high school and college student, saw real potential in the conference.
“It started as a marketing venture for the firm,” Martin recalled during a recent interview. “Then it became a community event. We never tried to track it, but the firm subsidized it over the years by $2 million to $3 million.”
The conference grew. Attendance swelled to more than 12,000 people. It moved into outdoor tents at the Stockdale Country Club and then into a mega-tent and satellite tents erected on the Cal State Bakersfield campus.
The lineup of speakers also grew more star-studded. Former presidents, business tycoons, movie stars, media celebrities and astronauts appeared under Martin’s tent.
“When George does something, he wants to turn around and make it bigger and better,” said Stan Statham, Martin’s Yuba City sidekick, who went on to become a state legislator and is now president of the California Broadcasters Association. Statham helped Martin put on past conferences and expects to help out with the 2010 event. “As long as George Martin is using oxygen, he is going to use being a workaholic to get this done.”
Serban also was at Martin’s side as the conference grew. The two microphones Serban Sound and Communications supplied to the first event grew into an elaborate network of power generators, computers, broadcast equipment, large screen televisions and even a Ferris wheel.
Moving the conference outdoors presented “a lot of challenges. We had to build a whole city,” he recalled. “It was a lot of work, but a lot of fun.”
Nearly all the trades — electricians, carpenters, culinary — pitched in. Some were hired locally; others were brought in to work for a week or two. They, too, filled Bakersfield hotel rooms and swelled cash registers.
The conference wasn’t a money-maker for Serban or for most other local businesses that helped stage it. The attraction was being part of something different and exciting.
“We made so little on the business conference. It did give us recognition, notoriety,” Serban said, explaining that as his company’s employees travel around the country they still have people telling them about attending the Bakersfield Business Conference. “I cannot even measure how much positive response we receive.”
But after more than two decades, the conference began to lose its attraction. It’s hard to believe, but folks began yawning at the opportunity to hear Nobel Laureates, former heads of state and celebrities.
The last conference in 2005 was held in the city’s Centennial Plaza and attracted a crowd half the size of the ones that clamored for peak-year tickets. Martin said he feared the conference was in danger of getting stale.
“The last conference was bittersweet,” Serban recalled. “I was glad to see it go, but I was sad.”
Serban said he has spoken to Martin about setting up the 2010 conference. “George and I talked. We are going to take one more crack at this.”
Martin is planning a smaller conference. “I would be pleased with 4,000 or 5,000. Bigger is not always better.”
And it will no longer be an annual event. The plan is to hold a conference every five years.
Martin said the theme likely will revolve around the economy. “It’s one of the reasons for doing it. Our 401Ks have become 101Ks. There is a real thirst for information.” Martin plans to include forums that provide business and investment ideas.
The return of the Bakersfield Business Conference could not come at a better time.
As tourism in California slumps and demand for hotel rooms decline, an event that could fill Bakersfield hotels with conference participants and give workers jobs will be a good economic shot in the arm.
Rick Davis at the Kern County Board of Trade estimates that a visitor to Bakersfield spends an average of $75.13 a day, and stays for two to three days.
At the Bakersfield Convention and Visitors Bureau, Don Cohen pointed out the conference also will flow tax revenues into cash-starved local government coffers.
“How we determine the economic impact of such an event is voodoo science,” said Cohen, adding that the real benefit is how it will help attract other lucrative events.
“It’s just one more positive thing that goes into the bucket. Sooner or later it will be full,” he said.
“It is our mission to bring bigger and better events to the City of Bakersfield. This helps to get people to stop and listen to your pitch. There is some reassurance when you are stepping into the footsteps of great people.”
