Growth of Convention Centers across the Country Essay

Growth of Convention Centers across the Country - Essay Example In the United States of America, convention center is becoming a part and parcel of every day life. The recent mushrooming of convention centers in every nook and corner of the country itself is a proof of its fast development and necessity. In simple terms convention center is a large meeting place where formal business and professional meetings, conferences etc. are arranged. According to Atlantic City Convention Center, convention center is the "Facility designed to accommodate multiple group s or extremely large groups; exhibit halls; meeting rooms, ball rooms or banquet space; no sleeping rooms." (Glossary of Terms. Convention Center, 2007). The logic behind conducting business and other formal meetings in a convention center is that it is common place where people from different parts of the country/world can reach and assemble in a common place which is convenient to all. Originally convention centers were designed for formal business meeting, conferences. In contrast to this, modern convention centers are being used for a number of occasions including social events such as marriages, family get-together and as parking place for tourists. The spurt of tourism development the world over has made a great fillip for convention centers and they have grown in such a way that both are complementary to each other. Convention centers enable the development of tourism industry in a big way by attracting both domestic and international travelers. They have become a vital element in the tourism industry as some customers specify the name of convention centers where they would like to stay and enjoy their leisure time. It is a co mmon fact that MICE industry has no existence without convention center. The letter 'c' in the acronym stands for convention. That itself reflects that convention center enhances the scope of MICE industry and that they are complementary to each other. Another group of beneficiary of convention centers is corporate. Conducting meeting and conferences at convention center has become the order of the day among corporate people not only because of convenience but for prestige issue as well. Corporate have regular meeting, conferences and events like product launching and all these are being happened at some important convention center. Convention centers have emerged as a focal point in an intense competition among cities for a share of the economically important meetings and exhibition market. In a nut shell, convention centers have grown to become a crucial element of social, professional and corporate life. Their contributions to these various segments are priceless and remarkable. Evolution of Convention Centers in United States of America: The American communities have experienced a sudden growth of convention centers and it facilities over the last two decades. The country had 193 convention centers in the year 1986 offering minimum 25,000 square feet of exhibit space. The number rose to 254 and 322 by 1996 and 2006 consecutively. Their exhibition space also rose by 150 percent increase. The amount of investment put up by the state and local government in the year 1993 alone was $23.2 billion. (Sanders, 2007, p.2). The spurt in the development in the sector has made the giants like Chicago's McCormick and Las Vegas to enhance their exhibit space. The government has been financially supportive to pen new centers and

Supply Chain Management Master Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Supply Chain Management Master - Case Study Example It has an excellent distribution service network throughout the UK. While it's administrative office is located in Harrow, its central warehouse is at Thamesmead, London for all of Waissel's worldwide incoming shipments as well as nationwide deliveries (Waissl's). Supply chain of Barilla SpA has been a case of study for the revolutionary changes it made in late eighties and early nineties of the last century. With UK being one of the major markets of Barilla's product, Barilla's action of reducing the distributor's control over the shipment quantity while taking the larger portion of the responsibility has now become an ever guiding policy of supply chain management. The supply chain in Barilla requires the involvement of many third-party distributors. They are the major link between Barilla and the retailers who were the actual person getting customer's interest and their feedback. The Barilla management analyzing the pattern of customer's demand and that of distributors has sharp differences. The company saw very wide fluctuations in the demand pattern of the distributors while the customer's response was much less sharp and unusual (Simchi-Levi, Kaminsky & E. Simchi-Levi, 1999). In the world where globalization as a matter of discussion is making rounds of talk and competitors are from all over the world, it's the supply chain management that is greatly used as management tool to win over competition in retail sector. Supply chain design for a particular product is different than that of others. So, supply chain for supplying or delivering pasta is different from supply chain for fashion jewelry or apparels. Supply chain design for producing and delivering pasta deals with productivity and efficiency. Waissel's being UK's leading importer receives all its inbound shipment from all over the world in its central ware house located at Thamesmead, London. The Wiassel's now uses its nationwide supply network to provide products to retailers. The products of Barilla are also delivered to retailers like Tesco in the same manner. Waissel's has the responsibility that after receiving the order from the retailer, it has to deliver the product directly to the retail s tore or to its ware house. The long distribution channel with distributor's importing shipments in their warehouse and then using their network of logistical support to supply the product to retailers are basically forecast-driven. The reason behind this much forecasting is the rarity often seen in the stability factor of customer's demand. Forecast is very important because it is the only way to manage a balance in positioning the inventory and other resources. But this forecasting is still not more than a mathematically calculated data so it has its own limitations and most of the time it deviates from actual outcomes (Nagi, 2005). The forecasting errors are normally covered through buffer or safety stock. The supply chain from the simple end-user to raw material provider and producer are all because of being a part of the complete set of supply chain normally see greater variation in demand and hence the safety stock. The actual effect is visible when the lower end supply chain participant increases and de creases its order to higher one according to the orders from the participant lower to it. This causes Bullwhip effect. The effect can