In less than three weeks, about 50,000 visitors are expected to converge on Milwaukee for the Republican National Convention, the city’s first full-fledged, in-person major political event.
Milwaukee will become the center of the political world for several days for an event that is projected to have an economic impact of $200 million.
Peggy Williams-Smith, president and CEO of Visit Milwaukee, the city’s convention and visitors bureau, spoke extensively about the RNC during an appearance at the Milwaukee Press Club’s Newsmaker Luncheon at Downtown’s Newsroom Pub on Monday.
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The RNC, which formally runs July 15-18, is Milwaukee’s chance to show it can handle a gathering of this size and scope, along with the challenges that come with hosting a highly secure event. Milwaukee hosted that Democratic National Convention in 2020 but the COVID-19 pandemic led a highly scaled back event that created little revenue for the city and its businesses.
“The number one reason we did this is we knew it would generate significant short- and long-term economic impact,” said Williams-Smith, a Milwaukee native and hospitality industry veteran who joined Visit Milwaukee as the organization’s first female president and CEO in 2019. “I can’t begin to tell you how much this has created throughout the last two years since it was announced. We’ve had several presidential and vice-presidential visits. Some of those would have happened but not as many as have happened because we are hosting the RNC.”
Landing the RNC was crucial for the city and the push to host the convention came during the early recovery period from the COVID-19 pandemic, she said.
“We badly needed it,” Williams-Smith said. “In a lot of cities, like Chicago, this is one of many events they will be hosting. For Milwaukee, this is the event.”
Williams addressed a wide range of topics, mostly centered around the RNC, during her speech and a Q&A session with a media panel:
Will there be economic impact beyond the week of the RNC?
“On top of the immediate impact there are more long-term effects. Meeting planners have already taken note of us hosting this event. Since we won the announcement, inbound leads to our sales team doubled from ’21 to ’22 and from ’22 to ’23 and in (the first quarter) of 2024 we were still seeing 34% increase in year-over-year leads. Hosing the RNC and the Baird Center expansion is just the perfect storm of people being interested in coming to Milwaukee. We’re a city that deserves to host major events, and not just political conventions.”
What was your initial response to the comment for presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump reportedly calling Milwaukee a “horrible city?” (He later specified he was speaking about crime and election administration.)
“My initial reaction was, ‘Oh sh-t!’ People don’t understand until they get here how amazing we are. We had our county exec and mayor on every national news outlet talking about how great Milwaukee is. I think that just shows, don’t mess with us. We are people who are very proud and even though we aren’t braggadocious, when someone comes at us, we will come right back with the facts. The facts are that we are amazing and we are working hard every day to be better. I think that’s what’s important. When I took this jobs, I said someone always needs to talk about the good. That makes everyone understand everything we are doing, working together to make things better. We’re always going to have haters. This is the way of the world right now. We have people on the opposite extremes of everything in any city you go to. But I think as long as we tell the good that we’ll start to see some of those perceptions change. Some of them will never change and we have to be OK with that.”
Besides hotels and restaurants, what are some of the other economic advantages of hosting the convention?
“Fifty people have been living in our city from COA (Committee on Arrangements) for over 18 months. They are paying rent, they are eating dinner in our restaurants, they are going to our event venues, they are going to see concerts, they are going to see the performing arts. We are working the COA and the Host Committee to have an impact study so that we can showcase everything that this convention brought to the city, not just the week of the convention but leading up to it.”
It’s been projected that the RNC will bring 50,000 visitors and $200 million in economic impactd to Milwaukee but some event spaces and businesses claim that haven’t had any inquiries related to the convention. Will that kick into gear in the last weeks leading up to the convention?
“We always knew from the beginning that not every event space would be booked. There has been a lot of activity in the last couple of weeks. I think that job of politics is last-minute a lot of times. I think there are huge opportunities for businesses that aren’t booked to still make money during the convention. There are going to be people here who are eating and drinking. I have been told that this is the highest number of journalistic credentials that have ever been given out for a convention and I assume that’s because they are really interested in seeing what’s going to happen with the candidates. In 2016 (the last convention year prior to the pandemic), it was different. There wasn’t as much inflation. The hotel room rates are double what they were in Cleveland (that last city to host an in-person RNC). We’re going to have no problem meeting this economic impact number. I think the bigger story is what happens afterward and capitalizing on all the things that people talk about and make sur that we don’t lose this momentum.”
What happens after the RNC and how will the city capitalize on it?
“We will make an announcement very soon in August of an event that would have never considered Milwaukee without the (Baird Center) expansion and knowing that we are hosting the RNC. That group has never been in Milwaukee before. We’re going to be really excited because we are going to make an announcement on a national stage. It’s groups like that who are incredibly excited to see what Milwaukee has to offer. Before the expansion, we were ranked 20th of 21 of our peers. We’re now 10th, which is where we should have been this entire time.”
Are there other events you’ve already secured?
“In December 2026, we are hosting Expo! Expo! They only go to cities that have 300,000 square feet of exhibit space. We are hosting TEAMS (Travel, Events and Management in Sports) in 2027, which is another industry conference. We are hosting the VFW. We haven’t hosted them since 2000. We’re working really hard with the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, which we haven’t hosted in two decades. We’re working with a myriad of large groups who would not have been able to be here (before). We are also hosting USA Fencing next year, which is a large group that will be using the entire convention center.”
What is a challenge facing Visit Milwaukee?
“When you look at our existing hotel package, there is an opportunity for us in the future to have another convention hotel. We’re missing a Marriott. They have the largest reservation system and the largest national sales force. Although we do have a lot of Marriott products, it’s not one big Marriott hotel, so we miss out on some groups. One of the things we look toward in the future is making sure we are economically viable enough with the occupancy where it needs to be.”
Will Milwaukee hotels be full for the RNC?
“When you look back to 2019, which was the busiest year for tourism ever until 2022 and then 2023, occupancy hasn’t gotten back where it was. I know this week will be amazing for the city. We have not sold out four consecutive or five consecutive days since 2019. During the Ryder Cup, I think it was three days and it was still at 70% occupancy because we weren’t right there. If we can get north of 98% with a really good rate, I’ll be very, very pleased.”
