The 2016 Republican National Convention was the high water mark of Cleveland conventions putting the city in the international spotlight and bringing up to 50,000 visitors to the city, many of whom had never been here before.
Quietly and cumulatively as powerful in recent years is a convention many in the city likely have never heard of, Content Marketing World underway this week at the Huntington Convention Center. The annual convention brings more than 3,500 people to Cleveland from around 50 countries, quite a jump from its humble beginnings.
"In 2011 we were honestly just hoping to bring just 100, 150 people to Cleveland and we ended up getting over 600 that year,” Event Founder Joe Pulizzi. “It’s the largest annual business event in Cleveland,” Pulizzi added. “I would say half of these people have never been to Cleveland before."
Sending those kinds of first time visitors off as ambassadors was a goal of the RNC and even more so here, that’s because these guests are skilled at marketing and social media so while there numbers may be in the thousands their potential reach is in the millions. "I think we're doing something important for the city," he said.
That Cleveland has become a hub for this emerging industry Pulizzi said, should not come as a surprise.
“There’s maybe New York and Chicago and then there’s Cleveland if you look at the richness of the journalism and the tradition we have in this area and I think a lot of people forgot that and now instead of being on the media side all of these content creators are on the brand side.”
Content Marketing involves creating and sharing online content that while not outright selling a product or service, creates interest around it. Pulizzi said he’s hopeful the convention won’t become a victim of its own success in growing too big for Cleveland.
“As we continue to grow this event we’ve already expanded into the Hilton, we’re obviously using all of the convention center here. I think if we want to expand like South by Southwest did in Austin, there are things that we can do here,” he said. “I think we’re fine we want to continue to grow this thing as big as we can.”
