Visit KC is about to turn 50, but it won’t dwell on its age

Talking about the glories of Kansas City barbecue is fine, but if the pitch ended there, the city would fast sink to third-tier status among convention and tourism destinations.

So says Ronnie Burt two years into leading Visit KC, the area’s chief marketing agency tasked with pulling travelers — for business or pleasure — to spend time here.

“We have a renaissance going on in Kansas City, and we have a strategy to change our messaging,” Burt said. “We’re putting more focus on the hip, the cool.”

Visit KC, the successor name for the Kansas City Convention and Visitors Association, turns 50 years old in June. But Burt said the agency is less focused on celebrating the past than working on landing business years from now.

“Today is already here,” Burt said. “We’re looking at least five years out.”

As soon as the shovel goes in the ground for the planned 1,000-room Hyatt convention center hotel to be built just east of the Bartle Hall ballroom, he said, the agency has about 100 phone calls to make to planners who already have expressed interest in booking major conventions in Kansas City.

Winning conventions or leisure travelers increasingly depends on having an updated message about why they should come to Kansas City. The reasons, he said, go beyond its often-cited assets of central location, central time zone, and moderate cost of living and doing business. It even extends beyond the city’s friendliness — although that’s repeatedly cited as something that makes Kansas City stand out compared to other venues.

The new focus uses digital storytelling and social media to spread the word about downtown residential redevelopment, the Sprint Center, the Power & Light District, the new streetcar line, Startup Village, craft beer, coffee, pizza, fine dining, arts and culture, and top-level sports of all kinds — everything a top-tier city needs.

To deliver that message, Burt has revamped Visit KC’s leadership team to include Traci Preus, senior vice president of marketing and communications; Cori Day, vice president of sales and services; and Ashley Jones, vice president of partnerships and events.

In the partnership arena, Burt said the agency is pursuing more active partnerships. It is pushing for a unified message from members of the Kansas City Regional Destination Alliance, each of which represents a part of the area’s amenities.

“There’s a little bit of competition,” Burt said. “But everyone has accountability to the whole.”

One of the biggest challenges ahead, he said, is for local residents to be educated about the importance of an upgraded Kansas City International Airport.

“KCI is our front door for millions of visitors and for talent recruitment,” Burt said. “We’ve already made a statement that we support a single terminal.”

Another challenge is to show local residents that public investment in downtown Kansas City has fostered the dramatic turnaround that’s put the city on many national lists of best places to visit or live.

“Just take Power & Light and the Sprint Center off the grid,” he said. “What would downtown look like without them? Now, with the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts and everything else going on culturally, there’s something for everyone.

“Our job is to change people’s perceptions about Kansas City, and we work hard at that every day outside the city. Now we need businesses to recruit the way we do. We need residents to share that we’re a modern, hip, cool, energetic, arty place.”

This story was originally published May 14, 2016 at 2:50 PM.