Sep. 16, 2003  - CHICAGO - Dallas Mayor Laura Miller threads her way toward downtown Chicago in a Lincoln Town Car driven by a guy named Sal.

"What's the drill?" Ms. Miller asks Tom Noonan as she takes out a reporter's notebook and pen, reminders of her journalism past.

Mr. Noonan, vice president of sales and service for the Dallas Convention & Visitors Bureau, twists around from the front seat as the Lincoln creeps along the Kennedy Expressway in Monday rush-hour traffic. He briefs the mayor on their destination – a dinner with 23 Chicago-based executives who pick their companies' or groups' convention destinations.

On the guest list is Diedre Ross, who handles the American Library Association's conventions. Ms. Ross has already weighed in on what she sees as one of Dallas' shortcomings.

"Diedre's one of those customers who has said she won't come unless we have a headquarters hotel, so you could talk about where we are on that," Mr. Noonan says.

The mayor jots it down. It's the first of many notes Ms. Miller will make in the next 21 hours during a whirlwind trip in which she is both a Dallas cheerleader and Convention Center saleswoman – as well as the top decision-maker for the nation's ninth-largest city.

By the time she boards a Dallas-bound flight at O'Hare International Airport at 2:30 p.m. Tuesday, Ms. Miller will have met with 30 potential customers.

Her message: Dallas is changing, downtown is more vibrant, and city leaders are listening to visitors' complaints and acting on them.

"We get it," Ms. Miller repeats again and again.

The convention bureau schedules a handful of these get-acquainted sessions every year and has five on its 2003 calendar. The Chicago trip is Ms. Miller's second, and she promises to be on hand for the next road show, in New York next February.

The weight she lends to the city's pitch is considered critical for the Convention Center and local hospitality industry, which has weathered two difficult years. Business is down, and Dallas faces fierce competition from vacation-friendly convention destinations such as Las Vegas and Orlando, Fla.

As Sal the chauffeur inches his way to Shaw's Crab House on East Hubbard Street in time for the 6:30 p.m. reception and dinner, Ms. Miller recounts a recent courtesy call she made to a San Diego-based customer.

"He said, 'We're just not impressed with what's going on downtown at 2 a.m.,' " Ms. Miller tells Mr. Noonan. "I just thought, 'I have three young kids. I'm not sure what's going on at 2 a.m.'"

Mr. Noonan preps her on downtown Dallas nightspots, describing the Main Street hotspot Euphoria this way: "There's a sushi bar upstairs, a dance floor on the ground floor and then showers downstairs."

The mayor pauses. "Showers?"

6:30 P.M. MONDAY: "We're going to tell you about all the exciting things we have in Dallas, and then we're going to get on bended knee and beg you to come," Ms. Miller says by way of introduction to her guests.

Once everyone's seated, including the 16 members of the Dallas sales team, she offers an upbeat 10-minute overview.

"Every single day, there's something new going on," Ms. Miller says, ticking off a list of new restaurants and clubs downtown. She talks about tentative plans for a Convention Center hotel and Gilley's, the honky-tonk scheduled to open next month just blocks away on Lamar Street.

Even Euphoria gets a mention. Ms. Miller jokingly laments that with all the attractions she's mentioned, "I'm sure you're just going to remember that we have a sushi bar with showers."

Ms. Miller gets good marks from the dinner guests, a number of whom said they came out just to see the mayor.

"A lot of us have been in this industry a long time, and we don't usually come out for sales events anymore," says Lise Puckorius, a senior vice president with the management firm Smith, Bucklin & Associates Inc. "We're paying respects because the mayor is here and because she really understands how important the revenue we represent is."

As the evening winds down, Ms. Miller turns her attention to Mr. Noonan and his sales force. "If you ever have a customer who's on the fence, call me directly," she says, "and I'll make a call."

8:20 A.M. TUESDAY: "OK, Tom, let's have the pep talk," the mayor says cheerfully as she, Mr. Noonan and the rest of the Dallas team – including representatives from the city's four largest hotels – head out in a minibus.

Their first stop is the Healthcare Information & Management Systems Society, which operates one of the nation's largest medical trade shows. The group brought 17,500 delegates to Dallas three years ago.

It's scheduled to return in 2005 with 20,000 delegates, but has only tentatively discussed future Dallas dates. Perhaps more worrisome to Dallas planners, the group has talked about including Las Vegas in its rotation.

The convention bureau and hoteliers want Dallas to become a regular stop.

"We need 2009," says Frank Naboulsi, general manager of the Fairmont Hotel Dallas.

Ms. Miller is upbeat as the meeting opens shortly before 9 a.m. at the Intercontinental Hotel Chicago.

"We know you're coming for '05, so we want to make sure you're happy, and we want to push you to come back in 2009," she says.

Stephen Lieber, the health care group's executive director, launches into some technology concerns. Most members are heavy technology users – with an average 1.7 cellphones per delegate – and they want to be sure Dallas can accommodate that.

Mr. Noonan details recent technology upgrades at the Convention Center. The hotel operators chime in with news about high-speed Internet access in all their rooms.

"Everything is different from when you were here in 2000," the mayor says.

"It'll be different in 2005, and there will be a whole different feel by 2009."

Mark Wykes, the Wyndham Anatole's director of sales, ups the pressure.

"Sounds like Dallas worked out for 2000 and is working for 2005. Are we on that future calendar?" he asks.

Mr. Lieber doesn't bite. "We're looking at 2005 as a test case," he says.

Because only a handful of convention centers can accommodate a group of its size, Mr. Lieber's group books meetings as much as nine years out.

Ms. Miller quickly recaps the two working proposals for a Convention Center hotel, and the hoteliers offer updates on other projects, including the proposed W hotel near the Victory development.

Tom Garcia, general manager of the Adam's Mark Hotel, circles the conversation back to efforts downtown. "We're telling you the ante has been upped," he says.

That point resonates with Mr. Lieber. "If the city doesn't draw," he says, "we see it in our numbers. Having a good destination city is what changes it from a good meeting to a great meeting."

9:53 A.M. TUESDAY: Back in the minibus, the Dallas team heads over to the Michigan Avenue offices of Smith, Bucklin & Associates.

The meeting is considered a coup. Smith, Bucklin – which plans about 1,500 meetings every year for 150 nonprofit groups worldwide – rarely schedules sales pitches. The Dallas group is meeting with a dozen of its planners.

Ms. Miller starts out by discussing the lessons the city learned when it lost the Boeing Co. headquarters competition to Chicago. "They told us Dallas doesn't look and feel like a real city, and we're investing time and money to make that happen," she tells the Smith, Bucklin people.

Mr. Noonan recaps the $2.6 billion expansion and improvement project at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, including the SkyLink train scheduled to open in 2005.

"Remember that old airport train that an old lady with a walker could pass?" he says to a table of nodding heads. "That's going away."

Ms. Miller jumps in with updates on regional transportation projects and the much-discussed Convention Center hotel. And facing a crowd of mostly 20- and 30-something planners, she gives a detailed description of Dallas' nightlife.

"We need to have this information," Smith, Bucklin planner Anita O'Boyle says.

"A lot of people we deal with are making decisions based on what they remember Dallas being like in the '80s."

10:59 A.M. TUESDAY: Ms. Miller and entourage are behind schedule. "We've got only 30 minutes to get to the suburbs," Mr. Noonan says as the group rushes back to the minibus.

The last two customers on the agenda are head-to-head competitors: Ace Hardware Corp., based in Oak Brook, west of the city, and TruServ Corp., parent company of True Value Hardware, whose offices are in Norridge, just east of O'Hare.

Ace is first, and the meeting runs late, too. Afterward, Ms. Miller joins her team in gulping sandwiches on the bus as they decide what to do next.

It'll be after 1 p.m. by the time they get to TruServ's headquarters, and the mayor's flight leaves O'Hare at 2:30.

"Could I just do a quick hello and take a cab to the airport?" she asks.

At 1:15 p.m., Dave Fuerhelm, TruServ's director of meetings and events, quickly ushers everyone to a conference room. There's a quick hello before Ms. Miller drives home the point of her visit.

"We're happy to have your business, and we want to hear about your last meeting so we can take care of any issues," she says.

Mr. Fuerhelm doesn't mince his words. "You've got a couple of eyesores downtown that need to go," he says.

The mayor ticks off $25 million in improvements to the streetscape before discussing plans for the Trinity River.

Then, before making a quick departure for the airport, she adds: "You told us exactly what you need. I like straight talkers, so thank you."

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