Two were new additions to the schedule -- Novell and the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers -- and held their conventions in Salt Lake City in November.

The other two conventions, much larger annual meetings of Rotary International and the American Farm Bureau Federation, already were scheduled to come to Salt Lake City, but at later dates.

In both of those cases, the groups' internal meeting planners were able to reschedule their 2007 conventions into the Salt Palace Convention Center. They maintained their commitment to New Orleans by agreeing to go to a rebuilt Big Easy in the years previously reserved for Salt Lake -- 2008 for the Farm Bureau, 2011 for Rotary.

"The change was beneficial for us because 2007 was a little bit of a slow year," said Mark White, the Salt Lake Convention & Visitors Bureau's vice president of sales and marketing. "So we were pleased that these came along, especially Rotary, because it gives us six more years to book another piece of convention business into [its] time slot. There is no way in the world we could have booked something that large now for 2007."

Rotary International is expected to bring 25,000 people to Salt Lake City. The Farm Bureau convention will attract another 5,000.

The two newcomers brought roughly 3,100 people this fall to Salt Lake City, 1,500 for Novell's North American sales team meeting (which had been set for Orlando) and 1,200 for the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers, which had been bound for New Orleans.

Not counting airfare, an average convention delegate spends $841 in Salt Lake City, White said.

John Gruber, executive director of the sexual abuse treatment association, said Salt Lake City had been one of three finalists for the 2007 meeting, so he was familiar with the facilities available at the Grand America and Little America hotels.

"Their ability to accommodate our flow dates [a Wednesday through a Saturday] was the best, so we made the move," said Gruber, who had established a "disaster response committee" in advance of Hurricane Katrina's assault, "just in case things went bad, which they did."

As soon as Katrina's devastation was apparent, association officials were on the telephone, checking to see which former suitor cities could handle their group. A contract to move the convention to Salt Lake City was signed 10 days later. "That process normally takes months," said Gruber.

He estimated the convention drew about 200 to 300 fewer participants than had been expected in New Orleans, partly because the dates were shifted from early to mid-November. "New Orleans would have been a lot of fun, but folks seem to be satisfied," Gruber said.

Novell, meanwhile, was displaced from Orlando by bigger groups forced out of New Orleans by Katrina. The company had to move fast because it wanted its international sales meeting to occur close to the Nov. 1 start of its fiscal year.

"The people at the Salt Palace and the Convention & Visitors Bureau got us in, so we could do that," said Troy Monney, Novell's vice president of corporate marketing services. "It went off just great. We used six different hotels, almost all of the open space in the Salt Palace and some meeting rooms at hotels."

White does not expect the Salt Lake Convention Bureau to land any more meetings from New Orleans. Groups that needed to move quickly already have done so. Those with more lead time before their meeting dates seem to be sticking with New Orleans, giving the inundated city hope in its rebuilding process.

"We're certainly not using our sales efforts to pursue groups that already found a home in New Orleans," said White. "We thought about it, but made a conscious decision not to. It turns out most of my counterparts went through the same process. We didn't initiate the calls to the groups who came and just wanted to be helpful if [New Orleans] needed it, but we didn't want to be predatory."

Mikeg@sltrib.com

It pays to host

* Two displaced conventions already brought 2,700 people to Utah

* Two future, re-routed conventions will bring 30,000 more earlier than projected

* Average convention delegate spends $841 in Utah