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To host DNC 2016, just dust off plans for GOP 2000

While Meryl Levitz was standing gamely with the politicians and her fellow hospitality-industry executives at a news conference in the Mayor's Reception Room in City Hall on Thursday, her staff was already busy digging out old playbooks.

George W. and Laura Bush in 2000 in Philadelphia, at the Republicans' nominating convention.
George W. and Laura Bush in 2000 in Philadelphia, at the Republicans' nominating convention.Read moreMICHAEL S. WIRTZ / File Photo

While Meryl Levitz was standing gamely with the politicians and her fellow hospitality-industry executives at a news conference in the Mayor's Reception Room in City Hall on Thursday, her staff was already busy digging out old playbooks.

"I hope they're already working," she said.

The conference detailed a massive but welcome challenge for Philadelphia and its leadership: to be fully prepared for July 2016, when the Democrats hold their national convention here.

Many of the strategies, and many of the individuals who created and employed those strategies, will be a direct repeat from 2000, when the Republican National Convention was in Philadelphia.

Many of the local crew who spearheaded the efforts to woo and create that convention are likely to have key roles in making the Democratic confab happen.

The 2000 GOP convention was a huge undertaking, costing about $66 million and involving thousands of volunteers and many thousands more staff hours as convention organizers plotted every detail - bus routes to what is now known as the Well Fargo Center, the merchandise sold at a political festival, the convention logo's design.

"We're going back into the files," said Levitz, who heads Visit Philadelphia, the working name for the quasi-public agency in charge of marketing to leisure travelers.

Her files would hold reports from 2000 on how she and her organization handled volunteers, media tours, and something known as "the delegate experience" - what the delegates and visitors do when they aren't electing a presidential candidate.

Levitz wasn't the only one with a playbook buried in the files.

In 2000, David L. Cohen, now executive vice president at Comcast Corp., served as one of three top executives who headed the Philadelphia effort with the GOP. He has agreed to be "senior adviser" for 2016.

Ed Rendell was the mayor of Philadelphia when the city was trying to lure the political parties for their 2000 conventions.

Then, when the GOP chose first, Rendell, along with Cohen and Brian Roberts, chief executive at Comcast, ran the show.

Now, Rendell assumes virtually the same role for the Democrats' convention, with, once again, an emphasis on fund-raising.

Neither Cohen nor Rendell was on hand for Thursday's news conferences.

Nor was Philomena Petro, vice president for convention services for the Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau.

In 2000, Petro was the master bus manipulator, running a fleet of buses between the convention arena and hotels in King of Prussia, Center City, Mount Laurel, and the airport.

It will be no different in 2016.

Standing next to Levitz were Petro's bosses, Jack Ferguson and Julie Coker Graham, top executives of the Convention and Visitors Bureau. Their expertise is lodging and logistics for major conventions.

No sooner had the news arrived Thursday morning than the e-mails went out, Ferguson said.

Just as it happened for the GOP convention, area hoteliers were instructed to hold aside blocks of rooms for convention week, as well as some days before and after it.

Unlike the GOP convention, Ferguson said, the hotels will not be required to set aside as many rooms for as long a time.

In 2000, there were hard feelings after some rooms in outlying hotels didn't end up getting booked.

When the GOP came to Philadelphia in 2000, planners worried there would not be enough rooms. But now there are, including 11,700 in Center City compared with 9,805 in 2000.

Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the chair of the Democratic National Committee, mentioned Philadelphia's hotels as a key factor in the decision.

"Philadelphia's particular strength is the proximity of the arena and venues to the hotel rooms," she said.

While many players remain the same, there have been changes.

Since the GOP visited Philadelphia, party space has expanded near the Wells Fargo Center, with events possible at Lincoln Financial Field, Citizens Bank Park, and Xfinity Live - all new since 2000. The Pennsylvania Convention Center expanded to a million square feet.

Unanticipated in 2000 was the impact that terrorism now holds for major public gatherings. The 9/11 attacks, the Boston Marathon bombings, and January's killings in Paris will shape convention planning in ways unimagined 16 years ago.

But those concerns, at least on Thursday, didn't dampen the exuberance of the city's leaders, crowing now, as they did in 2000, about the priceless possibilities of positive publicity.

"Every national journalist will be in Philadelphia for probably five or six days," a grinning Mayor Nutter told reporters.

"Virtually every country in the world will send journalists to Philadelphia to report on this convention. They will shop here, they will dine here, they will sleep here, they will do other things - they'll dance, whatever it is they do. There might be an explosion of kids next year.

"The point is, people will get to see this city in a very different way."

Kevin Washo, the executive director of Philadelphia 2016, the group that put together the bid and will oversee the execution of the event, said he will let his staff sleep in a little Friday - the last few days had been hectic.

Nonetheless, he said he plans to convene a staff meeting at 8:30 a.m.

Washo said the first priority will be a mountain of thank-you calls and letters followed by plans to devise an organizational structure that can be scaled-up as the event nears.

There will be committees for fund-raising, logistics, and delegate experience, and no matter which agency or committee volunteer heads those efforts, all will need staffing support from his crew.

"We're going to be staffing up," Washo said. To ready the bid, the group grew to about a half-dozen. By July 2016, there will be 25 to 30 staffers.

As Washo builds his organization, the national Democratic leadership will soon - probably within weeks - assemble a parallel convention team in Philadelphia.

As the convention nears, that group will also grow, with an executive director and many seasoned convention pros to handle telecommunication, media, security, and hotel assignments.

When a leading candidate emerges, that candidate will impose a third organization. If tradition holds, that group will adjust every plan made by every other group.

Dealing with that tension is also in the playbook, but may not be printable.