5 Questions for Mike Dino

Chief executive officer of the Denver 2008 Convention Host Committee

By Julie Poppen, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published September 11, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.

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Dennis Schroeder / The Rocky

At Skyline Park, from left, political science professor Norm Provizer, Metro State President Stephen Jordan and Mike Dino, CEO of the DNC host committee, discuss the impact of the DNC on Denver.

Mike Dino (also known as the guy who made sure the bills got paid) joined a panel discussion Wednesday hosted by Metropolitan State College of Denver to assess how it all went during the Democratic National Convention.

About 50 people showed up for the event in Skyline Park, sitting only feet away from the Westin Tabor Center, which served as the informal headquarters for Team Obama-Biden.

Here are some of Dino's observations:

What could have been done better?

I think we could always work on how we improve our transportation systems in these types of events. I mean we're all getting older. We're all needing more assistance wherever we go. Baby boomers aren't getting any younger. And if we're going to attract more people to this city, I think we need to be a very accessible city.

I hope we have some lessons learned we can share with a future (host) city.

What was the economic impact?

Let me just say the host committee raised and spent over $50 million. The security grant was $50 million. The Democratic National Convention Committee was given $16 million by the Federal Election Commission for their operations, so that's over $115 million we spent by just the money I know of in our budgets. You add multipliers to that and maybe it gets to the $160 million figure that has been out there. I think the benefit in the long term will be exponentially more than that.

Denver did raise its image as a community that can handle big events.

Where did the money raised come from?

Considering we aren't a big Fortune 500 city, it may be that over 75 percent of our money was raised outside of our state when it's all said and done. That's a tribute to our team, the mayor, the governor, a lot of elected officials, our fundraising staff, who really worked hard to reach beyond the boundaries of our state to make this a very, very successful event.

What most surprised you about the convention?

How much people really thought this went very well. You have some hardened political people that go to conventions all the time. They get really surly and cynical, and those people were very happy and complimentary of what we did here. Usually, they find any reason to bad-mouth.

It was very heartening to hear (journalist) Carl Bernstein say that of all the modern conventions that he's been to, Denver's was the best.

Did any of those cow town references get to you?

I'm a Denver native. I have no problem with the cow town stuff. I've been going to stock shows since I was 6 months old. I think we have a great balance of what we are as a Western community and as a vibrant urban center. I dread the day when people don't call us a cow town. Mayor Hickenlooper's going to be mad about that . . .

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