Party Time in Denver for Lobbyists

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Many companies, including AT&T, decline to discuss their convention activities. Those that do talk tend to describe their business at the convention as a combination of corporate citizenship, marketing, and even sales opportunities, with some low-key relationship-building on the side. "Part of it is civic duty, civic responsibility," says Frank Coleman, a spokesman for the Distilled Spirits Council. But for an industry regulated by the states, the opportunity to meet state and local lawmakers is helpful, Coleman adds. Still, "I don't think anybody's doing any heavy-duty lobbying in these events."

Qwest Contributes Phone Services

Qwest Communications International (Q), the Denver-based telecom company, is contributing as much as $6 million to the Denver convention, much of it in the form of phone service for the convention committee. But Chuck Ward, president of the company's Colorado operations, says that when he sat down with then-CEO Dick Notebaert to decide whether to chip in, "that was a business opportunity discussion. It wasn't a political discussion."

Ward calls the convention a great marketing opportunity. Qwest is getting its name and services in front of "thought leaders" and potential customers inside and outside its 14-state service area, in part by supplying the lanyards many delegates use to carry their credentials. Ward says Qwest even hopes to recoup some of its costs by selling on-location phone services to media outlets during the convention. And rubbing shoulders with lawmakers at the event? "It's a nice collateral benefit, but it's not the main reason," Ward says. Compared with Qwest's year-round lobbying program, the incremental value of talking to powerful convention-goers "is really marginal."

But in private, others are blunter about their purpose. Two in-house lobbyists for a U.S. automaker, speaking on the condition that they and their company not be named, said they were in town to push hard to speed funding for and get an expansion of the $25 billion government-loan program Congress adopted last year to aid the industry. The vacation atmosphere helps: All of political Washington is in town, but "you're outside the Washington hustle-bustle," one of the lobbyists says. The other notes that, at the Capitol, lawmakers are surrounded by aides and thinking about the next vote. "Here, we're sitting in a nice venue, you can have a conversation," he says. They claim they have won over some skeptics.

Cerner in Action

Says Tom Epstein, a spokesman for Blue Shield of California, a nonprofit health insurer with 3.4 million members in California, "It's the place where there are more elected officials and policy leaders than any other event."

While the big galas get the attention and curbside policy chats go unnoticed, a company like Cerner (CERN) offers a glimpse into the process. The Kansas City (Mo.) company makes electronic medical-records software, and so has a stake in health-care reform proposals, particularly those that count on big savings from making the medical system more efficient. Cerner President Trace Devanny joined more than a dozen other health-care executives and policymakers in a panel discussion Monday morning, moderated by former Senator Tom Daschle, a key Obama adviser on health care. Among those invited to watch: senior congressional staff.