Successful Meetings - September 2009 - (Page 40)

Convention Centers By Leo Jakobson leo.jakobson@nielsen.com SHINY & NEW 65,000 to the newly expanded convention center. “We just couldn’t handle that before,” Dunn says. But the NRA is not the biggest event the new Phoenix Convention Center has hosted. In February, the NBA All-Star Game was in town, and the concurrent All-Star Jam Session saw some 100,000 fans use the center over the course of the week. With a new convention center three times the size of the old one and a new light rail system connecting it to the airport, dining and nightlife districts, and virtually all major sporting and cultural venues, Phoenix is just one American city that has forged ahead with investments in its convention and meeting facilities, regardless of the economy. Convention center renovations and expansions around the country (like at the Phoenix center, above) are helping to attract group business I 40 n 1995, the National Rifle Association (NRA) held its annual convention in Phoenix, pretty much maxing out the Phoenix Civic Plaza Convention Center with 24,000 attendees, says Scott Dunn, communications manager for the Greater Phoenix Convention & Visitors Bureau. In May, the NRA returned, bringing I SM I September 2009 I SuccessfulMeetings.com http://www.SuccessfulMeetings.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Successful Meetings - September 2009

Successful Meeting - September 2009
Table of Contents
Incentive Travel Report
Convention Centers
Shiny & New
Social Agenda
Meetings Merchandise
Rocky Mountain Resorts
Greater LA
Phoenix/Scottsdale
Caribbean
Monaco
Hawaii: Incentive Planner's Handbook
Hawaii Table of Contents
Paradise Found
No Task Too Big
Golf, Hawaii-Style
Nevada
Nevada Table of Contents
Las Vegas: New and Now
Meet Me in Las Vegas
That's Entertainment
Suburban Sancuaries
Meet Me in Reno-Lake Tahoe

Successful Meetings - September 2009