The Ancient Egyptian Arabic Order Nobles Mystic Shine — known more commonly as the Prince Hall Shriners, the world's oldest African-American fraternal organization — will hold its 2011 Imperial Session in Cincinnati, the Cincinnati USA Convention & Visitors Bureau announced last week.
The conference, scheduled for Aug. 12-17, 2013, is expected to attract more than 25,000 attendees to Cincinnati, where they're expected to consumer more than 17,000 hotel room nights and generate more than $5 million in economic impact for the city.
"The Cincinnati USA Convention & Visitors Bureau has been actively pursuing this event for more than five years and victory was finally earned with a committed team effort from across the community," CVB President and CEO Dan Lincoln said in a statement. "For generations, the Shriners have blessed our community with charitable generosity and community-mindedness, from the Shriners Hospital to summer camps and educational grants for economically deprived youths to significant contributions to fight diabetes. We have felt their positive presence in our neighborhoods for years and we will be honored to host their annual meeting in 2011."
Cincinnati beat out Phoenix to host the 2011 Shriners event, which follows on the heals of several other high profile multicultural events—including the NAACP and National Baptists conventions, both of which took place in Cincinnati last year, and the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, which will hold its annual meeting there next year —that have booked meetings in southeastern Ohio.
"As a meeting, convention and tourism destination, Cincinnati USA is on a roll," Lincoln said. "Despite the challenging business climate for the nation as a whole, the Cincinnati USA region has hosted a number of high profile events over the past year and earned more than its share of press accolades, solidifying our status as one of the country's prime destinations. We're honored that another strong, national organization has chosen Cincinnati USA."
Added Shrine Organization Imperial Potentate Oliver Washington, "We use a painstaking process to vet potential host cities and carefully evaluate business, social and political environments to select the best fit. Cincinnati has held such a great track record of successfully hosting high profile meetings and conventions, and we're excited to bring our membership here in 2011."