Boston's addition of a brand-new expo center last year is paying off in record bookings and additional room nights. Newly signed in the last quarter of 2004 were 34 trade shows scheduled to take place at either the new Boston Convention & Exhibition Center, now the city's main convention venue, or the smaller John B. Hynes Veterans Memorial Convention Center.
The new agreements — inked by the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority, which runs and markets both facilities — represent more than 343,000 hotel room nights.
"We booked more in the fourth quarter than any other quarter in our history," said Jim Rooney, executive director of the MCCA. "The hotel room nights associated with these events also broke the record number contracted in any quarter."
Leading the list of newly booked events at the BCEC are the International Boston Seafood Show, slated for March 2006 with 26,000 attendees; New England Food Service and Lodging, in April 2006 with 15,000 attendees; and the American Association for Retired Persons, set to arrive in September 2007 with some 20,000 attendees.
Long-term BCEC bookings include the meeting of the American Society of Anesthesiologists (2016), the American Society for Human Genetics (2013), the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (2015), and the American Water Works Association (2014).
"The spacious new facility and Boston waterfront location are ideal for us," said Paula MacIlwaine, deputy executive director of the American Water Works Association. "And with all of the wonderful history and activities that Boston has to offer, we know the event will be memorable for our members."
Teachers of English to Students of Other Languages (TESOL), which will be coming to the BCEC in 2010, felt Boston's ease of access was a key ingredient in its choice.
"Boston is easily accessible for our attendees, as more than 20 percent come from outside the U.S.," said group spokesman Bart Ecker. "We expect this venue to be a big draw due to more flights and easy access from the airport to the convention center and hotels."
In addition to traditional ground transportation options, attendees can take a ferry from the airport directly across Boston Harbor to the BCEC, a few blocks from the Southside waterfront.
The opening of the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center — with almost 1 million square feet of usable expo and meetings space, including a 40,020-square-foot ballroom — allows Boston to host much larger conventions and trade shows than the city could previously accommodate. But some of this isn't new business, but rather growing groups moving over from the Hynes.
For example, the seafood show vacated the Hynes' 290,000-square-foot facility for the first time last month, bringing 25,000 attendees to the BCEC with it.
In addition, the Hynes Convention Center saw New England Grows, a conference and expo of 15,000 attendees in environmental and green-oriented businesses, decamp to the new facility in February. The LinuxWorld Conference & Expo, which also met at the Hynes in February, is scheduled for April 3-6, 2006, at the BCEC.
According to Rooney, the Hynes Center has been able to maintain its number of shows and attendees with new bookings, but its revenue has dropped because its largest and most profitable events have gone to the BCEC.
But MCCA said that organizers claim the move to the new convention center has allowed them to grow their shows between 25 percent and 40 percent.
Boston will arrive on the association radar screen in a big way in August 2006, when the American Society of Association Executives brings its annual convention to town.
It will give association executives a first-hand look at Beantown and all its venues when considering future sites for their own conventions.