The American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees union recently announced it will hold its 39th international convention at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center in summer 2010, pulling the event from the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center on Manhattan's West Side. The group moved the biannual event after the Javits' initial, ambitious expansion plan fell through.
"Obviously, with the expansion not moving ahead as planned, there is going to be some lost business coming out of it," admitted Chris Heywood, director of tourism public relations for NYC & Company, New York City's convention and visitors authority. "That's an unfortunate circumstance, but that's now a reality."
The original Javits expansion plan called for doubling the convention center's space by 2010, but state officials scrapped that plan after the projected price tag almost doubled (see Jan. 7 MN, p. 16). The current plan would renovate the building and add a modest amount of convention space but includes an option to sell some land used by the Javits to pay for the project, according to a group composed of Javits' clients, called Friends of Javits.
"If they do what they're talking about doing, it will ruin the convention business in New York for the next 50 years," said Ken McAvoy, a Friends of Javits member and senior vice president of operations for Reed Expositions, a major trade show company. "We're going up [to Albany] to say, 'Don't sell the land.'"
In addition to lack of space at Javits, the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees cited several positive attributes about Boston that won the group over.
"The [union] selected Boston because of its deep labor history," said Diane Burke, director of conference and travel services for the union. "We look forward to our attendees enjoying the best of what Boston has to offer, from dining, to shopping, to historical attractions."
AFSCME had been looking at Boston for future conventions, and when the Javits expansion fell through, Boston officials pitched the group for its 2010 event. Boston officials said the city's laborfriendly
climate was attractive to the union.
"Generally speaking, Boston is viewed as a labor-friendly city," said James Rooney, executive director of the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority (MCCA). "There is a great deal of history as it relates to the development of the labor movement in Boston, and certainly the work environment that exists today within the [BCEC] is one that labor groups have found to be friendly."
Rooney said the convention center is staffed by union workers, and that the 3,000 people who built the building were all union members. Massachusetts state law required that the convention center, which was completed in June 2004, be built by only union workers, Rooney said.
"I don't think you see project labor agreements required in law in public construction in a lot of states," Rooney said. "Generally speaking, the workforce that the unions will encounter here in Boston will be union. One of the requirements of the [AFSCME] show is that there are enough union hotels in a city, and we certainly meet that requirement."
Officials expect the event to have a big impact on Boston's meetings and tourism industries. Over 26,000 hotel rooms have already been booked for the 2010 event, and it is expected to generate $12.5 million for Boston. But Rooney sees the impact as greater than the immediate dollars spent.
"I think this event is just another sign of the growth that Boston is experiencing in the large convention and meetings industry," he said. "I think attracting a major union is a feather in the cap of Boston to begin with.
And when this union's leadership goes and tells others that they had a great time in Boston, it's like trying out a new restaurant. People have come here and have had good experiences in the convention center and the city, and they tell other meeting planners, and in this case, other unions."
If the AFSCME convention is a feather in Boston's hat, the event's departure from New York is a bad omen for the Big Apple, suggested Reed's McAvoy."It's a sign of things to come," he said. "Not only will [other] conventions pull, but the existing business at the Javits will erode."
McAvoy is even considering taking his own business elsewhere after 45 years of holding shows at Javits if the situation doesn't improve.
"(Governor) Spitzer is looking for a win, but this isn't going to be his win," McAvoy said. "We're not going to sit back and let this happen.
If it does happen, we're going to have to look for someplace else to hold our shows."
But Heywood remained optimistic about New York's convention business. He said groups can still book large events at one or more of New York's large hotels, like the New York Hilton or the Marriott Marquis Times Square. And, even if the Javits doesn't offer the space some groups want, New York draws groups because attendees love the city, he said. "One thing about New York, it continues to generate record-breaking attendance for meetings," he said.
Originally published February 11, 2008