Philadelphia’s $730M meetings & convention year

From craft brewers and chemistry professionals to architects and speech, language and hearing professionals, the conventions and groups booked by the Philadelphia Convention & Visitors Bureau gave the city a robust meetings-and-conventions calendar and a huge economic boost.

Together the conventions PHLCVB brought to the Pennsylvania Convention Center generated $730 million in economic impact for Philadelphia.

See the accompanying photo gallery to see this year's top conventions in terms of economic impact to Philadelphia.

It doesn't stop this year, of course. The future looks bright, too.

“Philadelphia continues to be a highly sought-after destination for meetings and conventions, and our forecast through 2020 is very strong,” according to the Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau.

“We expect to see continued growth across all meeting-and-convention sectors in the coming years, allowing us to support and grow the 68,000 hospitality-related jobs in the city," the PHLCVB added.

Having a robust conventions calendar is a boon not only for Philadelphia's hospitality industry, but all of the city's business sectors. And healthy convention calendars could be attributed to changes made more than two years ago.

Antiquated work rules at the Convention Center held back the city's growth in the convention circle because major groups canceled annual meetings from Philadelphia, or groups avoided the city altogether.

Only in May 2014, when new work rules were put in place, did the city take an about-face. The new regulations were more cost-effective, streamlined and friendly, according to meeting planners.

Since the new work rules were put in place, several groups that previously canceled their annual meetings, have changed course and rebooked for Philadelphia, including Lightfair International, which will come back in 2017.

Source: Philadelphia Business Journal