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Meeting recession is over
The recession that almost choked the life out of the meetings industry two years ago is starting to loosen its grip, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
As of Oct. 31, more than half of the exhibit space at downtown Atlanta’s Georgia World Congress Center — the fourth-largest convention center in the country — had been booked for next fiscal year, said Pattsie Rand, GWCC director of sales and marketing.
The bookings represented a near 6 percent increase over fiscal 2004.
Increasing bookings are critical for the center because it doubled its exhibit space in 2002 to remain competitive in a market of ever-bigger convention centers, the newspaper said.
The conventions coming are both big and small. The most stable industries now are home building, construction, manufacturing and distribution. But one of the biggest conventions booked is for businesses built around fun.
The International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions is scheduled to come to Atlanta for its annual convention. The gathering, which rotates among Atlanta, Chicago and Orlando, attracts about 35,000 and will use two-thirds of the World Congress Center. IAAPA was last in Atlanta in 2001.
Report by David Wilkening
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