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COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – It’s been a busy week at the Columbus Convention Center this week with a big meeting on Wednesday.
The Professional Convention Management Association (PCMA) held convening leaders’ meetings Sunday through Wednesday, which itself is estimated to have brought in millions of dollars to the city. Today, leaders want more money to come to Columbus.
The PCMA is an organization representing those who manage business events, conferences and conventions.
The convening leaders’ meeting was held in Columbus for the first time, and Experience Columbus said it was something the group had been working on for years in hopes that those in attendance would revive their companies in the future.
“The past few days of hosting PCMA have been phenomenal for our community,” said Dan Williams, Chief Sales Officer of Experience Columbus, a tourism information organization. “To be able to host a competition of this magnitude in our community and showcase it as we did is definitely a gold star for Columbus.”
Williams said the conference was attended by 3,300 people, many of whom were conference planners from companies across the country and around the world. He said he liked what these planners experienced here and hoped to revive the company.
“Ultimately, in the long run, we want these people to come back and bring meetings to our community. He said,
From Sunday to Wednesday, the convention generated about $5.6 million in visitor spending, Williams said. He said the events that ensue from the Games could bring more.
“Within the next 10 years, hosting one of these types of competitions will generate hundreds of millions of dollars of economic impact for our community,” he said.
Barbara Scofidio is editor of the conference industry magazine Prevue. She was in town for her PCMA conference for the first time in Columbus.
“I’ve been posting on social media for two days with incredible surprise and delight: ‘This city has many of the elements you would find in a big city, but it’s not as big.'”
Scofidio wasn’t the only one surprised. According to Williams, many of the attendees also said they were pleasantly surprised by the city.
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