At issue is a dispute pitting NFL players against owners, and owners against one another over how league
revenue should be divided. If it isn’t resolved, the 2011 season could be shortened, delayed or canceled.
Indianapolis receives a dozen responses to its proposal to privatize management of Lucas Oil Stadium,
the Indiana Convention Center and, perhaps, Conseco Fieldhouse.
The Performance Racing Industry Show has set its 2010 dates for Dec. 9-11. That means the International Motorsports Industry
Show held in Indianapolis will have Dec. 1-3 to itself.
The project will nearly double the convention center’s size and put Indianapolis 16th among U.S. cities in convention space.
The show held in Indianapolis Dec. 3-4 is picking up speed much faster than event organizers and local
convention and tourism officials expected. But the nation’s biggest motorsports trade show, Performance
Racing Industry Show, is considering competing with the local show head-on in 2010.
Indianapolis was up against Dallas, Las Vegas, Orlando, Atlanta and New Orleans to host baseball’s Winter
Meetings, which
will draw more than 200 media members from the nation’s top 30 markets.
The inaugural show opened Dec. 2 at the Indiana Convention Center, and is expected to draw more than
10,000 attendees.
The locally based Custom Electronic Design & Installation Association will bring its fall trade show back to Indianapolis
in 2011 and 2012—making good on a promise to return after a $275 million expansion of the Indiana Convention Center.
A summer advertising campaign launched by the Indianapolis Convention & Visitors Association helped produce more visitors
and dollars for central Indiana, even though the organization spent less this year marketing the region.
Behind every convention that rolls into Indianapolis is a tedious sales effort as intense and invisible as a riptide. Sometimes
the sale cycle lasts as long as six years.
A new task force formed this month is charged with recommending solutions to the financial problems of the Indianapolis
Capital Improvement Board and its related convention and tourism issues.
The idea of the not-for-profit Indianapolis Convention & Visitors Association taking out a loan was not warmly received by
city officials. And financial institutions were less than thrilled with the idea given the ICVA’s diminishing revenue
and increasing costs.
The Indianapolis Convention & Visitors Association said today the National Society of Black Engineers will hold its annual
convention here in March 2013.
Three music events with direct visitor spending estimated at $28 million that were hosted at Lucas Oil Stadium offer proof,
city officials said, that the expense of the retractable roof and other features of the $720 million facility are paying off.
Members of the Indianapolis Capital Improvement Board this afternoon passed a $63 million budget for 2010 that hinges on the
City-County Council’s approval of a hike in the local hotel tax.
The Indianapolis Convention & Visitors Association is so desperate for more marketing funding, the organization charged
with promoting the city as a convention and tourism destination is considering taking out a loan. While that
would be the last resort, ICVA CEO Don Welsh said it is one he will have to consider if the money can’t be raised through
local taxes.
The Indianapolis Convention and Visitors Association is putting together an all-star corporate consortium to make the city
a hub for medical and life sciences conventions, meetings and trade shows. The ICVA began running the initiative
full-speed this year and already has signed deals to bring 40 medical meetings to Indianapolis through 2015, including annual
meetings for the American Association of Diabetes Educators in 2012 and the American College of Sports Medicine and American
Chemical Society in 2013.
Hotel occupancy rates are way down in Indianapolis, as they are elsewhere, but local operators and national analysts think
the city is in a good position to bounce back when the economy improves.
Hotel sales and marketing executive Michelle Travis is joining the Indianapolis Convention & Visitors Association
as vice president of sales.
Indianapolis already hosts three of the top 200 conventions in the country. But additional meeting space coming online late next year could help the city double the number.
