Don Welsh, the top executive at the Indianapolis Convention & Visitors Association since 2008, is leaving the city to take the job as CEO of the Chicago Convention & Tourism Bureau, the ICVA announced Monday night.
Weak economy blamed for 5-percent decline. With Indiana Convention Center expansion set to be complete this month, booking should be on the rise.
As of mid-December, the Indianapolis Convention & Visitors Association had hit about 93 percent of its 2010 goal of booking 650,000 room nights for future conventions. The group is stepping up its efforts to meet the demands of the new JW Marriott hotel and convention center expansion.
Request for proposals calls for providing 24-hour security at both Lucas Oil Stadium and the Indiana Convention Center, as well as providing armed guards for special events. The CIB plans to award contracts in mid-March.
Capital Improvement Board plans to spend about $2.6 million to replace 370,000 square feet of carpeting in the older portion of the Indiana Convention Center to match the carpet in the new addition.
Officials for Crowne Plaza Hotel downtown said a $400,000 enclosed connector linking the hotel to the convention center will be done in February.
The Pump & Cleaner Environmental Expo will be held in Indianapolis each year in February from 2012 to 2014. It is expected to attract more than 12,000 visitors annually and generate an estimated $24 million in spending over the three-year stretch.
Gen Con Indy runs Thursday through Sunday at the Indiana Convention Center. It’s in its 42nd year.
An agreement with the International Motorsports Industry Show will keep it in the city indefinitely. Attendance for the three-day
December convention is expected to top 20,000.
Well-known local sports columnist Bill Benner is leaving his job at the Indianapolis Convention & Visitors Association to
become senior associate commissioner for external affairs for the Horizon League.
Seven months before the $275 million expansion of the Indiana Convention Center is complete, convention planners and local
convention and tourism officials are calling for an upgrade to the existing Convention Center space.
The project will create an event-friendly corridor from the expanded Indiana Convention Center to Conseco Fieldhouse.
Five years ago, the Indiana Pacers ownership was not included in discussions about a potential new downtown home for the Indianapolis
Colts, and now city and Pacers officials are paying the price.
Attracting the meeting is a coup for Indianapolis Convention & Visitors Association officials who are trying to pull in
more health-related events.
Executives of Gen Con, one of the city's largest conventions, visited Indianapolis last week to get their first glance
of the construction of the Indiana Convention Center expansion. Local tourism officials are using such tours to market the
larger space.
The Fairfield Inn & Suites on West Washington Street downtown will open Wednesday. The hotel is the first of four comprising
the 1,600-room Marriott Place project to welcome guests.
Groups that committed in 2009 to hold meetings in Indianapolis in future years booked a total of nearly 688,000 hotel-room
nights, a number that exceeded ICVA’s goal by 5 percent.
Indianapolis receives a dozen responses to its proposal to privatize management of Lucas Oil Stadium,
the Indiana Convention Center and, perhaps, Conseco Fieldhouse.
Ann Lathrop is the new CEO of the Marion County Capital Improvement Board, which oversees the Indiana
Convention Center, Conseco Fieldhouse and Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.
A symbolic topping-off ceremony early this month to celebrate a milestone on the massive JW Marriott hotel project can’t
hide the anxiety felt within the construction industry.
