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.
Jamfest Cheer Super Nationals will be held in Indianapolis through 2015. The competition is one of the city’s largest annual
gatherings, attracting about 20,000 cheerleaders and spectators.
The Indianapolis Convention & Visitors Association is spending $1.3 million to promote the city to eight Midwestern markets,
in
hopes of attracting more travelers.
In light of a shrinking budget, the state has dropped traditional advertising campaigns to promote tourism and is embracing
social media outlets to promote Indiana's attractions.
Seventeen agencies submitted proposals for the account.
The convention bureau has shelved its plan to attract a full-service hotel and instead will boost spending on tourism marketing.
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.
A side-by-side look at infrastructure and visitor numbers.
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.
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 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.
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.
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 Hendricks County Convention and Visitors Bureau said Monday that it is asking for proposals to develop a full-service convention hotel on up to 18 acres in Plainfield at the intersection of Interstate 70 and Highway 267.
