Ed Sealover at the Denver Business Journal reports: “Visit Denver President & CEO Richard Scharf said he believes the organization can salvage most of the large conventions and meetings planned for Denver in the second half of 2021 following the state’s release of the Colorado Convention Center from serving as an alternate hospital site.”
“Event planners and hotel officials have greeted that news warmly, even if its effects aren’t expected to play out immediately. Scharf estimated that the events canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 — both those to be held in the convention center and in nearby hotels — cost the city 450,000 visitors and $800 million in economic impact.”
“But the biggest impact of the state’s decision is that Visit Denver can work with convention planners who have yet to cancel events scheduled for the facility in the summer and fall to assure them they can move forward, Scharf said in an interview Thursday. That likely means that the Outdoor Retailer Summer Market — a show that previously was estimated to generate a $57 million annual economic impact — could stay on the calendar in June and that other gatherings of large professional associations and consumer shows may move forward.”
Denver Public Relations Blog 