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A Path To Transformation,
by Timothy Schneider, Publisher, Association News
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As the number of gaming destinations across the country has grown, a transformation has been occurring in Atlantic City. Earlier this year, I visited The Claridge Hotel—one of the city’s historic hotels located along the Boardwalk—where space formerly used for the hotel’s casino was being remodeled into meeting space.

Late last year, one of the city’s largest casino properties, Harrah’s Resort, opened a new conference center that would be the envy of many cities across the country. Harrah’s Waterfront Conference Center offers 100,000 square feet of state-of-the-art meeting space connected directly to the resort’s more than 2,500 hotel rooms. While it was still under construction, the new conference center booked the 2016 Meeting Professionals International World Education Congress, which took place in June. And later this month, our company will be staging the TEAMS ‘16 Conference & Expo at Harrah’s Waterfront Conference Center. Presented by SportsTravel, our sister publication, TEAMS is the world’s leading conference and expo for the sports-event industry and will be held September 26–29.

Of course, facilities alone do not attract groups to a destination. That job typically falls to the quiet heroes at the city’s official destination marketing organization. In this case, the team at Meet AC led by Jim Wood has done an outstanding job of attracting conventions to Atlantic City. For example, the AnimeNext Convention, with 15,000 attendees, was recently held at the Atlantic City Convention Center and is planning to return each year for the next five years. Also at the convention center, the International Pizza Expo is launching a new, twoday trade show in 2017 called Pizza & Pasta Northeast. The event will also include food demonstrations and educational sessions.

According to the Center for Exhibition Industry Research, when presented with a list of 20 possible marketing communications and sales tactics, business executives ranked trade shows the second-most-important marketing tool. As the planners of both TEAMS and Meetings Quest, the nation’s longest-running series of trade shows and educational conferences for meeting planners, we get to experience firsthand the value of trade-show marketing. (For a report from our most recent Meetings Quest event, please see the story on page 24.)

In Atlantic City, we’ve had the pleasure of organizing both TEAMS and Meetings Quest in a destination that truly understands the role that meetings and conventions can play when it comes to transforming its economic base. We invite you to experience Atlantic City, too, by joining us at Meetings Quest, March 14–15, 2017, at the Borgata Hotel, Casino & Spa in Atlantic City. For more information, please see the ad on page 27, visit MeetingsQuest.com or call 877-577-3700.
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Timothy Schneider is the publisher of Association News and SportsTravel magazines, which serve group travel planners responsible for generating 106 million hotel room nights annually. Schneider Publishing also organizes Meetings Quest, America's longest-running series of trade shows for meeting planners, and the TEAMS Conference & Expo, the world’s largest gathering of sports-event organizers. TEAMS ’16 will be held September 26–29, 2016, in Atlantic City. For further information on advertising or sponsorship opportunities, please call toll-free 877-577-3700 or 310-577-3700 if calling from outside the United States.

The current issue of Association News can be viewed in digital format online by clicking here.
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Media Contact:
Timothy Schneider
310-577-3700
Schneider Publishing Company, Inc.