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Coming to town
People who attended the annual Virginia Fire Rescue Conference in February could buy the latest rescue equipment, tools, turnout gear, radios, oxygen tanks — even a 30,000-pound pumper fire truck. “If you’ve got your checkbook … you can drive that truck home,” says Christian Eudailey, executive director of the Virginia Fire Chiefs Association, which organizes […]
High cost, higher rewards
Michael Meyers is always looking for an advantage. Like many in the meetings industry, the Greater Richmond Convention Center’s general manager has seen his facility’s costs spike from inflation. Likewise, the price tag to run conferences has increased, so planners and venues are striving to ensure a good return on investment for attendees. And to […]
Distinguished visitors
Event planners and hospitality industry experts worldwide will converge upon Richmond to grow their professional networks, discuss the latest developments in the tourism sector and celebrate travel in Virginia during the 2023 VA1 Governor’s Tourism Summit. Taking place Nov. 12-14 at the Greater Richmond Convention Center, the event will offer workshops and classes focusing on […]
Conventional wisdom
Business-related travel and events are slowly making a comeback in the post-pandemic era. In 2022, visitors to Virginia spent $30.3 billion in the commonwealth, exceeding 2019 spending by 4%. Of that spending, $4.8 billion was from business travelers, says Dan Roberts, vice president of research and strategy for Virginia Tourism Corp. While none of the […]
Federal Contractors | Technology 2023: REGGIE AGGARWAL
Cvent is a market-leading meeting, events and hospitality technology provider based in McLean. Originally trained as a lawyer, Cvent CEO Aggarwal received degrees from the University of Virginia, Washington and Lee University and Georgetown University Law Center. But he was seduced from the law by events management. After staging several hundred events as president of […]
January Va. hotel revenues surpass 2019
Virginia hotel revenues in January were 14.9% higher than pre-pandemic levels, largely due to higher hotel room rates, according to data released Tuesday by STR Inc., a division of CoStar Group Inc. that provides market data on the U.S. hospitality industry. Hotel rooms sold increased by 5% last month compared with January 2019. The average […]
On the road again
Business and leisure travelers are putting the pandemic in the rearview mirror and once again are filling Virginia hotels and resorts. While that’s good news, widespread staffing shortages continue to hamper the hospitality industry. Occupancy rates are almost back to 2019 numbers, with Northern Virginia finally seeing upticks as corporate and government travel has slowly […]
Back in business
Like the proverbial canary in the mineshaft, the state of the meetings and convention planning industry is a good barometer for predicting how well the economy is doing and what direction it is moving. Despite the persistence of COVID-19 variants, the canary is still singing a happy tune — as are meeting and convention planners […]
