A multi-day event next month will set a new record for the Wilmington Convention Center, according to officials at the Wilmington and Beaches Convention & Visitors Bureau.

The roughly 2,000 clergy and lay delegates from the N.C. Conference of the United Methodist Church attending the church’s annual meeting June 10-13 will prove the largest conference the convention center has hosted since its opening in January 2011.

“Attendees will stay at 14 hotels located in New Hanover County,” the CVB’s news release stated. “A trolley will be available to transport conventioneers to and from the Wilmington Convention Center, where all meetings and convention functions will be held.”

Landing the conference was an achievement for CVB staff, according to John Sneed, vice president of sales and services for the tourism organization.

“Our sales department has been working to host this annual conference since the opening of the Wilmington Convention Center,” he said in the release. “The NCC UMC staff and organizers have been gracious to allow us to use hotel inventory beyond the convention center district to host a convention of this size. We look forward to hosting similar large groups on a more regular basis as the hotels that are planned for Downtown become available.”

Over the past four years, the convention center has booked increasing numbers of events, according to information from convention center general manager Susan Eaton.

"There has been a 29 percent growth in attendance and a 38 percent growth in the number of booked events between FY 2012 and FY 2015," she said in an email.
 
For example, in its first full year of operations, FY 2012 (the fiscal year ending June 30, 2012), the center hosted nine conventions, trade shows and conferences. In two years that number grew to 14. Although only eight such shows are projected for the current fiscal year, the number of meetings has grown from 32 in FY 2012 to a projected 39 this year, and the number of banquets has increased from 60 to 94 during the same period, according to Eaton's information.

In terms of attendance numbers, attendance at convention center events has grown from 66,400 in FY 2012 to a projected 85,865 for the current fiscal year, Eaton's numbers show.

One stumbling block to attracting large groups has been the lack of a convention center hotel, which was part of the original facility plans but whose development has been delayed by objections from Sotherly Hotels, owner of Hilton Wilmington Riverside. Sotherly contends that the city of Wilmington’s agreement to sell the convention center hotel developer a 0.76-acre site for $162,000 less than its appraised market value means that the city is subsidizing a private hotel’s operations, which it is legally forbidden to do.

Wilmington, however, moved forward last year with plans for the hotel despite objections from Sotherly Hotels. A judge ruled in the city’s favor last June, but the plaintiff is still contesting the matter.

Officials have said that the lack of a convention center hotel has prohibited larger groups from booking their events there.

“While this large group agreed to use hotels outside the convention center district, many groups want their members to have the convenience of being able to walk to the convention center from their hotels,” Sneed said in an email Thursday.  “We have actually lost a lot of business in the past because of the limited number of rooms in the convention center district. When the proposed hotels open, it will allow us to attract and book more conventions.”

Eaton points to the addition of a convention hotel as more than just a recruiting tool for large groups like the United Methodists.  

“In the future, the addition of an adjacent hotel as well as more hotel inventory in downtown will assist groups with new options for a headquarter hotel, updated hotel product, lessen cost of shuttles  to widespread hotels, and provide the overall ability to attract many more groups anxious to convene in Wilmington,” she said. “More association and corporate groups meeting in Wilmington means more dollars into our community, more room tax and greater employment options.”