Page 37 - BusinessWest December 26, 2022

ing their down time or even have a planned activity.”
Another reason for optimism, and a solid 2022, is the work that the GSCVB, working in concert with those operat- ing area attractions, put in during the pandemic.
Indeed, while convention goers might have been pushed to the side- lines, those planning events, and those hoping to attract them to their regions, kept working.
The work was somewhat different, as we’ll see, but it laid the groundwork for the momentum currently being seen and anticipation for more gather- ings in the years to come.
Back in Business
The GSCVB covers the region from Connecticut’s northern border to Ver- mont’s southern border, a wide area that offers a wide array of attractions and opportunites for attendees of gath- erings. It’s an area that also boasts a diverse portfolio of meeting spaces and facilities for events and conventions, from the convention center in down- town Springfield to the array of build- ings at the Big E to the various facilities at area colleges.
“I’m really lucky because there’s not a lot of people like me in the country that has a great convention center, meeting hotel space, and then the fairgrounds less than two miles from downtown.”
“A lot of convention activity hap- pens here in the lower valley in Spring- field because we have the MassMutual center; they’re a very close partner, and we work with them. The Marriott, the Sheraton, MGM all have meeting space within their hotels, too,” said Ali- cia Szenda, vice president of Sales at the GSCVB. “I’m really lucky because there’s not a lot of people like me in the country that has a great conven- tion center, meeting hotel space, and then the fairgrounds less than two miles from downtown. It’s nice for me to have that variety of straight meet- ing space versus some fairgrounds and some open space so close to the hotels in Springfield, West Springfield, Chi- copee, and Holyoke.”
When COVID hit in March of 2020, however, the convention business “fell off a cliff,” said Szenda, adding said that some groups opted to meet virtu- ally but there was no travel, to Greater Springfield or anywhere else.
This was a time to continue meeting with event planners (virtually in most
all cases), continue the work of selling the region, and create some momen- tum for when groups would be ready to travel and stay again.
Szenda joked that the only part of her job that she couldn’t do was site visits — pretty much the majority of what her job entails. She and other team members had to put together Zoom presentations and virtual site visits to generate new business as well as repeat business.
“We did those for folks who were possibly booked and maybe had to cancel and needed a refresher during
Conventions Continued on page 38
Staff Photo
Attending
a ribbon cutting for the Yankee Security convention are, from left, Jim Boucher and Chris Kelley of MGM Springfield, Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno, and DJ Dabenigno of Yankee Security.
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