Post by Logan on Feb 4, 2016 3:07:35 GMT -6
The International Boat Builders' Exhibition & Conference, known as IBEX, has announced that it has chosen to convene at the Tampa Convention Center in Florida for the next three years -- at Louisville's expense.
The three-day show, held in 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and again last September at the Kentucky Exposition Center, drew several thousand industry representatives and generated about $6 million for the local economy, according to the Louisville Convention & Visitors Bureau.
The boat builders are following similar decisions made in the recent past by groups that included the National Quartet Convention and the National FFA Organization to take their big-money meetings elsewhere.
Anne Dunbar, the IBEX show director, said in an interview Wednesday that her organization in 2009 chose to convene in Louisville because, amid the recession, its members were finding the traditional meeting sites in Florida too expensive. She said Louisville was believed to be an ideal site, because of its central location and easy access.
Read more: www.courier-journal.com/story/news/local/2016/02/03/louisville-loses-another-lucrative-convention/79750822/
The three-day show, held in 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and again last September at the Kentucky Exposition Center, drew several thousand industry representatives and generated about $6 million for the local economy, according to the Louisville Convention & Visitors Bureau.
The boat builders are following similar decisions made in the recent past by groups that included the National Quartet Convention and the National FFA Organization to take their big-money meetings elsewhere.
Anne Dunbar, the IBEX show director, said in an interview Wednesday that her organization in 2009 chose to convene in Louisville because, amid the recession, its members were finding the traditional meeting sites in Florida too expensive. She said Louisville was believed to be an ideal site, because of its central location and easy access.
Read more: www.courier-journal.com/story/news/local/2016/02/03/louisville-loses-another-lucrative-convention/79750822/