Jacksonville: A Top Meeting Destination?

[Metro Jacksonville]

Jacksonville: A Top Meeting Destination?



Should Jacksonville invest in a new convention center? The answer to that question usually depends on if the person being asked believes that city is or can be a major meeting destination. Nevertheless, according to Cvent.com, it's a top 50 U.S. meeting destination. Here's the list!

Read More: http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2015-jan-jacksonville-a-top-meeting-destination

[RattlerGator]

Because we're in the number one tourism state in the nation, and so many (some of whom are represented on this board) don't know how to appreciate what the city *already is* -- Jacksonville can get short shrift with respect to meeting destination status. Admittedly, we do have shortcomings, though. With respect to this referenced list, however, this appears to be their 2012 list and Big Duval didn't make the Top 50 in their 2013 or 2014 edition. This *may* be due to refinements to how they've generated the list.

Cvent evaluated over 5,000 cities, ranking them based on meeting and event booking activity in the Cvent Supplier Network, as well as the number of meeting and event venues in the area. The destination's unique Cvent visits was added to the criteria this year, designed to help improve the quality of the rankings and to provide an even more accurate reflection of the most popular meeting destinations in the United States.

Hopefully the momentum the city is experiencing can help us crack the Top 50 soon.

2012
http://www.cvent.com/en/sem/top-50-meeting-destinations-us-2012.shtml

2013
http://www.cvent.com/rfp/2013-top-50-meeting-destinations-8f37858e7c5c48b893fe0c1e429710d8.aspx

2014
http://www.cvent.com/rfp/2014-top-50-us-meeting-destinations-06945d34a4bb441c85408f55453e46e5.aspx

[finehoe]

It's also interesting that some of the cities above Jacksonville on the list (such as #26 and #40, perhaps others) don't even have convention centers.

[JaxJersey-licious]

Fascinating list! As I was making my own list in my head given the criteria (and given that Jacksonville is in the to 50) these were my top 10 cities that I thought certainly should have been on the list in alphabetical order:

1) Asheville
2) Charleston SC
3) Cincinnati
4) Clearwater
5) Memphis
6) Pittsburgh
7) Raleigh
8 ) Santa Fe
9) Tucson
10) Virginia Beach