City Hosts First Citywide Convention Since Start of Pandemic

Visit Pasadena announced that Pasadena hosted its first citywide convention since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic last week.

The city welcomed more than 900 attendees from the Association of California Water Agencies (ACWA) for its Fall 2021 Conference and Exhibition, which took place at the Pasadena Convention Center from November 30 through December 2.

“We were honored to welcome ACWA to Pasadena last week,” said Jeanne Goldschmidt, Executive Director for Visit Pasadena. “We’ve worked tirelessly to promote Pasadena as a safe destination and were thrilled to see our city bustling with activity.”

The team at Visit Pasadena and the Pasadena Convention Center worked closely with the convention planners to ensure that attendees felt safe while on-site and enjoying all the amenities the city has to offer, officials said.

Visit Pasadena has focused on showcasing the strict health and safety protocols that have been in place at the convention center and has worked with the City of Pasadena on a Stay Safe Pledge to market the destination as a safe option for meetings and events, and their efforts did not go unnoticed.

“ACWA was excited to come together for our 2021 Fall Conference and Exhibition. Our leadership team felt it was critical for our membership to have the opportunity to connect face to face and appreciated all the safety protocols that were established to make that happen. We were thrilled with the response from our members, with a turnout of more than 900 in-person attendees.”

Face-to-face meetings and business events not only play a critical role in connecting people and driving business results, but they also support jobs and drive business to the local economy. The conference booked approximately 1,500 hotel room nights and brought business to our restaurants, shops and hotels, and the feedback from the local community was positive.

“It is great to see events returning to the convention center.  Over the course of the ACWA convention we saw a good increase not only in our a la carte dinner sales but also booked an event in one of our private rooms,” said Linda Jordan, general manager of Ruth’s Chris Steak House. “It is a great feeling to see things opening up at the Pasadena Convention Center, drawing business into the area for the merchants and hotels.”

“We saw a great increase in foot traffic and sales due to the water conference,” said Logan Ward, general manager of Yard House at the Paseo. “It was great to see and team members were thrilled leaving with more tips than usual.”

“With our location being located at the Paseo Mall across the street from the convention center we rely heavily on conventions. This past weekend the ACWA Conference & Exhibition was in town and our sales doubled for a Saturday mainly from two large private parties coming from the center,” said Blair Salisbury, owner of El Cholo Restaurant. “On top of the parties, we were constantly running a 30-45 min wait. It is safe to say that a third of the regular dining room tables were convention attendees.”

Visit Pasadena has an additional 13 citywide conventions on the books for the fiscal year including Barbershop Harmony (January 10 through 16), CAPPO (January 30 through February 2), and SoCal Linux (February 28 through March 7), officials said.