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Old Posted Apr 14, 2011, 10:11 PM
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I know, I know, this isn't like a big convention bringing in a ton of money a la Las Vegas, but for a small place like Ithaca, unaccustomed to hosting anything this size, it was good to see it went well. Article from the Ithaca Journal:


Teamwork presented best face at conference

6:31 PM, Apr. 13, 2011
Written by
Fred Bonn

A couple weekends ago, Ithaca was busier than usual. South Hill was filled with tour buses and vans. Downtown bustled with shoppers and diners. Hotels were packed with students and families. From a business standpoint, it was great for a chilly weekend in April.

Credit goes to Ithaca College and the National Conference on Undergraduate Research. Four years in planning, NCUR brought 3,100 young researchers to Ithaca. It was the second-largest conference to hit the county in the past decade and a major undertaking for IC. But it took a community to make it such a success.

The Downtown Ithaca Alliance worked closely with organizers to plan for NCUR. Alliance staff provided local information, a concierge desk, dining reservations and guided downtown excursions. They even coordinated a coupon book with special incentives from 30 downtown businesses.

Restaurants such as Moosewood geared up with extra staff and extended hours to handle the influx. Managers there said business was up 30 percent or more.

TCAT worked to encourage use of mass transit, adding buses to provide more than 2,600 rides to conference attendees. The coordinated effort minimized automobile traffic and maximized the movement of people countywide.

At Ithaca Tompkins Regional Airport, airlines added ground staff and Transportation Security Administration bolstered screeners to handle the packed flight schedule. The airport even accommodated a pair of fully-loaded 737s chartered for NCUR. They were the largest aircraft to land here in years.

Finger Lakes State Parks also pitched in for weekend visitors. They coordinated a bus tour of local waterfalls for NCUR students, trained volunteer tour guides to handle the influx and added additional weekend tours to show visitors why Ithaca is "Gorges."

This effort came atop the work done by local hotels, B&Bs, transportation companies and our staff here at Visitors Bureau. For us, the success of NCUR represents the culmination of three years' work — from initial planning and facilitation to organizing room blocks and staffing the conference's information desk.

It was indeed a team effort. And the teamwork paid off. Overall economic impact from NCUR was an impressive $828,000, based on average spending figures from the county's 2010 Visitor Profile.

Our thanks to everyone involved, particularly the hardworking staff and volunteers at Ithaca College. Kudos to events director David Prunty, meeting planner Linda Callahan and special assistant to the provost Marian Brown.

This event exemplifies what our community can accomplish by working together. It confirms the strong partnership between Ithaca College and the Ithaca community. With the launch of IC's new A&E Center this fall, we can only imagine the successes yet to come.

*Bonn is director of the Ithaca/ Tompkins Convention and Visitors Bureau.*



And here's a news report reference a conference of young NY professionals held at Cornell:

http://centralny.ynn.com/content/537...tewide-summit/
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Last edited by Ex-Ithacan; Apr 14, 2011 at 10:42 PM.
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