[urbancore]

Originally Posted by We vs us

Thought you all should know that this week, the city's been hosting the annual meeting of PCMA -- the Professional Convention Managers Association. PCMA is really the premier meeting planner organization in North America, and we've had several days of high value convention planners traipsing through the streets. Folks arrived on Friday, stayed through the weekend and today is their departure day. Generally, you should know that 1) Visit Austin killed it. Like, absolutely slayed it. And 2) for the closing party last night, they hosted a Willie Nelson concert at the Austin American Statesman site.

It worked like a charm. The stage + beer/liquor stations were setup outside in the loading dock area with an amazing views of downtown, and inside the warehouse proper was another stage and food kiosks manned by Emmer and Rye, Second + Bar and Kitchen, Uchiko, and other local staples. Buses -- and pedicabs! -- staged outside in the turnaround area to ferry people to and from hotels. The feedback has been universally positive. Not just about the Statesman site, or the concert, or the hotels, etc, but the city of course sells itself effortlessly. Sometimes you forget how excellent we have it here, and people from all over the country and world spoke to me personally about what a surprise Austin is.

Living up to the hype is tough, y'all, but we do it pretty much every day.

That is always great to hear. Thanks for the info.