PORTLAND, Ore. — The Oregon Convention Center has long been one of Portland's major assets, standing out along the city's east side skyline and providing a venue for downtown events that can serve thousands of people. But the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns took a toll on the Rose City business community, and the convention center was one of the hardest hit.
"Obviously convention and meeting business just stopped in its tracks, and we reopened in 2022, and we've been steadily rebuilding both convention business and then consumer and local meetings and regional events. But we're on the rebound," said Craig Stroud, executive director of the Oregon Convention Center. OCC is an entity of Metro, the regional government agency serving Multnomah, Washington and Clackamas Counties.
Stroud said the fiscal year ending in June 2019 was the high mark for Portland conventions. According to the OCC, there were 71 conventions and 313 total events that year, bringing in more than 617,000 people.
The OCC drew in 431,000 people across 61 conventions and 264 total events for fiscal year 2023, so there's still a ways to go to catch up — but the totals for fiscal year 2024 are on track to be a bit better.
One convention being set up this week: the national ESEA Conference, for those involved in federally funded elementary and secondary education. It's roughly 2,500 attendees over a three-day run.
Stroud pointed to some groups now booking with less lead time, like a big convention commitment just signed for July of this year. He's hoping that pattern continues and fills in some soft spots in the convention calendar.
Like the rest of downtown, the convention center is working hard to get back to the way things were — but rebuilding momentum for a large-scale event center is a long and difficult process, and Portland is lagging behind other cities in bringing conventions back.
The explanation may lie in part in the media attention focused on troubled times in Portland, with pandemic-era civil unrest and the more recent public safety concerns brought by the city's homelessness and drug addiction challenges. It's created a national perception problem for Portland, Stroud said, but there are signs that the city is recovering.
"There's been tremendous improvement in graffiti and in trash and litter, and in supporting folks that are experiencing homelessness; we need to just continue those efforts, really provide safe and welcoming experience," he said.
Getting big groups back into downtown means putting them up in hotels, including the taxpayer-supported Hyatt Regency right by the convention center. Looking around the downtown Hilton and other city center hotels, KGW spoke to people in the travel business who say the push for a downtown revival is starting to pay off.
"We're optimistic, we're seeing some momentum build," said Marcus Hibdon, senior director of communications and public relations at Travel Portland.
Hibdon said convention bookings are very important to the local economy, along with business and tourism visitors. The measure of success is hotel room nights sold. Portland sold more than 3.2 million room nights last year, which was an improvement over the year before, but it still falls short of the 2019 high of 4.1 million. So there's still work to do, but Hibdon agreed with Stroud's assessment that things are on the right track.
"We're encouraged by the cooperation between the state, the county and the city. There feels like there's more eyes on this, like there's more actual work being done on the ground than ever before," he said.
Back at the Oregon Convention Center, Stroud said the mission is to show people why they should consider coming to Portland.
"When we bring them on ground and we show them the Portland experience and the amazing convention center, LEED platinum, we lead the industry in sustainability. They just love that ethos, and it provides an experience that's memorable and distinct from any other center in the country," he said.