Record snowfalls and frigid temperatures aside, 2025 is off to a great start at the Sharonville Convention Center.
In January, for the first time ever, the Center hosted Visit Cincy’s annual meeting. The event featured nearly 500 business professionals, civic leaders and members of the regional hospitality industry, including Cincinnati Mayor Aftab Pureval, Hamilton County Commissioner Denise Driehaus and Sharonville Mayor Kevin Hardman. Visit Cincy shared its new annual economic impact report, which showed visitors spend $4.4 billion dollars in Hamilton County and when Northern Kentucky tourism is included, the impact increases to $6.5 billion dollars. In Hamilton County alone, more than 46,000 people are employed in tourism, and visitor spending contributed $229 million dollars in local taxes. Visitors accounted for 25 percent of all local business revenue, up 8 percent from the previous year. Those are some impressive numbers, and the Center is proud to be an important part of the event and tourism ecosystem. We also loved the opportunity to showcase our awesome facility to some of the leading players in the industry.
We are also hard at work making sure our facility stays awesome. First up is replacing all the carpeting in the Northern Lights Ballroom. The ballroom measures 104 feet wide and 83 feet long, comprising more than 8,700 square feet and accommodated nearly 600 people in a banquet set up. In other words, it’s a massive undertaking. But you’ll see the difference.
As always, we have a full slate of events in store for you, including the inaugural Cincy Boat Expo 2025 in February. You can read all about it later in this newsletter.
We hope to see you – and see you often – in 2025. It promises to be a great year.
Jim
