Orlando, FL – Microsoft announced it will stage its “Ignite” conference at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando. The conference brings together industry professionals and Microsoft users for training sessions, work sessions and news about upcoming products. The five-day event drew 20,000 attendees to Chicago in May 2015. But last October, the company cancelled plans to repeat the event at McCormick Place in May 2016, instead moving it to September in Atlanta.
At that time, Microsoft said the switch was made to better align with customers’ purchasing decision timelines. The Chicago Tribune called the move a ‘significant loss’ for Chicago in 2016, particularly for its hotels, which were set to lose up to 100,000 total room nights as a result of the relocation.
According to the Orlando Business Journal, an event this size can generate as much as $30 million in economic impact for the region. Orlando’s Orange County Convention Center ranks No. 2 in the U.S. in net square feet of exhibit space with 2.1 million sf, just behind McCormick Place and its 2.6 million sf, according to the most recent edition of Trade Show Executive’s publication, The World’s Top Convention Centers.
Reach Gwen Wilson at the Orange County Convention Center at (407) 685-5796 or Gwen.Wilson@OCCC.net.
http://www.bizjournals.com/orlando (this is the source for the initial piece sent to us by Gwen at OCCC)
Also used: World’s Top Convention Centers 2016 rankings
