Explanation
This legislation authorizes the Director of the Department of Development to enter into a grant agreement with the Greater Columbus Convention and Visitors Bureau Inc., dba Experience Columbus for the purpose of providing support to the organization in its efforts to market Columbus for sporting events, conferences, conventions, and planning activities, and to authorize an expenditure in an amount up to $500,000.00. Funding will be advanced on a predetermined schedule.
Experience Columbus is an organization whose vision is to be the leading force in creating and revealing the best of the Columbus Experience to the world. The mission of Experience Columbus is to sell, market and promote the “Destination Columbus” experience to visitors. Columbus is increasingly seen as a destination city and host candidate for major national conferences and conventions. These events result in tens of thousands of visitors to Columbus and millions of dollars in direct and indirect spending, supporting a significant number of jobs and businesses in Central Ohio. Experience Columbus has been very successful in attracting conferences and conventions to Central Ohio. Some of the conferences and conventions have included, the NCAA Women’s Final Four Basketball Tournament, the American Society of Association Annual Meeting & Exposition, the Professional Management Convention Association and the U.S. Conference of Mayors.
Emergency declaration: Emergency declaration is requested so that services can be begin and funding distributed as soon as possible for the upcoming travel and tourism planning season.
Fiscal Impact: $500,000.00 will be transferred from the General Fund Citywide Account to the Department of Development Economic Development Division.
Contract Compliance: The vendor’s contract compliance, 006014, is pending.
Title
To authorize the Director of the Department of Development to enter into a grant agreement with the Greater Columbus Co...
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