Driving Our Economy Forward: Chattanooga Convention Center

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WDEF) — The Chattanooga Convention Center brings visitors to the Scenic City from all over.

It hosts plenty of events each year – catering to people from out of town, and even in our area.

Let’s see how the convention center is driving our economy forward.

“We’re open 365 days a year and hope you come down often,” said Mike Shuford, Executive Director for the Chattanooga Convention Center. “The convention center originally opened in 19, eight in April of 1985, and we had a major expanded expansion which tripled the size of the building, and that opened in 2003. The World of Wheels show was one of the first shows we ever did, which was in January of 1986 and has been here for the past 38 years.”

“This building was specifically designed to hold events like this,” said Adam McLean, Motor Sports Production President. “Everything from the power and utility locations to loading in, loading out, it really was purposely built for events like this. And to have a space this big in a town like Chattanooga is really a blessing. We have about 150 cars and then another 35, 40 vendors that come in for this show. None of them are by themselves. Most of them are two, three, four people per car. They all have to eat somewhere, they all have to sleep somewhere, and they all want a little bit of entertainment in some of their downtime hours. So it really does bleed into the town and the community a lot more than just people walking in and paying money in the concession standard in the building entrance.”

“To have a convention is a major impact on the city of what it does for the hotels, the restaurants, and that’s people coming in from other cities and staying in Chattanooga two or three days, leaving their money and then going back home,” Shuford said. “The city is not – you’re not paying extra taxes for schools or roads and everything like that. We’re already here. So it’s major economic impact for the city.”

“This building averages hosting about 440 to 450 events a year,” Shuford said. “And those can be anything from meetings, luncheons, birthday parties, wedding receptions, all kinds of things. And we invite everybody. If you’re having a social event, whether it be a birthday party, a wedding reception, a black tie event, or whatever your needs are, we would love to help you, and please feel free to call us. And we’re here to serve.”