I think our issue with bigger conventions/events (ones that involve lots people coming in from out-of-town from all over) is the link between DOWNTOWN and TRANSIT centers (AIRPORT, BUS station, TRAIN station,etc). The bulk of the people are not driving cross-country, ya know?

Any downtown circulator (streetcar or whatever) will help WITHIN the downtown area...to get people around from HOTEL to CONVENTION to FOOD/ENTERTAINMENT...but it is merely one COMPONENT of the puzzle. We MUST have some friggen awesome (read: FAST) linkage between transit centers and the downtown area.

Someone mentioned CES, good example of a larger-scale convention. Not entirely impossible, though unlikely. Consider this: most major air carriers have a presence here with a good flight frequency and alternate equipment (read: planes) can easily accommodate the influx of people since the carriers themselves can already bring in and service whatever mainline they have in here, for the most part.

I'm not saying this needs to be built yesterday or el-pronto, but it would need to happen prior to ramping up to larger conventions and would make us look much more attractive to conventions/events of all sizes.

Someone here mentioned hotel rooms. We have witnessed examples of how FAST okc can get hotel towers built...BAM! Entertainment options/hours-of-operation would expand almost overnight, once the businesses see the demand.



Given the ACCESSIBILITY and FACILITY combination, I think we can do some serious damage to the convention market!