San Antonio Wins with City’s Largest Event to Date

Even with Hurricane Alex brewing off the Texas coast, San Antonio drew an estimated 60,000 attendees to a tremendously successful 2010 International Convention of Alcoholics Anonymous, July 1-4. AA is San Antonio’s largest meeting to date, and garnered attendees from more than 90 countries. The 13th international meeting of the group churned an estimated $65 million into San Antonio’s economy.

“We have heard very positive feedback from AA, and are proud of the hospitality and welcome San Antonio always shows our attendees and guests,” said Scott White, Executive Director of the San Antonio Convention & Visitors Bureau. 

Here are a few key points and fun facts on the group:

Key Points:
• 115 hotels were utilized for the convention.
• AA's opening session at the Alamodome on July 2 registered 53,977 attendees (125,500 attended three Big Meetings in the Alamodome throughout the event).
• Nearly 40,000 people utilized the River Walk’s river cruisers.
• Over 200 motorcoaches were utilized to move people.

Fun Facts:
• The Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center sold over 200 gallons of coffee per hour during the peak of the convention.
• Concessions at the convention center sold over 19,000 sandwiches and 96,000 bottles of water (over $600,000 in concessions between the convention center and Alamodome).
• Some of the 85 welcome banners from the event will be repurposed and made into usable handbags for people to enjoy.
• Planners arranged for special recycling and composting bins with 50% of waste from the meeting diverted from the landfill.
2010 Convention Manager, Gregg Talley, CAE, credited San Antonio’s expansive, yet walkable meetings landscape, “The addition to the convention center and the construction of the new Grand Hyatt made the package perfect for us; plus the proximity of hotels to the convention campus and the relative closeness of the convention center and the Alamodome is ideal. The River Walk as a close, comfortable attraction was an added bonus.” The conjunction of the 600,000-square-foot Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center with the neighboring Alamodome provides an unbeatable abundance of flexible space to accommodate numerous setups and breakouts.
Added Talley, "The professional team in San Antonio is incredible and made this convention a pleasure to plan and then execute on site. With the weather challenge, we all swung into Plan B and the team just kept rolling to make it all happen and work for our attendees. I cannot speak highly enough of the quality partners in San Antonio who understand what we need to be successful and then work to make it so!"
Traditionally, AA holds an international convention every five years, the most recent was in Toronto in 2005 and the next will be in Atlanta in 2015. San Antonio’s meeting scene is ideal for large-scale conventions like AA. With more than 42,000 hotel rooms and an extended River Walk that runs straight through the downtown meeting core, San Antonio is more desirable than ever.

For more on San Antonio, go to www.visitsanantonio.com.