EAST MOLINE, Ill. — As COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations continue to decline throughout the Quad Cities region, conferences and conventions are returning to the area.
Those events and business meetings mostly stopped during the worst of the pandemic. But now, venues like the Bend Xpo Center in East Moline are booking up again.
A day with cars in the parking lot is a good day at the Bend Xpo Center.
"Right now we are in probably one of our busiest seasons in 2022," said Brittany Haas, the director of exposition & sales at the Xpo Center.
The Xpo Center is so new that Haas does not know what a normal year looks like.
"We've had everything but normal events happen, because we don't know what a normal expectation would be post-pandemic because we weren't here pre-pandemic," Haas said.
Haas does see a renewed demand for in-person connection again.
"The event we have here this week, they were 100% virtual last year," Haas said. "They did come back to an in person meeting this week. It is much smaller, it’s about a third the size that they normally do."
"Every market is a little bit different," said Dave Herrell, president and CEO of Visit Quad Cities. "You know, the fact that we’re not solely reliant on that one big box convention center facility actually plays to our advantage."
Herrell said the days of having one big convention are over, suggesting a turn to several smaller events instead.
"Meetings and events are a big business," Herrell said. "You know probably in the realm of $206 billion industry in 2022, and it’s gonna continue to uptick."
Herrell said Visit Quad Cities is using data to track who is visiting the Quad Cities and when they are here, which informs decisions about how to best target conventions and events to them.
"We can also speak to them," Herrell said. "We can advertise to them. We can build those relationships with them."
Herrell also sees the convention industry as a whole starting to change.
"It’s going to be some clients wanting in person and virtual," Herrell said. "It’s gonna be small stuff. It’s gonna be large stuff."
The industry is taking a creative approach for an industry that isn't turning back.
"I think if anything the pandemic has led us to be more creative with when weather comes up now, because we turned some Zoom meetings on and it’s like they’re here," Haas said.
Staff at the Bend Xpo Center are working on scheduling only in-person events this year, not hybrid events like in 2021.
Haas said the Bend Xpo Center has events and conferences scheduled through at least the next several months.