Anchorage Attracts Off-Season Convention Attendees.

• Author: SAUNDERS, STACEY

What does Anchorage have in common with Honolulu, New Orleans and San Diego? Answer: It is a popular destination for conventions--in the winter.

"Eighty-one percent of our convention business occurs between fall and spring," declares Joy Maples, director of communications for the Anchorage Convention and Visitors Bureau. With hotel space virtually unavailable during the summer, a growing number of national and international professional, technological and trade conventions occur during what the visitor industry refers to as "off-season," which Maples prefers to call the "Fall/Winter/Spring" season.

Many organizations award convention sites through a highly competitive bid process. While ACVB staff provide the facts, figures, costs, promotional literature--and don moose costumes at convention booths--residents and former visitors have the enthusiasm to convince their colleagues and associates to come North during the coldest time of the year.

Alaskans "don't apologize for the winter weather. They say 'Yes it's cold and it's wonderful!'" says Maples. ACVB is excited by the diverse conferences scheduled. In fact, Maples reports that ACVB is scheduling conventions into May 2006.

Upcoming Conventions

Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers Photovoltaic Consultants Society: Many have not heard of Photovoltaics, also known as PV; they have heard of solar energy. As retired NASA PV engineer Moe Forestieri, a consultant and administrative assistant to the PVCS, explains, "Photovoltaic is a technical term for solar cell, a device that converts light into electricity. Solar cells in combination with rechargeable batteries have been used as a primary power source in almost every unmanned satellite, the American Skylab Space Station, Russian MIR and the new International Space Station.

IEEE conferences, held in the United States and around the world, have joined scientists, engineers, inventors and business people in promoting use of this technology in terrestrial applications. The IEEEPVCS will hold its 28th annual international conference in Anchorage Sept. 17 to Sept. 22.

Plans to hold the conference in Anchorage began four years ago when Forestieri, an Ohio resident, visited his son who worked at the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park. Alaska's landscape, recreational opportunities and the warm hospitality displayed by ACVB and Hilton staff during a familiarization trip convinced the conference organizers to select Anchorage as this year's...