Tight Spaces: Alaska's Conventions Are Outgrowing Their Halls.

• Author: Campbell, Melissa
• Position: Statistical Data Included

Sales people working for the state's convention centers have learned to get a little more creative in doing their jobs these days.

There's only so much space in the state's convention centers, and space is generally booked years in advance. The larger hotels often have some meeting space. But sometimes it just isn't enough.

That's where creative space-hunting comes in. In Juneau, for example, the fish hatchery and the facilities atop the Mount Roberts Tramway have been used for gatherings. How does a meeting in the Sitka raptor center sound? Or an event at the Alaska State Fairgrounds in Palmer?

"We can use these when people are looking for a special place, and they can pull a theme into an event," said John Mazor, president of the Juneau Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Presidents of several of the state's convention centers say their cities have outgrown their convention meeting spaces and if their towns, and the state, want to compete in this fast-growing market, they have to expand.

While those in the industry say it's impossible to know exactly how much money is generated internationally through various conventions and meetings, they say it's easily a multibillion-dollar market. In one of the nation's largest convention-holding cities, for example, Chicago last year hosted nearly 7.6 million delegates who spent about $6.3 billion, according to the Chicago Convention and Tourism Bureau.

Those in Alaska's convention industry have no dreams of bringing in those kind of numbers, but many say adding square footage to local convention space would help their towns and the state grow.

As the state's largest convention site, Anchorage hosted nearly 102,000 delegates last year who generated an estimated $70 million in local spending on such things as travel, hotels, dinner and souvenirs, according to the Anchorage Convention and Visitors Bureau. Delegates last year spent about $12.5 million in Fairbanks and $8.1 million in Juneau, according to those convention bureaus.

With added hall space, and the service facilities to support it, the state could draw thousands more delegates who will spend millions more in local cities, bureau presidents say.

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