Note: Source data for our Best Convention Cities survey was compiled in November and December of 2019. We will take a deeper dive into changing site selection factors in light of Covid 19 before the next survey is released.

Walkability, affordablilty of hotel rooms, ease-of-access, safety and tourism options are city assets that make for a good convention. We’ve measured these things for 166 cities nationwide to come up with our rankings. 

Smaller, so-called “second-tier” cities gained ground in the rankings because of more attractive hotel rates and not surprisingly, that trend may accelerate in the future with safety concerns around COVID-19. Pittsburgh, Boise and Tampa are three examples. All have affordable room rates and above average scores in most other areas like safety. Pittsburgh excelled in the tourism ranking factor which also considers a city’s parks. A few other cities in our top 25 with an abundance of city parks are St Paul, Madison, Wisconsin and Portland, Oregon. 

*SEE: Explanation of the criteria used for the ranking of the best convention cities in 2020

Note: Only cities with convention centers are eligible for the annual top 25 list.  Click here to see the ranking of all 166 USA cities used in the report.

Sources: https://factfinder.census.gov/faces/nav/jsf/pages/searchresults.xhtml
https://censtats.census.gov/cbpnaic/cbpnaic.shtml
https://www.bestplaces.net
https://www.flightsfrom.com/
https://www.faa.gov/airports/planning_capacity/passenger_allcargo_stats/passenger/media/cy15-cargo-airports.pdf
https://www.gsa.gov/portal/content/104877
https://www.walkscore.com/
https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/data-access/land-based-station-data/land-based-datasets/climate-normals/1981-2010-normals-data https://pennenvironment.org/sites/environment/files/reports/Trouble%20in%20the%20Air%20vPA.pdf