COLUMBUS, Ohio — Columbus is this year’s site for a major meeting of association executives.

• Columbus won an aggressive bid to be the host city 
• The meeting is expected to bring in significant revenue and attract future big business
• It will be held at the Columbus Convention Center, August 10-13

The ASAE Annual Meeting & Exposition, which will take place August 10-13, was previously held in large major cities, such as L.A., Chicago and Atlanta, and next year, the group will head to Las Vegas.

John Graham is the president of the American Society of Association Executives.  He has been with the organization for 16 years and spent a great deal of time in the national space.

He says associations are growing in both numbers and the meetings they’re having.

“The growth that we see in the association space is continual,” said Graham.

And, those associations include just about every industry — from the Realtors Association to the Bar and Medical Associations.

“We call ourselves the association for associations. The people who are members, and we have about over 46,000 members, the people who are members run leading trade associations and professional societies,” said Graham.

Columbus put in an aggressive bid to host the meeting, edging out cities like San Francisco.

“Most people don’t appreciate that the meetings business is a $325 billion business a year,” said Graham.

Graham was awed by a number of things Columbus had to offer, which influenced his decision to choose it as the meeting’s host site.

He took special notice of Columbus’ downtown rebuilding, remodels and renovations—the Convention Center, in particular.

But it’s the city’s cohesion that impressed him the most.

“When we pick a city, we pick a city based on three things— the airport, meaning the lift -the availability of flights-, convention center and the hotel package,” said Graham. “And then the icing on the cake is how well the city appears to work together...and the icing here was very rich.”

The meeting will undoubtedly have a significant impact on the city of Columbus.

“Cities call us the Super Bowl of association meetings,” said Graham.

The meeting is expected to bring big revenue, as well as attract future big business.

While our delegates are here, they’ll be here for approximately three or four days— alone they’ll spend $16 million over that weekend,” said Graham. “But I think more impactful and more importantly, 20% of the people who attend this meeting will choose Columbus as a destination for their meeting over the next 5 years, and that could mean as much as half a billion dollars…$500 million worth of business for the city of Columbus.”

Although the meeting is primarily business in nature, there will be some time for entertainment, as well as the opportunity to explore Columbus.

On the agenda is a reception at COSI, a dine-around and concerts by John Legend at Nationwide Arena and Brad Paisley at Express Live!.