Reopening for Moscone Center set
Moscone Center is set to reopen this fall for conferences, another sign of economic recovery after a brutal year for San Francisco’s tourism industry, the lifeblood of the city’s economy.
The American Society for Surgery of the Hand’s annual meeting will be held Sept. 30 to Oct. 2, the first confirmed commitment since the pandemic devastated events. The event has a budget over $3.5 million and will have both inperson events and online video access.
“We believe we can hold an event safely,” said Mark Anderson, CEO of the American Society for Surgery of the Hand. “We have every reason to believe that close to 100% of people who come and the people who support the meeting will be vaccinated significantly in advance in the last week of September.”
He said 99% of the group’s over 4,000 members, who are all doctors, have already been vaccinated. Convention suppliers expect to be vaccinated by June. The event includes research presentations and education on best practices for all surgeries ranging from the fingertips to the shoulder, he said.
Up to 1,500 people are expected to attend, down from as many as 3,700 attendees anticipated prepandemic — the event was booked five or six years ago, Anderson said. The
economic impact is projected to be $8 million. It’s a relatively small event for Moscone Center, whose largest 2019 event was the 171,000person Dreamforce tech conference.
There’s still a major hurdle facing all private events in California, from a tiny wedding to a megaconvention. California remains the only U.S. state without public health guidelines for private events.
“We are working on detailed guidance and will provide an update when we have more to share,” the California Department of Public Health said.
Anderson said he was confident the guidelines will be finalized before his event is held.
Leisure and business tourism spending in San Francisco plunged by $8 billion last year compared with 2019, in the worst period for travel in modern history. Moscone Center hasn’t held events for a year and has been converted into a city Department of Emergency Management operations center, homeless housing and a mass vaccination site.
San Francisco Travel, the city’s tourism bureau, is forecasting no major conventions this fall and overall attendance to be 75% below 2019 levels. Other smaller events are being booked, the bureau said.
Anderson said the event’s finances are protected in part because the convention center and hotels have waived all potential financial penalties, such as attrition fees for unused hotel rooms, he said. The event is booking rooms at the Marriott Marquis and Hilton San Francisco Union Square.
“We could mitigate some of our financial risk thanks in significant part to the wonderful folks at Moscone and the wonderful folks at the visitor bureau,” he said.
San Francisco remains one of the most expensive cities in the world to do business. Homelessness and safety remain concerns for some potential attendees, Anderson said. But weakness in the tourism market has made San Francisco and other cities a “buyer’s market” for event planners, Anderson said.
“Under prepandemic times, San Francisco is a challenge,” Anderson said. “It’s also an appealing city with lots of value.
“Within an hour’s drive of the city, there’s so much beauty and so many attractions,” he added.
Anderson said two major risks could block the event from happening: Another huge wave of infections and mass cancellations from around 800 surgeons who teach and present the bulk of the conference’s material.
“I don’t think that will happen,” he said. “People are definitely more optimistic.”