Oklahoma City lands 25,000-delegate national Baptist convention for 2018
A last-minute opportunity to land the 2018 National Baptist Congress of Christian Education conference to Oklahoma City is set to bring 25,000 delegates and fill up every downtown hotel.
Mike Carrier, president of the Oklahoma City Convention and Visitors, credited Rev. J.A. Reed Jr., pastor at Fairview Missionary Baptist Church, with persuading his fellow executive board to give Oklahoma City a shot at hosting the conference.
“They were scheduled to go to Memphis,” Carrier said. “Memphis was not able to take care of the group. As they looked around, this year they were in St. Louis and their first choice was to stay there next year. But St. Louis didn’t have the dates available.”
Carrier worked with the city and area hoteliers to create a requested room block for the conference, which is set for June 17 to June 25, 2018. The contracted room block is 2,500 rooms per night, though far more rooms will be booked beyond the contract minimum.
Some of the conference executives and delegates are expected to arrive in Oklahoma City days before the June 17 start. Carrier estimates the conference room nights will exceed 15,000 with an economic impact of $6 million.
For hoteliers like Brian Werkman, the conference is well timed. The former general manager of the Bricktown Holiday Inn Express is moving to the Hyatt Place being opened in Bricktown along with the AC by Marriott — all owned by NewcrestImage.
Both hotels are opening this fall.
“It’s a huge deal,” Werkman said. “June is not a time of year when we have a lot of events on our books. So we’re looking at a much more successful June and it will impact our entire year.”
Werkman said the conference is one of the first big events set for the new hotels.
“They’ve been traveling to Oklahoma City to scout the market for quite a while,” Werkman said. “The CVB started talking with us early and we’re anticipating a week of soldout rooms throughout
downtown.”
Carrier said his staff will be working with downtown restaurants and merchants to prepare them for the conference. The delegates, he said, often meet through the evening and like to dine late.
A glimpse of OKC’s future
The conference delegates also will get a glimpse of Oklahoma City’s future as a conference host with construction of the new convention center and Scissortail Park set to be underway and the streetcar system close to opening.
“We will definitely make sure they know about the new convention center,” Carrier said. “When they get here next year, most of the work may be finished on streetcar and they may be testing. But I don’t believe it will be operating yet. But being able to show we are proceeding with that will also give us a good opportunity bring them back at a later date.”
It’s that kind of thinking that is being applauded by Ward 7 Councilman John Pettis, who sees the predominantly black religious conference as just the start of business that could be brought to Oklahoma City.
“When I first got elected, one of the first meetings I had was with Mike Carrier and the Chamber,” Pettis said. “I had concerns the city wasn’t doing enough to attract minority conventions. I knew minority regional and national conventions bring millions of dollars into a city.”
Pettis estimates the top 25 African American conventions amount to a $1 billion impact.
“Rev. Reed, with him being a part of the National Baptist Congress U.S.A., he wanted it to come to Oklahoma City,” Pettis said. “He wanted to show off his city.”
More opportunities await Oklahoma City, Pettis said. During a recent visit to Las Vegas he observed three large minority conventions that included a black firefighters association, a black nurses group and a black sorority.
“Why not Oklahoma City? Why not try to attract those entities to Oklahoma City?” Pettis asked. “That’s what the push is. And having community people like Pastor Reed helping, we will get it done.”