Produce Marketing Association Convention In Houston

[ricco67]

This past weekend, Houston was the host to The Produce Marketing Association. From what I was told, this was a last minute switch (by convention standards) from its original site in New Orleans and it is the first time in 20 years that the city has hosted this 17, 000 strong organization.

After dealing with quite a number of people from the convention, quite a few interesting observations started to come out:

They had hoped that Houston would be added to the

[nativehou]

I drove past the GRB yesterday, saw the crowds from the convention and was thinking how incredible that area's going to be in just a year or two. If we can successfully pull off a convention with 17,000 attendees now, just wait until the park, the Pavillion, and all the other buildings in the area are done. I know it's been said repeatedly on the forum, but geez it's exciting for the city.

[native_Houstonian]

Being in the produce industry, we were very pleased with the job that Houston did for this convention. Our out of town guests were pleased as well, but had some of the same complaints - not enough rooms near the GRB and having to take taxis everywhere. However, some of the parties that were hosted at Club Venue and Sambuca were great and I think a lot of people had a good time. I was, however a bit disappointed that so many of the clubs and restaurants that were downtown a few years ago have closed up and the ones that did reopen really did not appeal to the convention crowd. Other than that, we had good responses.

According to the PMA website, though, the next convention in Houston won't be until 2012.

Edited October 15, 2007 by native_Houstonian