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- Number one choice for conferences -
Unbeatable facilities, prime location and good transport links give Chicago the lead in a highly competitive industry

The conference capital of the world, Chicago hosted a record-breaking 35,000 conventions, trade shows and smaller business meetings last year, attended by 30 million people. Its impressive array of high-quality venues, meeting and exhibition facilities, are backed up by a lively hospitality industry. Heavy investment has been targeted at hotels and restaurants to serve the swelling ranks of business visitors who, together, spend an annual $5.3 billion. Chicago’s conference credentials have been established largely on the back of its prime location. The city lies at the intersection of the busiest interstate highway system in the US and the nation’s railways. The surrounding area is also one of the most densely populated, with 16 per cent of all Americans located within a 300 mile radius. O’Hare International airport, one of the world’s busiest, serves as a gateway between the east and west coasts.

The conference business is fiercely competitive and to retain its coveted position as number one location in the US, Chicago must fight off the competing attractions of Atlanta, Las Vegas, Orlando and others. The very first convention in Chicago was held in 1847. The Chicago Convention and Tourism Bureau (CCTB), which is responsible for bringing conventions, trade shows and meetings to the city, dates back in one form or another to 1943. Its president, James Reilly, says Chicago needs to build on its strengths. “We are a bedrock convention and trade show town and we must not forget that,” he says. “We should keep developing it, so we will probably need another building – not so much for the big shows but to give us alternatives for the medium to small ones. We’re good at this, so we need to do as much of it as we can.” Supercomm, the premier annual communications and information technology show, recently announced its decision to move from Atlanta to Chicago from 2004, a vote of confidence in the city. Proposals to expand the massive McCormick Place facility by up to 800,000 sq ft will create additional exhibition space, meeting rooms and a ballroom. The $800 million programme is likely to be financed through a bond issue. The McCormick Place centre is the country’s largest exhibition and meeting facility. Last year it hosted 82 shows and attracted 3.3 million visitors. It already has a staggering 2.2 million sq ft of space.

The former East Building, now known as Lakeside Centre at McCormick Place, is designed to meet the needs of small to medium-sized conventions and trade shows with 44 meeting rooms, two event halls and a ballroom. A landmark on Lake Michigan since 1916, Navy Pier re-opened as a world-class recreation and exposition centre in 1995. It is promoting its alternative venue, the Festival Hall, which is designed to serve small to medium-sized meetings. Many of the larger hotels in Chicago, such as the Hilton, Hyatt and Marriott, have their own facilities. The Hyatt Regency McCormick Place Conference Centre, scheduled to open its doors in the autumn, is another addition to the McCormick campus and will offer 25 meeting rooms. “The Millennium was a flop in many ways, but for the meetings business it was like gold as everyone wanted to stage a meeting at this unique time. We captured a lot of that business,” says James Reilly. A key part of the CCTB’s job is to entice more tourists into the city. “Trade shows fill hotel rooms, and the shows do much better in the spring and autumn, so from a business point of view we have to pump up our leisure business to fill the hotel rooms,” says Mr Reilly. The tourism authorities are trying to capture a bigger share of the short trip or long weekend market. Mr Reilly believes there is plenty of scope for attracting more non-business visitors. “Chicago has always done leisure business, but we can do a lot more. The hotels can fill 25,000 rooms with radiologists, but they must also cater to the leisure market and they are ready to do that.”

- Rich symphony of sights and sound greets visitors -

Surprisingly for one of the biggest cities in the US, Chicago’s Office of Tourism, part of the Department of Cultural Affairs, opened only in 1985. Perhaps the city didn’t really need to blow its own trumpet too much – that role was perfectly played by the countless musicians who made Chicago the nation’s jazz centre in the 1920s. Chicago is still renowned for clubs where you can hear some of the finest jazz anywhere in the country. One of the oldest is the Green Mill, which opened in 1907 and where to Louis Armstrong played. The Blues was born in the Mississippi Delta and then migrated north to make its home in Chicago. The city is also the base for the world-famous Chicago Symphony Orchestra. The Art Institute of Chicago has an astonishingly rich French Impressionist and post-Impressionist collection, while works by American artists Grant Wood and Edward Hopper are US treasures. “We have great entertainment,” says Office of Tourism director Dorothy Coyle. “This city is an incredible combination of things – it has stunning architecture, a beautiful waterfront, great music and a vibrant cultural community.” Visitors will be awestruck by the city’s design.

The world’s first skyscraper, the Home Insurance Building, was built here in 1885. Long since demolished, it was the catalyst for innovative new architecture such as the Sears Building which, for some years, was the world’s tallest building at 1,450 ft. It is still there, as are several other skyscrapers over 1,100 ft, while the 90-acre Merchandise Mart is America’s largest municipal building after the Pentagon. For shoppers there is the Magnificent Mile, otherwise known as North Michigan Avenue, arguably the premier retail strip in the US. A Chicago landmark since 1916, Navy Pier on Lake Michigan is one of the top tourist attractions in the Midwest. A huge Ferris wheel looms over the pier, which re-opened six years ago as a recreation and exhibition centre. The pier’s newest addition is the gleaming $24 million Chicago Shakespeare Theatre. Modelled loosely on the Swan in Stratford-upon-Avon, the seven-storey building has balconies that look out over Lake Michigan. The theatre launched its inaugural Shakespeare season two years ago and has been shattering box-office records ever since. Drama is popular in Chicago and new venues have been carved out of old buildings. The venerable Goodman Theatre, for example, has been given a new $46 million complex. We have Chicago to thank for the deep pan pizza, but the city’s gastronomic reputation does not rest on this. Its multi-ethnic population is reflected in the huge variety of restaurants, which range from Chinese to Ukrainian cuisine. And Chicago’s reputation for steaks and ribs brings in diners from near and far.