By Ray Smith, Exhibit City News
Volunteers from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority celebrated Global Meetings Industry Day in advance of May 6 with a charity event benefitting SafeNest, a nonprofit organization supporting battered and abused women.
The Las Vegas meetings and events community came together on April 30 at Universal Horror Unleashed at the Area 51 entertainment complex in Las Vegas. Steve Hill, president and CEO of the convention authority, delivered brief remarks on the importance of the community service initiative, along with Kim Scott, general manager of Universal Horror Unleashed, and Liz Ortenburger, CEO of SafeNest.
Sales representatives from local hotels, resorts and meeting venues assembled care kits with job-readiness essentials to support domestic violence survivors entering the workforce.
Led by the Events Industry Council (EIC), the global voice of the business events industry, Global Meetings Industry Day underscores the impact of meetings, conventions and events on local economies.
Hosting an in-person event, convention or tradeshow stimulates a region’s economy by attracting visitors who fill hotels, spend money at nearby restaurants and stores, and bring new revenue to the destination.
Las Vegas welcomed 6 million business travelers in 2025, according to LVCVA. Meetings and conventions are essential to Southern Nevada’s tourism infrastructure, helping fill the city’s 150,000 hotel rooms Sunday through Thursday, the slower days of the week.
The convention and tradeshow sector generates about $16 billion economic impact annually and creates more than 70,000 jobs in the community.
