Hartford, Conn., may be best-known as the insurance capitol of the United States, but given the record attendance at the National Association of Oil Heating Service Managers national convention and trade show, it may be turning into a hot spot for meetings as well. More than 4,500 people attended the event, held May 14 to 18 at the CT Expo Center. This represents a 20 percent increase over previous years.
So happy is NAOHSM about its 2002 conference that it has decided to return to Hartford in 2004, which thrills the Greater Hartford Convention and Visitors Bureau because, as GHCVB president H. Scott Phelps says, "Their decision demonstrates Hartford’s growing popularity as a convention and meeting destination." The city is re-engineering itself to be just that, with a new 540,000-square-foot Connecticut Convention Center scheduled to open by 2005, new hotel construction, and the development of the Adriaen’s Landing entertainment district.
