City leaders are excited about the National Urban League’s decision to bring its 2016 conference to Baltimore next summer.
They held a news conference Monday to officially announce the event, which will bring 13,000 attendees to the city the first week in August and have an estimated economic impact of about $4.2 million.
The National Urban League first announced its selection of Baltimore last summer.
“This conference is unusual because it leaves this building,” Downtown Partnership CEO Kirby Fowler said, referring to the Baltimore Convention Center. “It’ll go out into the community and connect with this community, and you don’t usually see that with conventions that come into town.”
“It’s a good time for them to be here and help us to promote our strengths as well as to examine our weaknesses and our challenges,” he added.
Bernard C. “Jack” Young and Rep. Elijah Cummings said they hope the conference will show people that Baltimore is more than the burning CVS/pharmacy they saw on national news networks during the rioting last April.
“We’re looking forward to showing off Baltimore to the world,” said City Council President Bernard C. “Jack” Young.
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