In the meantime, planning is well underway at the Bureau for the Professional Convention Management Association's (PCMA) Annual Meeting in January of 2000.

These two events will bring thousands of influential meeting planners to San Francisco, giving them an opportunity to experience first-hand all the reasons why they should bring their business to "Everyone's Favorite City." The SFCVB expects that the results will be millions of dollars in revenue for San Francisco's tourism industry, the largest industry in the city.

"Although San Francisco gets invited to host many industry conventions because of its popularity, the Bureau is very selective with the organizations we host. These types of events are very time consuming and require considerable financial investment on the part of the Bureau and the hospitality community." said SFCVB President John Marks.

In recent years, the Bureau hosted MPI's Professional Education Conference in January of 1997, the American Society of Association Executives' (ASAE) Annual Meeting in 1994 and the Travel

Industry of America's (TIA) Pow Wow trade show for international tour operators in 1992, all of which were considered extremely successful.

San Francisco has a pattern of drawing record-breaking attendance for groups meeting at Moscone Convention Center and the city's hotels. The Convention & Visitors Bureau hopes the pattern will continue and break PCMA's record, welcoming approximately 2,500 attendees. PCMA was last held in San Francisco in 1986 and had an attendance of 1,293.

'tSan Francisco is known as the West Coast center for medical meetings, which are well represented in PCMA's membership. With PCMA's membership expanding into other industries, this is an opportunity for exposure in fields such as high tech and other industries," said Doug Neilson, SFCVB vice president, conventions.

One of the activities planned during PCMA is a ceremonial groundbreaking for the new expansion to Moscone Convention Center at the corner of Fourth and Howard streets.

MPI's World Education Congress will bring over 1,000 corporate meeting planners, clients and potential clients who are "extremely critical in generating short term and top revenue yielding meetings and convention business for San Francisco," according to Neilson. "The timing will be perfect to showcase the new Moscone West convention center facility which will have been open just a few months by then."