New name & brand announced for Conference & Event Center Niagara Falls

Destination Niagara USA announced Wednesday that, effective immediately, it has changed the name of the Conference & Event Center Niagara Falls to the Niagara Falls Convention Center.

Destination Niagara USA assumed operation of the Niagara Falls Convention Center on Jan. 1 as part of a five-year management agreement with USA Niagara Development Corp., which owns the building. Since then, Destination Niagara USA has been working with the Niagara Falls Convention Center team to ensure a smooth transition, and to outline new and improved marketing and sales plans.

John Percy, president and CEO of Destination Niagara USA, said, “For several months in advance of assuming this management role, we have had in-depth conversations with the internal sales team, as well as meeting planners across the industry, to determine how to best move forward to effectively market this building. The consistent answer was that ‘conference’ is misleading and limiting for the types of events that we are actually able to host in this 116,000-square-foot facility.”

What’s in a name – conference center vs. convention center? Destination Niagara USA said:

√ Conference centers typically refer to smaller properties with an intimate feel and single-use meeting space.

√ Convention centers focus on larger-sized groups and tradeshows. These groups maximize economic impact with multiple-day stay patterns and weekday meeting cycles, which are optimum for hotels. In contrast, conference centers focus on meetings and seminars with only one- to two-day meeting patterns.

√ Convention centers focus on size-appropriate, citywide conventions that benefit all destination partners, including hotels, restaurants and attractions. Conference centers tend to focus solely on meeting space.

√ Convention centers offer a variety of spaces, including exhibition halls, meeting rooms, auditorium-style space and banquet meal rooms. Conference centers are more often referred to as singularly focused space.

Plus, “Niagara Falls Convention Center” ranks higher than “Conference Center” in terms of online keywords and search visibility. 

“The Niagara Falls USA brand, which we launched in 2017, has been extremely effective in all of our marketing efforts, and we are excited to extend that brand and level of marketing quality to this building,” Percy said. “We believe that, with a new brand focus, we can reintroduce the Niagara Falls Convention Center to the meetings and conventions world to see even greater success.”

USA Niagara Development Corp. President Anthony Vilardo said, “Destination Niagara USA was selected as the operator of this facility because of the shared mission and synergies with the Niagara Falls Convention Center. The research supporting Destination Niagara USA’s initiative to rebrand our facility reflects a greater need for strategic decision-making as we emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Over the next several months, new and more prominent signage reflecting the name change will go up on the building’s exterior. The interior will also be rebranded, along with all sales and marketing materials, including updates to the website nfconventioncenter.com.

The mission of Destination Niagara USA is to expand the economic prosperity of the Niagara Falls USA communities by generating individual and group visitation. For more information, visit niagarafallsusa.com.