The Orange County Convention Center (OCCC) is the second-largest convention facility in North America and provides approximately $3 billion in economic impact to Central Florida annually. In recent years, the Convention Center has averaged nearly 200 meetings, conferences, banquets, conventions and trade shows attracting more than 1.4 million attendees to the region each year.
Orange County’s guiding principles of innovation, collaboration and inclusiveness is a testament of their commitment to the community and how they worked with the National Guard, Florida Office of Emergency Management, Florida Department of Health, Orange County Government, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office to utilize their remote lots for a federal COVID-19 test site for FEMA. Logistics was handled by OCCC General Manager David Ingram and Executive Director Mark Tester, who joined the organization in February.
The Marketing and Communications team utilized media partners, social media, website technology, community relationships and all tourism partners to amplify the message of a small but important population of eligible residents who could qualify for testing – first responders, healthcare workers and residents 65 and older.
While working with the necessary organizations to create a test site, OCCC rescheduled as many shows as possible and continue to keep the public informed through constant live updates on their digital channels.