The American Society of Association Executives & The Center for Association Leadership held their Annual Meeting & Exposition in Boston August 19 – 22.

ASAE & The Center estimate that during their Annual Meeting & Exposition, attendance was over 6,000.

This translates into more than $6.6 million spent by the delegates during their stay.

Add to this the estimated $7.5 million spent by ASAE, sponsors and hosts and total was $14.1 million for their four day meeting and exposition in Boston.

More than half of the attendees were meeting & convention executives, the second highest executive attendance in the history of the meeting, only a few hundred executives short of the record set at the 1995 annual meeting held in Washington, DC.

ASAE & The Center estimates that approximately 20% of executives attending an ASAE & The Center meeting will book their own meetings in the host city over the next five years. By hosting ASAE & The Center’s meeting, Boston can expect to see more than $1.4 billion in future convention business.

The last time this group met in Boston was 1996. It was brought back this year so that meeting professionals and delegates could experience the city’s new hotels, venues and convention facilities firsthand.

“ASAE & The Center for Association Leadership is one of three major industry meetings coming to the new Boston”, said Patrick B. Moscaritolo, President & CEO of the Greater Boston Convention & Visitors Bureau.

The Student & Youth Travel Association (SYTA), has chosen to meet in Boston in September, 2006. Tour operator members of SYTA account for almost $2 billion in student and youth travel annually, providing trips for over 1.5 million participants.

The National Business Travel Association (NBTA) will hold their annual meeting in Boston in 2007. NBTA represents over 2,500 corporate travel managers and travel service providers, who collectively manage and direct more than $170 billion of expenditures within the business travel industry.

“Industry conventions are particularly important for Boston”, Moscaritolo pointed out. “Not just for the immediate economic impact they have when they are here, but because their attendees represent the nation’s leading travel buyers and planners. Clearly ASAE & The Center’s meeting will benefit the Boston visitor industry for years to come as meeting planners book Boston’s convention centers, hotels and special event venues for their future meetings.”