I've said it before. I'll say it again. I'm proud to be the President and CEO of your San Diego Convention Center.

Our purpose is to serve as the region's premier gathering place to generate economic impact for the San Diego region. Our promise is to provide our clients and guests outstanding customer service, so that they'll want to return to San Diego over and over again.

This facility has been a leader in the convention and meetings industry for 29 years this November. The San Diego Convention Center team has been at the forefront of many innovative business practices, including sustainability in meetings and catering, as well as creating a place for the community to gather.

The Convention Center has also been "the office" for our staff, whose numbers include over 400 full-time and part-time men and women, who benefit from living wages we offer. In addition, our business supports the jobs of hundreds of food and beverage workers, as well as the staffs of our in-house partner telecomm and audio-visual teams. And we can't forget the men and women of our eight partner labor groups who assist us in the building of "small cities" each week, which become conventions, meetings and community events that bring millions in economic benefit for the region each year.

It's because of this work that we have been recognized in the month of October with a number of prestigious awards.

Best of the West

The first was the Gold Award for Best Convention Center in the Western United States by the 2018 Prevue Visionary Awards – in short, "Best of the West."

We received the honorable designation from the Prevue Visionary Awards during the IMEX Convention on October 15. It's the first time they've included a category for convention centers, specifically recognizing venues that are forward-thinking and innovative. The annual awards acknowledge destinations, hotels and resorts, cruise lines, convention and visitors bureaus, convention centers and airlines of the industry. Prevue’s meeting and incentive planner audience and esteemed Advisory Board voted for winners in 30 categories. We appreciate this vote recognizing our work in being leaders and innovators, especially when it comes to sustainability.

Public Relations Society of America Silver Bernays

Soon after, on October 25, we received a prestigious public relations accolade that we are very proud of. It's the direct result of our core values of courage and collaboration in practice. We earned the 2018 PRSA Silver Bernays Mark of Excellence Award in the category of Integrated Communications. This was for our work in facilitating a global-communications plan related to this year's Comic-Con. For the first time, we worked with a collaborative group of stakeholders, region-wide to shut down Harbor Drive to ensure safety and a better attendee experience at Comic-Con, without impeding public access.

The plan was a year in the making and required behind-the-scenes efforts by the staff of the San Diego Convention Center, the City of San Diego, the Port of San Diego, City of San Diego Police and Harbor Police, as well as the organizers of Comic-Con International.

As you can see from this tweet, the fans were very appreciative.

San Diego Press Club Excellence in Journalism

It takes a village to keep your Convention Center running at nearly 70 percent occupancy. Our in-house Communications Team is responsible for telling our stories, including managing the blog which you are reading right now.

They used their skills to tell the story of our major infrastructure projects over the past two years, including the one that was hard to miss: the Sails Pavilion roof replacement. The entire six-month project was documented with two cameras and resulted in a video that earned first place in the 2018 San Diego Press Club Excellence in Journalism Award.

Funding for the project came in the form of a historic $25.5 million loan was acquired for this project as well as seven other capital improvement projects to enhance the venue. The total cost of the roof replacement, new water cannons for the fire-suppression system and concrete flooring totaled $16.7 million. New LED lighting, which was funded by the Convention Center, was the final touch to the new and improved space. Watch the video below to experience the behind-the-scenes footage of the construction project over a five-month period.

We have a lot of stories to tell here at the San Diego Convention Center. We hope you will encourage your neighbors to sign up for our blog. Our stories are designed to educate you on who we are, what we do and how we benefit the region.