Baltimore Convention Center

room for new patients, and they would come here.” The facility also became a warehouse space to house stockpiles of personal protective equipment that the government would dispense throughout the state, as well as a COVID-19 testing site and eventual vaccination distribution zone. Those uses occupied the facility continuously from March of 2021. Providing this necessary and essential service to their community was fulfilling, but took a toll on the convention center. Daidakis notes, “The field hospital officially wound down and went cold on June 15, 2021.” And now a new chapter for BCC begins. Initially, the convention center faced hesitation from potential clients who were apprehensive about hosting events in the same building where patients of the virus were housed. “The perception was very concerning to them, even though there was quite a separation from where they were,” says Daidakis. With the government dismantling the hospital and redistributing the PPE to other warehouse options, the staff at the Baltimore Convention Center are now in the throes of preparing to have a full house again. “We have been out of commission in terms of what we were meant to do for so long that, just like a car that’s been parked for a year and a half, it gets a little rusty,” Daidakis admits. “We’re in the process of regrouping with our teams and refreshing some of the protocols and teaching them some of the new protocols that we have because of the new way we’re going to be servicing events based on what happened with COVID.” Over 60 members of the staff have become Certified Custodial Technicians through ISSA, the World-Wide Cleaning Industry Association. In September of 2020 the Center was granted the GBAC STARTM accreditation for facilities. GBAC, the Global Biorisk Advisory Council, is