Business View Magazine
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Coliseum also holds one of the largest crawfish festi-
vals in America, over two weekends every April.
Meanwhile, the Convention Center hosts trade shows,
major indoor events, conferences, graduations, etc.
“It’s not uncommon for us to have five or six different
events going on at the same time on site, either on the
grounds, in the arena, or multiple events going on in
our convention center,” says McDonnell.
This time of year is particularly busy, as the Center is
in “graduation mode” according to McDonnell. “We’ve
got the largest community college system in the coun-
try located here in the State of Mississippi and they’re
holding their annual commencement that will attract
over 9,000 guests and over a thousand graduates.
We’ll have a college graduation taking place and then
about a dozen high school graduations that will be
spread out over two weeks,” he reports.
Now that the natural and man-made disasters are, it is
hoped, far behind it, McDonnell believes that the next
step for the Center is in the area of hotel development
right on its newly-acquired beach property. “There’s so
much business out there; it’s a multi-billion dollar in-
dustry and we can cater to so much of it because of
the flexibility of our facility,” he says. “And we’re seeing
more and more conventions that want to come here,
but until we achieve a headquarter hotel, it makes it
difficult for them to locate here. We’re in the process
of putting an RFP out, as we speak,” he continues.
“Once that starts, we feel that other properties will
