Business View Magazine | January 2021

156 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE JANUARY 2021 AT A GLANCE SAVANNAH CONVENTION CENTER WHAT: A renowned convention, meetings, and special events venue WHERE: Hutchinson Island along the Savannah River in Georgia WEBSITE: www.savconventioncenter.com M arch 2020 marked the onset of a period that enforced a bizarre kind of communal isolation – a phenomenon that typically played itself out in the business world by way of the virtual meeting. But for the convention tourism/live events industry, the COVID-19 pandemic proved to be a particularly disruptive force. How could a sector completely reliant on the scheme of a shared physical space be expected to find a suitable alternative to carry out its purpose? For Georgia’s popular Savannah Convention Center (SCC), plans have been underway for years to expand the facility to meet enormous demand in an enormously popular city. So, while the rest of the industry hunkered down, the Savannah Convention Center buoyed by support from the State of Georgia moved ahead with plans to double the current 100,000-square- foot exhibit hall space, add a 40,000-square- ENTION CENTER Getting ahead of the boom