Business View Magazine - October 2016 145
Regarding its competition, Daidakis reveals that Phila-
delphia is the Center’s closest competitor. “And they’re
double our size,” she says ruefully. “Washington D.C.
built a whole new building that’s double our size. Even
Nashville has a brand new building that is starting to
attract some of the same business we are. It doesn’t
mean that we still can’t hold multiple events and large
events, but it does mean that we have to look at op-
portunities to see what we can do to improve what we
have, either in size or services, to accommodate the
new generation of conventions and trade shows.”
In pursuit of that goal, Daidakis says that the City of
Baltimore, the Maryland Stadium Authority, and other
vested civic entities have requested a conceptual de-
sign and engineering study to further examine the next
steps for the Baltimore Convention Center to ensure
that it is meeting the needs of its clients and keep-
ing pace with industry developments. “Is it space; is it
something else?” she asks, rhetorically. “We want to
know is the Center big enough and if it’s not, then, what
would it take to capture that next level of business, or
to hold onto what we have, because some events are
growing and are we going to have some events say,
‘We love Baltimore, but we can’t be there anymore be-
cause our programs have changed or grown?’”
