But even before the confetti dropped inside the stadium and a championship trophy was presented to Virginia coach Tony Bennett – flanked by his team and university administrators – many people were already asking “What’s next?” in terms of major events for our region.

The short answer is that Meet Minneapolis, and our Sports Minneapolis affiliate, has consistently asked that question every day. Events like the Final Four take years to attract and we can never stop asking that question if we want to have more shining moments in the future.

Continue to pursue high profile and lesser known events that fit well within our community
The great execution of events like the Final Four, Super Bowl, NCAA Women’s Volleyball Championships, X Games, and others begin the same way. There is an organization with an event that needs a home and we must first find that decision maker. The selection process varies depending on the individual event, however, constant follow up, presentations, site visits and other sales and marketing initiatives all play a part. Our team is currently pursuing hundreds of prospective events which materialize into the future as far out as 10-15 years. Meet Minneapolis and Sports Minneapolis have the systems in place to ensure we have events of all sizes and notoriety in our prospect pipeline. It's important to note that these events just don’t show up.

Continue to dedicate human and financial resources stewardship
You’ve heard me speak about the proficiency, professionalism and passion of our team on numerous occasions. Our goal, as leaders within Meet Minneapolis and Sports Minneapolis, is to make sure these individuals have the resources they need to be successful in a very competitive marketplace. That requires us to be good stewards of our resources and seek to maximize partnerships and relationships that can stretch our budgets. We consistently demonstrate a very favorable return on investment based on our results and ever-increasing number of sporting events.

Seek ways to strengthen existing successful partnerships
A vast majority of the major events we have hosted originate within Meet Minneapolis and Sports Minneapolis alongside key partners such as the University of Minnesota, our professional sports teams, the Minnesota Sports Facilities Authority, Target Center and others. We also have ongoing partnerships with our counterpart destination marketing organizations and Explore Minnesota Tourism. Our Sports Minneapolis advisory board has been diligently working to further define and expand our existing partnerships, as we move to the next phase of securing major events for the community. Stay tuned for some exciting news on that front in the coming weeks.

So, while some are just now beginning to ask the question “What’s next?” – our team has been doing that consistently over the years. And based on the results the community has seen, this seems to be the right question. Take a look at our current list of major events already planned for the rest of 2019.

MAY 20-22
American Industrial Hygiene Association Annual Conference & Expo | 4,400 attendees

JUNE 14-16
Americans for the Arts Annual Convention | 1,000 - 1,200 attendees

JUNE 18
CONCACAF Gold Cup | 20,000 attendees

JUNE 17-20
HITEC Conference | 5,500 attendees

JUNE 28 - JULY 4
USA Taekwondo National Championships | 10,875 attendees

JULY 11-15
Youth Gathering of the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod | 25,000 attendees

JULY 28-31
Polaris 2019 Dealers Sales Meeting - 65th Anniversary | 4,500 attendees

AUG 1-4
2019 Summer X Games

AUG 6-8
Knights of Columbus 2019 Supreme Council Annual Meeting | 2,500 attendees

AUG 8-10
2019 International Live Events Association Live | 350 attendees

SEP 22-25
Railway Interchange | 9,000 attendees

OCT 9-12
National Indian Education Association 50th Anniversary Convention | 1,500 attendees

NOV 11-16
American Evaluation Association Annual Conference | 3,000 attendees

*Attendance numbers are provided by partner organizations and are subject to adjustment based on meeting planner projections and post event results.

*Groups listed above are a selection of the more than 600 meetings and events that Meet Minneapolis and Sports Minneapolis bring to our region annually.