In 1819, prominent local citizen and town planner John Wilkinson proposed the name Syracuse for his home village in the marshy heart of New York State on the edge of Onondaga Lake.
Wilkinson was inspired by a poem describing the topography and environs of the ancient Sicilian city of Siracusa, which, like his village, included saltwater springs and a neighboring settlement called Salina. Baptized by Wilkinson and incorporated in 1825—the year the mighty Erie Canal opened—Syracuse would become synonymous with inspiration and good ideas.
Finding ready transport for its burgeoning salt industry via the empire-building Erie Canal, Syracuse quickly developed manufacturing muscle and key canal, rail and road connections. As salt manufacturing declined, industrial expansion and innovation carried Syracuse into the modern age, producing firsts including the traffic light, synthetic penicillin and the dentist’s chair, and birthing companies such as global HVAC leader The Carrier Corporation and medical device pioneer Welch Allyn.
With 44 private and state colleges in the region and a renowned local medical industry that includes hospitals, nursing facilities, outpatient centers and teaching facilities, Syracuse today is the economic, research and educational hub of Central New York—and as entrepreneurially minded as ever, with Lockheed Martin anchoring a planned $28 million nanotechnology research and development center and CenterState Corporation for Economic Opportunity (CenterState CEO) launched last year as a major new regional marketing and business development initiative.
Strategically located in the heart of New York and with access to over 60 million people within a 350-mile radius, including all major Northeast metropolitan population centers, Syracuse frequently rolls out the red carpet for meeting planners and attendees.
"We may have a competitive advantage based on our central location at the crossroads of I-90 and I-81, but it is our commitment to the customer experience that brings event planners back over and over again," says David Holder, president of the Syracuse CVB.
Like Syracuse itself, the CVB, perennially recognized for service excellence, is also taking innovative steps to boost business.
Energy Efficient
Routinely garnering its own meetings industry honors, Syracuse’s signature meeting facility, the multivenue Oncenter Complex, makes for a stellar congressional package. Complemented by the historic War Memorial Arena and the three distinctly different theaters of the Mulroy Civic Center, the state-of-the-art Nicholas J. Pirro Convention Center is versatility defined. With assets including the 65,000-square-foot Exhibition Hall, a strikingly beautiful atrium and lobby areas, a flexible 15,000-square-foot ballroom and connected 1,000-space parking garage, the Oncenter is in close proximity to three meetings-capable hotels: the 279-room Crowne Plaza Syracuse, the 235-room Syracuse University Hotel & Conference Center and the 159-room Genessee Grand Hotel, with 16 "Road Warrior" rooms included in its suite collection.
All three properties offer CVB-organized shuttle service, but according to Tracey Kegebein, vice president of sales and services for the Syracuse CVB, if there is one aspect of this otherwise complete and well-coordinated product package that gives planners pause, it is perceptions associated with the lack of an Oncenter-connected headquarters hotel. As Kegebein explains, however, the CVB is taking creative steps to answer this perception challenge.
"We are working jointly with Oncenter to hire a convention development director to sell meeting space at the convention center to multiproperty groups with 400 peak rooms or more, targeting at least a two-hotel play," she says.
Focused on national associations along with trade shows, corporate events and business meetings, the new position will be responsible for elevating Syracuse’s profile in association-centric Washington, D.C., and Chicago. As Kegebein explains, the CVB is also cultivating homegrown contacts.
"With such a rich local base of business, academic and research resources, we are meeting with local leaders to learn where they are going for conferences and meetings," she says. "It’s as much about selling from the inside out as selling from the outside in."
Another facet of Syracuse’s culture of innovation is environmental. The orange of Syracuse University may be the city’s signature stripe, but Syracuse also proudly flies the green flag. The Syracuse Center for Excellence, for example, symbolizes the city’s nationally recognized focus on advancing the environmental and energy systems of tomorrow. Opened in 2009, its LEED Platinum building provides laboratory and office space for research and business collaborations in core focus areas, including water resources and renewable energy. A leader in hosting environmental conferences, the Oncenter Complex itself is a showcase in sustainability, exhibiting a range of model green policies, practices and programs in its architecture and operations. It’s an approach that has given Oncenter national visibility in the green meetings market, a key part of its diverse annual booking base.
Bountiful Harvest
The Great New York State Fair is the signature annual event of Syracuse’s other main gathering facility: the 375-acre Empire Expo Center, featuring 300,000 square feet of meeting space. Representing an unbroken link to Central New York’s pre-industrial past, the event was founded in 1846 as an annual farmers’ exposition and is the nation’s oldest state fa ir. It was named one of 2011’s top 100 events in North America for tour buses by the American Bus Association. First introduced in Syracuse and a fixture since 1890, the 12-day fair, always ending on Labor Day, is one highlight of Syracuse’s year-round off-agenda calendar.
Called the "Eighth-Best Sporting City in America" without a major professional sports team by Sporting News, Syracuse is a major sports market draw, with numerous sporting facilities and assets crowned by NCAA Division I Syracuse University’s cavernous Carrier Dome.
Meanwhile, history and culture combine in Hanover Square, the city’s original commercial district, and Armory Square, home to shopping, restaurants and attractions such as the venerable Jefferson Clinton Hotel and the hands-on Museum of Science & Technology. The convention district is home to the I.M. Pei-designed Everson Museum of Art. Conceived at a massive Harley-Davidson motorcycle gathering in 1983, the original Dinosaur Bar-B-Que, voted the nation’s top barbecue joint on Good Morning America in May 2009, is a group-must headlining a diverse restaurant collection.
Opportunities abound for working up an appetite, including more than 50 state, county and city parks, and several nature centers, with year-round music, ethnic and seasonal festivals providing additional local flavor. Golfers can link up with 40-plus area courses, and families and children are well served by the Rosamond Gifford Zoo. And as the gateway to some of New York State’s finest regional escapes, including the Adirondack Mountains, 1000 Islands, Cooperstown and the Finger Lakes, Syracuse is an ideal base for mixing business with vacations and leisurely getaways.
It all adds up to a compelling value proposition for planners, entrepreneurs and investors alike. Founded on inspiration, it continues to evolve as an attractive center of business incubation, cultivation and growth.
As Gregg Tripoli, executive director of the Onondaga Historical Association, told a Syracuse University audience in a presentation just this winter, "Our local history is filled with compelling and fascinating people and companies that have had national and international impacts and that provide classic examples of what it takes and what it means to be an entrepreneur."
Regular Meetings Focus contributor Jeff Heilman is a fan of local Syracuse watering hole Faegan’s.
