Connect Marketplace Highlights Milwaukee as Convention Site

Peggy Williams-Smith at Connect Marketplace 2024. Peggy Williams-Smith. Photo taken Aug. 28, 2024 by Sophie Bolich.

For three days this week, the Baird Center is home to a pair of lego masters, a poetry-writing fox and a gaggle of snuggly puppies.

The newly expanded convention center, 400 W. Wisconsin Ave., is the site of this year’s Connect Marketplace, a multi-faceted event featuring dozens of organizations from across the United States as they show off their best assets — and peddle merch — in hopes of attracting economy-boosting conventions to their home cities.

The convention hall was bustling on day two, as guests ate, drank and explored a wide variety of booths. At Reno Tahoe’s puppy lounge, a flock of attendees fawned over adoptable dogs. Across the trade show floor, a fox mascot offered on-demand poetry, pecking away at a typewriter as a line of convention-goers stretched down the aisle.

The city’s own Visit Milwaukee, which played a key role in landing this year’s Connect Marketplace, manned a two-story trade show booth welcoming attendees with classic old fashioneds and a game of bags, plus Milwaukee-centric goods including tote bags and Christian Yelich bobbleheads.

Meanwhile, “Lego Masters” alums Randall W. Wilson II and Nealita Nelson prepared to assemble a Lego replica of Baird Center, which clocks in at over 1,000 pieces. The pair are set to complete the project by 2 p.m. on Thursday.

The free food, fanfare and furballs at Connect Marketplace play a supportive role in the event, which is largely focused on networking, education and one-on-one opportunities for the more than 1,000 meeting planners and 2,000 exhibitor participants in attendance.

It also puts Milwaukee’s hosting abilities in the national spotlight for the second time in two months, following July’s Republican National Convention, which took place — in part — at Baird Center.

A news release from Visit Milwaukee notes that the event “represents some of the best exposure Baird Center will have to planners,” who may be interested in bringing association groups, religious groups, sports events and more to the convention center.

“We are thrilled to welcome this distinguished group of meeting professionals to Milwaukee, where we are more prepared than ever to host their next convention, meeting or sports event,” said Peggy Williams-Smith, president and CEO at Visit Milwaukee, in a statement. “Milwaukee and Baird Center are ready to shine, and we could not be prouder of our team and partners who have been working for years to showcase our destination at this level. When we say ‘Milwaukee has arrived,’ this is what we mean. Planners are taking note of all Milwaukee has to offer and they want to see it firsthand. This ultimately means more meetings business that benefits our community for years to come.”

Visit Milwaukee, in partnership with the Wisconsin Center District and Connect, has been working since 2020 to prepare for the event, which is among the top three trade shows for U.S. meeting planners.

The three-day convention alone is expected to generate more than $5.3 million in economic impact for Milwaukee, though Wisconsin Center District CEO Marty Brooks said he expects the long-term effects will be exponentially more profitable.

“The economic impact, long-term, could be even greater than the RNC,” he said.

“We’ll never have enough advertising dollars to replicate what we’re doing over three days right now,” added Claire Koenig vice president of communications and advocacy for Visit Milwaukee.

Alongside the main event taking place in Downtown, Visit Milwaukee’s event experience team has worked to coordinate “experience-enhancing activations” across the city, including a reception at Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport, welcome tables at each of the conference’s 10 hotels, welcome signage and more.

Connect Marketplace 2024 marks the debut of Visit Milwaukee’s new trade show booth, which is set to appear at various national conventions in the coming months.

In addition to cocktails and lawn games, the booth is dishing up cheese curds and Miller High Life beer. The Milwaukee Brewers‘ Famous Racing Sausages are also set to pay a visit during the convention.

“Pulling off events like Connect Marketplace takes a village, and we are so grateful to the dozens of partners who are helping us ensure that these planners have the best Milwaukee experience possible,” Williams-Smith said. “From public safety officials to our business improvement districts, hotels, tour operators, food and beverage vendors, and, of course, our partners like Marty Brooks and the Wisconsin Center District team, we have assembled a group of experience-obsessed hospitality professionals and are tremendously grateful to all who are contributing to the best Connect Marketplace yet,” said William-Smith.

Visit Milwaukee also leveraged the event to showcase a number of its partners, including Hilton, Hyatt, Events By Design and others.

The long-awaited Connect Marketplace is far from the only major event booked at Baird Center.

The American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) will bring its “Super Bowl of meetings” to Milwaukee in 2034, the group announced earlier this month.

It’s a major score for the city, as Urban Milwaukee noted in its previous coverage: “hosting ASAE is the opportunity to sell decision makers on why they should bring their organization back to Milwaukee.”

Connect Marketplace kicked off Aug. 27 with an opening reception at the Harley-Davidson Museum, featuring music by Bella Cain, tattoo experiences and a drone show. A closing ceremony on Aug. 29 will include a block party in Deer District, followed by a performance by Lil Jon at Baird Center.

Update: A previous version of this article incorrectly identified one of the Lego Masters as Paul Wellington 

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