If you head downtown during the first week of December, you might notice more people out and about, running between the River Walk, the Alamo and busy streets.

For the first time ever, The Running Event will bring more than 5,000 people to San Antonio in December to discuss the business side of the running industry.

Manufacturers, designers and retailers will rub elbows while showcasing new products and attending seminars, said Christina Henderson, TRE’s event director.

The annual conference has been around for almost two decades and, for the last 15 years, has been hosted in Austin. 

But the state capital has closed its convention center until 2029 as part of a $1.6 billion renovation, which drew TRE to the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center and downtown San Antonio.

Attendees are excited for the new location, Henderson said.

“San Antonio has been so well-received,” she said. “People are excited and have been asking ‘Where should we stay? What should we eat? What should we do?’”

Attendees peruse booths during the Texas Restaurant Show at the Henry B. González Convention Center in July of 2024. Credit: Bria Woods / San Antonio Report

Austin isn’t the only Texas city currently rebuilding its leading event space. Dallas is beginning its own construction process and could build a $3.5 billion convention center by 2029. And Houston’s George R. Brown Convention Center is set to undergo a $2 billion transformation with the full project expected to be completed by 2038.

Those ongoing projects have brought more than a dozen conventions to San Antonio for the first time. How long the boost lasts, however, remains to be seen.

Henderson highlighted the work done by Visit San Antonio and other local officials to make TRE staff feel welcomed and connected to the community.

“We want the event to take over and have The Running Event feel like a part of the place we are,” she said. “They made it easy to say ‘yes.’”

Mario Bass, the president and CEO of Visit San Antonio, called attracting conventions a “top focus,” and noted the positive impact of bringing in visitors and conventioneers who spend money in hotel rooms and on meals.

“San Antonio has benefited from the temporary closure of the Austin and Dallas convention centers,” Bass said in an email. “Thirteen groups have relocated their meetings to San Antonio, with an estimated combined impact for our community over the next several years of 112,000 room nights and $102 million in overall economic impact.”

In 2024, Visit SA booked 126 events at the Convention Center. That resulted in 604,000 room nights and an estimated economic impact of $507 million, Bass said. 

With more events like TRE coming to town, officials are now focused on keeping them here for the long term, when Dallas and Austin return to the industry with larger, newer convention centers.

“We are definitely getting more meetings and we do feel that we’re working toward keeping some of them in the future,” Patricia Muzquiz Cantor, the City of San Antonio’s director of convention and sports facilities, said in an email.

Muzquiz Cantor highlighted the Convention Center’s staff and service, as well as its connection to the rest of downtown as reasons for conventions to stay.

Henderson said both factors played a role in TRE’s decision to move to San Antonio this year. TRE toured four cities, but San Antonio felt right, she said.

San Antonio’s walkable, or in some cases runnable, downtown was an important selling point, she added.

Bass is hoping that once new conventions experience San Antonio, it will be easier to sell them on coming back.

“These relocations present great opportunities for groups to experience San Antonio’s capacity for hosting legacy meetings, while building strong relationships that pave the way for repeat business and future bookings,” he said.

It’s an opportunity for San Antonio officials to reel in conventions over the next few years, but it comes with a major caveat. In 2029, Austin and Dallas will return to the market with brand-new buildings.

“We will be competing against the complete new construction of centers, which is rare in the industry and will place us in a much harder position,” Muzquiz Cantor said. “To be sure, the work being done on those sites will be of impact for groups deciding on future hosts for their meetings.”

That was a key reason city officials are pitching expansions to the convention center, she added. As part of Project Marvel, city officials have proposed a $750 million expansion of the convention center, adding 192,000 square feet of event space.

“That is why we’re recommending the expansion of our Convention Center in order to remain competitive,” Muzquiz Cantor said.

A rendering shows a proposed design for the city’s convention center expansion project. Credit: Courtesy / San Antonio Sports and Entertainment District

Dallas and Austin will have new convention centers with 2.1 million and 620,000 square feet, respectively. Adding 192,000 square feet would keep San Antonio ahead of Austin and bring the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center to 706,000 square feet.

City officials have said bonds would help pay for the renovations, which could happen whether or not a downtown arena for the San Antonio Spurs is approved by voters in November.

Crucially, Muzquiz Cantor said the proposed renovations in San Antonio would not result in convention center closures like in Austin and Dallas.

“There will be some minimal impact, but most of the construction will be on the west side of the building,” she said. “We will be able to continue business with the open space that we have — even as we’re adding to it. Planning for this construction will be tactical, with our clients and neighbors in mind.”