Manufacturers, designers and retailers will rub elbows while showcasing new products and attending seminars, said Christina Henderson, TRE\u2019s event director. <\/p>\n
The annual conference has been around for almost two decades and, for the last 15 years, has been hosted in Austin.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Attendees are excited for the new location, Henderson said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSan Antonio has been so well-received,\u201d she said. \u201cPeople are excited and have been asking \u2018Where should we stay? What should we eat? What should we do?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Bria-Woods-Texas-Restaurant-Show-Convention-show-expo-eat-local-business-15JUL2024-15-scaled-1.jpg\")
Attendees peruse booths during the Texas Restaurant Show at the Henry B. Gonz\u00e1lez Convention Center in July of 2024. Credit: Bria Woods \/ San Antonio Report<\/p>\n
Austin isn\u2019t 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\u2019s George R. Brown Convention Center is set to undergo a $2 billion transformation with the full project expected to be completed by 2038<\/a>.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Henderson highlighted the work done by Visit San Antonio and other local officials to make TRE staff feel welcomed and connected to the community.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want the event to take over and have The Running Event feel like a part of the place we are,\u201d she said. \u201cThey made it easy to say \u2018yes.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Mario Bass, the president and CEO of Visit San Antonio, called attracting conventions a \u201ctop focus,\u201d and noted the positive impact of bringing in visitors and conventioneers who spend money in hotel rooms and on meals.<\/p>\n \u201cSan Antonio has benefited from the temporary closure of the Austin and Dallas convention centers,\u201d Bass said in an email. \u201cThirteen 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.\u201d<\/p>\n 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are definitely getting more meetings and we do feel that we\u2019re working toward keeping some of them in the future,\u201d Patricia Muzquiz Cantor, the City of San Antonio\u2019s director of convention and sports facilities, said in an email.<\/p>\n Muzquiz Cantor highlighted the Convention Center\u2019s staff and service, as well as its connection to the rest of downtown as reasons for conventions to stay.<\/p>\n Henderson said both factors played a role in TRE\u2019s decision to move to San Antonio this year. TRE toured four cities, but San Antonio felt right, she said.<\/p>\n San Antonio\u2019s walkable, or in some cases runnable, downtown was an important selling point, she added.<\/p>\n Bass is hoping that once new conventions experience San Antonio, it will be easier to sell them on coming back.<\/p>\n \u201cThese relocations present great opportunities for groups to experience San Antonio\u2019s capacity for hosting legacy meetings, while building strong relationships that pave the way for repeat business and future bookings,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n It\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n \u201cWe 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,\u201d Muzquiz Cantor said. \u201cTo be sure, the work being done on those sites will be of impact for groups deciding on future hosts for their meetings.\u201d<\/p>\n 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<\/a> expansion of the convention center<\/a>, adding 192,000 square feet of event space.<\/p>\n \u201cThat is why we\u2019re recommending the expansion of our Convention Center in order to remain competitive,\u201d Muzquiz Cantor said.<\/p>\n Dallas and Austin will have new convention centers with 2.1 million<\/a> and 620,000 square feet<\/a>, 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.<\/p>\n City officials have said bonds would help pay for the renovations, which could happen whether or not<\/a> a downtown arena for the San Antonio Spurs is approved by voters in November<\/a>.<\/p>\n Crucially, Muzquiz Cantor said the proposed renovations in San Antonio would not result in convention center closures like in Austin and Dallas.<\/p>\n \u201cThere will be some minimal impact, but most of the construction will be on the west side of the building,\u201d she said. \u201cWe will be able to continue business with the open space that we have \u2014 even as we\u2019re adding to it. Planning for this construction will be tactical, with our clients and neighbors in mind.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you head downtown during the first week of December, you might notice more people out and about,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":274346,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5133],"tags":[5229,142029,86097,142030,1596,142031,136754,55258,142032,7202,7203,358,126026,7453,5331,72499,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,142033,32055,7455],"class_list":{"0":"post-274345","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-antonio","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-austin-convention-center","10":"tag-christina-henderson","11":"tag-convention-industry","12":"tag-dallas","13":"tag-dallas-convention-center","14":"tag-henry-b-gonzalez-convention-center","15":"tag-mario-bass","16":"tag-patricia-muzquiz-cantor","17":"tag-san-antonio","18":"tag-sanantonio","19":"tag-texas","20":"tag-the-running-event","21":"tag-top-story","22":"tag-tourism","23":"tag-tre","24":"tag-tx","25":"tag-united-states","26":"tag-united-states-of-america","27":"tag-unitedstates","28":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","29":"tag-us","30":"tag-usa","31":"tag-visit-sa","32":"tag-visit-san-antonio","33":"tag-wc-1500-2000"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115309845676615867","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=274345"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274345\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/274346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=274345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=274345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=274345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Screenshot-2024-12-04-at-3.04.24-PM.png\")
A rendering shows a proposed design for the city\u2019s convention center expansion project. Credit: Courtesy \/ San Antonio Sports and Entertainment District<\/p>\n