The San Diego Convention Center is in the midst of its largest scientific meeting and exhibit show ever as a record-breaking 31,000 professionals from around the globe attend the Society for Neuroscience 34th Annual Meeting, October 23 – 27, 2004. A full-facility user, this is the largest scientific convention to be held at San Diego’s award-winning Convention Center since the Society of Neuroscience gathered here in November 2001 setting the previous record with 28,000 attendees. This is also one of the Center’s most prestigious gatherings. Approximately 40% of the 2004 delegates are international attendees and a large percentage of them hold PhDs.

This event, which is expected to generate $102.7 million in economic impact for the San Diego region, is also expected to be the single largest hotel room night generator since the Center’s opening in 1989 with over 60,000 room nights projected. Meetings such as the Society for Neuroscience are highly prized by convention destination cities the world over because of their large budgets and because they are well attended by professionals who tend to stay longer to enjoy the city. Also, these meetings are extremely resilient, performing well even during economic downturns.