KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Kansas City is on the short list to host a high profile convention. A national Latino civil rights group may bring their convention to town which would be beneficial to the economy.
The National Council of La Raza is the largest Hispanic Civil Rights organization in the nation with 300 affiliates around the country. When it brings its convention to a city, the host city rakes in millions of dollars in hotel stays, restaurants, shops and other attractions.
“One of the interesting things about this particular convention having attended several, the whole family tends to come so they end up spending days in the host city, pre and post convention which is terrific,” said CiCi Rojas with the KC Convention and Visitors Association.
Rojas, a new board member for the Kansas City Convention and Visitors Association played a key role in trying to secure the NCLR’s Convention in Kansas City in 2009. Instead, the convention went to Chicago because former Mayor Mark Funkhouser appointed a member of the Minutemen Civil Defense Corp. to the Parks Board. It’s an organization that NCLR believes advocates issues that negatively impact Hispanics. While Kansas City is on the short list of citys to host the NCLR’s 2015 convention, David Chavez says the convention is Kansas City’s for the taking.
“It’s ours to lose which means they have designated that year for NCLR to come to Kansas City,” Chavez said.
Both Rojas and Chavez say the visibility of NCLR will prompt other organizations that may not have considered Kansas City for their conventions to do so if NCLR comes to Kansas City in three years.
The next host city for the NCLR Convention is Las Vegas. The group will go to New Orleans for following year.
