The Oxford Conference Center had a good year in 2023 and 2024 is looking bright as well.

On Tuesday, OOC Director Micah Quinn gave an annual report to the Oxford Board of Aldermen on the economic impact on Oxford and some of the center’s accomplishments during the year.

In 2023, more than 65,000 people walked through the doors of the Conference Center during at least 250 events held at the center.

Those events brought in $850,000 in revenue. Of those events, 15 were full conferences that brought in $312,000, which is about 36 percent of the total annual revenue.

“With these numbers, we are seeing the rebound from Covid,” she said. “This is validating an industry trend that meetings, conferences and conventions have returned.”

The center was closed for about 45 days in 2023 for renovation. The center is more than 25,000 square feet of rentable space and hosts a variety of events – from corporate meetings and conferences to birthday parties and weddings. The ballrooms vary in size with capacities ranging from 26 to 1,000 people and all have state-of-the-art audio/visual equipment.

The economic impact included helping the conference center’s catering partners earn $292,000 in revenue; more than 2,600 hotel room nights booked, which was a 66 percent increase from 2022, generating $280,000 in revenue for area hotels.

“I want to highlight that these nights booked were mainly (90%) on the weeknights,” Quinn said.

Quinn said the OCC already has a record-breaking number of multiday conferences booked for 2024 and one of those will be the Mississippi Society of Association Executives this spring.

“These are the people who plan conferences and meetings throughout the state,” Quinn said. “We and Visit Oxford will be working closely with this group to show them everything our city has to offer for their future meetings.”