External Diversity Initiative Award Winner
The Massachusetts Convention Center Authority (MCCA) owns and oversees the operations of the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center (BCEC), the John B. Hynes Veterans Memorial Convention Center, the MassMutual Center in Springfield, Mass. and the Boston Common Garage. The BCEC and Hynes have earned a rare gold standard from the International Association of Congress Centers (AIPC), making Boston only the fourth city in North America and the 12th worldwide to have been awarded this top standard, the highest certification level a convention facility can achieve under strict AIPC guidelines.
The MCCA’s primary objective is to bring important events to the MCCA facilities that generate substantial economic impact and revenues for Massachusetts, while also promoting economic development in the state. Being supportive of the communities that help make the MCCA a success is a top priority for the Authority. The MCCA’s commitment to diversity starts at the top – literally. The MCCA Board of Directors is a diverse body with members who support and encourage the Authority’s diversity initiatives. With their guidance, the organization undertakes major efforts in order to increase the diversity of events coming to Boston.
On the local front, the MCCA is very committed to ensuring that every community benefits from Massachusetts’s success in the meetings and convention industry. The Authority maintains a robust supplier diversity program that seeks out diverse vendors and contractors, and is currently taking steps to expand the BCEC, working with Senator Linda Dorcena Forry to create language in the bonding legislation needed to proceed with construction. The goal is to establish a supplier diversity program to ensure diversity in all phases of the management, oversight, design, and construction of the BCEC expansion. The MCCA will also ensure diverse representation in the vendors and contractors that will eventually build the proposed headquarters hotel, which will be one of the largest hotel projects in North America.
The MCCA supports diverse organizations working to bring change to Boston and Springfield as well. Since 2007, the MCCA has awarded $648,000 in Community Partnership Grants to diverse organizations such as Ballet Rox, SAW (Sisters at Work) and BUILD, and has provided a precious commodity to diverse organizations: space.
Major diverse events are now choosing to come to Boston because of the tireless marketing and welcoming efforts of the MCCA, in partnership with the state and the City of Boston. The most significant of these was the National Urban League, which held its annual meeting in Boston in 2011 after 34 years of choosing other destinations, with other notable events following suit. Through its efforts to increase opportunity for diverse vendors, the MCCA is seeing its purchasing from minority-owned business enterprises (MBEs) and women-owned business enterprises rank as above average. At the same time, the MCCA is seeing greater diversity in its staff with more than a quarter of employees and a third of recent hires representing diversity. The MCCA’s efforts on diversity have not gone unrecognized either, with the company winning the 2008 Rosoff Award for Marketing to a Diverse Audience, and MCCA Executive Director, Jim Rooney, receiving the Urban League’s Game Changer Award in 2011.
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