A 1998 addition of new ballrooms and meeting rooms funded as part of the original MAPS allowed the city once again to compete for conventions. The Cox Convention Center opened as the Myriad in 1972, but it was hardly an ideal set-up for conventions as rooms and exhibit halls were built around the 13,500-seat arena. Questions remain about the future of the annual FFA convention that draws up to 10,000 kids from across the state and provides a largely rural membership a chance to connect with Oklahoma City. The city agreed to honor the lower rates promised for the Cox Center and also is looking at possible shuttle service for those that were booked at hotels that were close to Cox but farther away from the new convention center. Instead of managing bookings, Beaton has spent the past few months working with the city to relocate 21 groups already booked at Cox to the new convention center. “We were gearing up to take over all the management of the meeting rooms and ballrooms and we were working with clients.” “ASM took over management of the meeting rooms and ballrooms as of April,” Beaton said. The agreement was that it couldn’t compete with the new convention center for the services it and the Omni will be providing.”īarbara Beaton, assistant general manager with ASM, which oversees the two convention centers, was tasked with coming up with an interim plan for the Cox Center just as the pandemic was hitting and a 20-year operational agreement with the adjoining Renaissance Hotel expired. “It was able to be used for smaller and spillover events. “Our agreement with Omni prevents us from using it (Cox Center) as a convention center, specifically in primary use,” McDermid said.
LUNCH BREAK SIGNAGE MOVIE
Matt Payne and Rachel Cannon, co-founders of Prairie Surf Media, formed earlier this year, say they are seeing immediate demand for the sound stages as streaming channels are producing more and more content to satisfy a growing audience.Īubrey McDermid, who oversaw the negotiation with Prairie Surf and is coordinating the changes associated with the movie studio conversion, said many in the public had a misconception that the Cox Center was not going to host any more conferences or events once the new convention center and adjoining Omni Hotel were open. In many ways the timing of this switch has worked out well for the city, with the naming rights agreement with Cox Communications for the building expiring this month and the new Oklahoma City Convention Center opening next month. The first movie, “American Underdog: the Kurt Warner Story,” is set to start filming at Prairie Surf Studios by February. Planning and lease negotiations started in March, a lease was approved by the city council on Tuesday, and the first tenant, Kingdom Story, is already moving in as the former Cox arena and exhibit halls are converted into sound stages. Where will the NBA G League's Oklahoma City Blue play? What will happen with the annual visit of thousands of FFA youth? What about the smaller conferences that weren’t prepared to move to the new, larger convention center with its higher rates?
The rapid transition comes with convenient timing on some matters but challenges to be addressed by the loss of a convention center that wasn’t expected to end operations so soon. The Cox Convention Center's signs soon will be coming down and visitors instead will be introduced to Prairie Surf Studios as part of its conversion into a television and movie production hub.
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