Natural Products Expo East, one of Baltimore’s largest conventions, has outgrown the Baltimore Convention Center and will move to Philadelphia in 2020.
The departure comes as city and state officials renew calls to expand the aging convention center, which was built in 1979 and saw its last major upgrades in 1996. Baltimore has lost several high-profile conventions to cities with newer, more spacious convention amenities — including Otakon, an anime convention that grew its attendance to more than 30,000 visitors before moving to Washington, D.C., last year.
“We have outgrown the Baltimore Convention Center in its current state,” Adam Andersen, senior vice president of events for Natural Products Expo organizer New Hope Network, wrote in a statement to the Baltimore Business Journal. “Moving to Philadelphia allows us to increase our opportunity to grow our Natural Products Expo East exhibit space for the growing health and wellness market.”
The citywide convention, which assembles retailers, wholesalers and producers from across the natural products industry for a weekend each fall, drew more than 28,000 people to Baltimore in fiscal 2017. That year, it accounted for more than 15,700 hotel room nights and nearly $17.1 million in economic impact, according to Visit Baltimore, the city’s tourism agency. Natural Products Expo East will stay in Baltimore through 2019, and this year’s edition, scheduled to run Sept. 12-15, is expected to draw close to 30,000 people.