When the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center opened its doors seven years ago, it paved the way for Boston to become one of the most popular convention destinations in North America.

The BCEC was a major public sector project that was met with much public skepticism, but in the end, the building continues to pay dividends to the commonwealth through economic impact, jobs and the business opportunities our meetings bring to Boston.

In the past seven years, the BCEC and the Hynes Convention Center have together generated more than $3 billion in economic impact for the region, money that would not have come to the commonwealth had the BCEC not been built. And that benefit continues, with the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority (MCCA) projecting the next three years will be the most successful on record, with events generating $1.65 billion in economic impact.

Boston as a destination has grown beyond expectations, and so too have the size and demands of the $263 billion U.S. meetings and conventions industry. To ensure that more major events come to Boston and keep returning, we must have a long term vision and strategy and we must continue to move forward as a destination.

Last year, Governor Patrick and other leaders appointed a 27-member working group called the Convention Partnership to evaluate and make recommendations about how any expansion plans should move forward. The Partnership has worked hard, holding 23 open meetings over 15 months and absorbing proponent and opponent viewpoints and listening to presentations of analysis and data. Among the inescapable conclusions of this work is that the hotel supply near the BCEC is the most immediate challenge to our continued success.

Conventions and tradeshows that attract exhibitors and attendees from across the country and the world are the events that bring the greatest benefits. Attracting and accommodating these events requires not just convention center space, but also thousands of accessible hotel rooms. With only three hotels and 1,700 rooms within walking distance, the BCEC has far fewer nearby rooms than our competition which average more than 8,000 rooms.

As a result, attendees at BCEC events stay at hotels in the Back Bay and other Greater Boston locations. Shuttle buses transport attendees back and forth, costing events as much as $1 million just for this transportation – a cost not incurred by shows in other cities. In a very competitive industry, this is an unsustainable long term disadvantage for Boston.

And when a large event fills the BCEC, we are forced to send thousands of attendees to Back Bay hotels around the Hynes. This means that we cannot book a concurrent event at an empty Hynes because the hotels next door are full.

Public Support Needed

The partnership has also discussed that, although demand for new hotels is high, the current economic climate, credit market conditions and high development costs make new convention hotel development unlikely without some form of public participation. Boston is not alone in facing this problem. In the last decade, every one of the 18 convention center hotels developed in the United States – including the Westin next to the BCEC – have required some level of public support.

Further, the BCEC is the only convention center in its competitive set without access to mid-priced, limited service hotels within walking distance. To encourage the development of mid-priced hotels, we need an additional strategy working with the city, the neighborhood and other stakeholders.

The partnership is also considering the feasibility of expanding the BCEC by adding a multi-purpose/ballroom and exhibit space. But the reality is, we can’t do any expanding, and likely won’t, without more hotels nearby. It’s that vital.

Nothing is final yet, and the partnership will issue its findings and recommendations next month, offering a menu of options that can – in the end – help make the BCEC and Boston more competitive in the international meetings and conventions industry. It will also allow events that are important to our economy – from video game development to biotech – to continue to recognize Boston as the place to do business by being able to host key events in those industries.

And this is what it’s all about. As part of my job, I walk the exhibit floor at major meetings and conventions, buzzing with thousands of attendees. There might be a past president speaking in our ballroom, or an industry thought leader speaking about his latest findings. In the hallways, business deals are getting done and new contacts are being established. If you were to come with me, I guarantee you would come away from your visit not thinking about hotel rooms and taxi rides, but about how these massive meetings in this massive building are intrinsically linked with world commerce and with the growth of Boston as an international city. And when another group arrives in Boston, these meetings and this commerce are linked again and again.

James E. Rooney is the executive director of the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority and the co-chair of the Convention Partnership.