{"id":40240,"date":"2025-09-06T12:30:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-06T17:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kwu.edu\/?p=40240"},"modified":"2025-08-29T10:21:34","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T15:21:34","slug":"local-economic-impact-of-great-plains-annual-conference-approaches-1-million","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kwu.edu\/about\/news\/local-economic-impact-of-great-plains-annual-conference-approaches-1-million\/","title":{"rendered":"Local Economic Impact of Great Plains Annual Conference Approaches $1 Million"},"content":{"rendered":"
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It was announced recently that, after numerous calculations, the local economic impact of June\u2019s Great Plains Annual Conference was an outstanding $841,280.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re pleased to see that this event was beneficial for our local economy,\u201d said Dr. Matt Thompson, KWU president. \u201cWhether we\u2019re hosting major events, welcoming students back to campus or growing our workforce, our goal is always to\u00a0make positive contributions to our community.\u00a0We are proud that KWU is a hub for athletic, music, theatre, and community-based events.\u00a0The annual conference was a great example of this, and we look forward to discussions regarding hosting it again soon.\u201d<\/p>\n

More than 800 hotel rooms were reserved as part of the event, in addition to food and other expenses.\u00a0Further, local retailers and vendors were involved in making this event a success.\u00a0It is believed the\u00a0nearly million\u00a0figure marks the largest single-event local economic impact figure in KWU history.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur university has a long association with the United Methodist Church,\u201d said Thompson. \u201cFrom the beginning, KWU and the\u00a0Church have been intertwined. It\u2019s only fitting that,\u00a0after nearly 140 years,\u00a0the largest economic impact event our university\u00a0hosted\u00a0this year\u00a0was a UMC event.\u201d<\/p>\n

KWU projects several key events to have a notable economic impact for Salina this academic year, including the KCAC baseball and softball championships. In past conference championship events in those sports have approached 1,000 combined tickets sold, not including the 20-40 student-athletes involved, per team.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of us at KWU are excited to host numerous events on campus and throughout the region this year,\u201d said Thompson. \u201cWe hope everyone in the community makes plans to be a part of an upcoming Coyote event.\u201d<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":39578,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[152],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nLocal Economic Impact of Great Plains Annual Conference Approaches $1 Million - Kansas Wesleyan University<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.kwu.edu\/about\/news\/local-economic-impact-of-great-plains-annual-conference-approaches-1-million\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Local Economic Impact of Great Plains Annual Conference Approaches $1 Million - 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