Rhode Island and Providence will be host to 6,000 to 8,000 police officers from all over the United States and Hawaii, Australia, Ireland and Canada this summer for the Fraternal Order of Police’s 56th National Conference. The event could bring in almost $10 million in revenue to the state.
The Ocean State won a bid for the conference, beating Las Vegas and Orlando by 10 votes, according to Kathleen Ceseretti, senior director of national accounts for the Providence Warwick Convention & Visitors Bureau.
“It’s a big coup that we beat out Las Vegas and Orlando,” she said. “The attendees vote on where they want to go. It’s going to be a wonderful thing for the city and state.”
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The biennial convention will be held from Saturday, Aug. 2 to Friday, Aug. 8, and will include optional events like day trips to Roger Williams Park Zoo, state beaches, the Newport Mansions and Wrentham Village. Other events include a golf tournament, a lobster and chicken bake on the State House lawn, Water Fire, a casino night at Foxwoods, family night with the Pawtucket Red Sox and Irish Night at the Warwick Lodge. All gatherings and business meetings will be held in the Rhode Island Convention Center.
The FOP has held a convention in Rhode Island before, according to Wayne Sacco, co-chair of the FOP’s Rhode Island State Lodge, but never on this grand a scale. The convention bureau estimated that the crowd would total 9,000 to 10,000 people, including FOP family members.
“I think this is the largest convention in Rhode Island history,” said Sacco, a retired Smithfield police officer. With such a large crowd in the smallest state, Sacco said, there has been an enormous collaborative effort between the FOP, Providence and the state in ensuring that the members have plenty to keep them busy while they’re here.
The convention is a major revenue-maker for the state. Members will be staying in 35 hotels in Rhode Island and parts of Massachusetts, Sacco said, as well as at Foxwoods and in Mystic, Conn. Some will also be renting beach houses and other rental homes with their families during the week. A few are also planning to stay in Newport, he added, but the town wasn’t offered as a major place to stay because of the increased prices of Newport hotels during the peak tourist season, Sacco said. Attendees will shop at, eat in and visit businesses all over the state and New England.
“We’re expecting this will bring in $8 million and probably more,” he said. “It’s great revenue for the state. Some people will be extending their stay with their families. It will be summertime and you get into vacation time.”
Coordinating almost all of the state’s hotels for this conference was a taxing experience for the convention bureau, said John Flaherty, vice president of sales and marketing, but well worth the stress. The bureau had to work with hotels that wanted both weekend bookings and weekday bookings.
“Because we know the industry, we know what the hotels are looking for, and we encourage groups to adjust their dates around when the hotels want them there,” he said. “There’s a strong mid-week business in Providence because of corporate travel, but in Newport they love their weekend business” and don’t want conventions blocking all their rooms. The fact that the event is a week long and in August, when many city hotels are slowing down, made it easier to book, Flaherty said.
“We did have some challenges in hotels in South County, because August is their peak season, but they worked with us,” he added.
The Rhode Island Lodge began organizing the convention four years ago, when it won the bid.
“It’s such a large undertaking and expense,” he said. It will most likely cost $100,000 just for buses to transport attendees to and from events, he said. “We are looking to the business community if a business out there is interested in sponsoring an event.”
Cities and states vying for a bid must make a presentation to the FOP, and indicate that they have a place to host the delegation as well as a list of hotels and the number of rooms available. The national FOP then sends out a site committee that visits the location to decide if it is suitable. The CVB helped the local lodge present its bid to the national FOP and booked the event with the hotels.
The revenue-generating impacts of the week-long convention will be statewide, Sacco estimated, adding that the attendees would probably also be traveling to other New England states because of their proximity and because of Rhode Island’s small size.
“What’s the greatest is that with this many people in town, every town is going to reap the benefits,” he said. “The city and state have been more than receptive and we’re thrilled that we won the convention.”
The FOP, founded in 1915, is the largest organization of sworn law enforcement officers in the world, with more than 2,100 lodges and almost 300,000 members. The Rhode Island State Lodge of the FOP alone has 3,400 to 3,500 members.
“My guess is that it will have a significant impact on the entire state, from
overnight stays, to rental cars and restaurants,” Flaherty said of the convention.
“When people come in, kick our tires and see what we have to offer, they love
this city.”
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