Philadelphia Convention

Among the 3,700 at last week's gathering here of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene was Repon Paul of Dhaka, Bangladesh. For Paul, 35, a researcher who specializes in bacterial and virus surveillance, it was the first visit to Philadelphia. "The city's quite large. I love it," he said as he made his way back Tuesday to the Philadelphia Marriott, his group's headquarters hotel, from the Convention Center via the enclosed skywalk that connects the two buildings.

The city's first new ground-up hotel since 2000, and the first tailored to support the expanded Convention Center, broke ground Tuesday at 12th and Arch Streets. Under a cavernous white tent, about 60 feet from the Reading Terminal Market and diagonally opposite the Convention Center, nearly 200 gathered to shovel the first dirt for the $60 million extended-stay Home2Suites by Hilton. Some say the development may represent a thawing of the lending markets for new hotels here.

Karen Buchholz doesn't know what a wrinkle is. She never eats ice cream out of the container - and certainly wouldn't dip her spoon in twice. When her panty hose have runs in places no one sees, she tosses them. On the line in life's giant report card where it says, Pays Attention to Detail, Buchholz gets an A+. (She files copies of her fax confirmations, and sets the breakfast table the night before.) On the line where it says, Convinces City's Rich and Powerful to Do Whatever She Asks, she also earns an A+. On the line where it says, Lures a Giant Political Convention to Philadelphia in 2000, well, final grades aren't in yet. But she's trying hard, very hard.

Tourism agencies in the five-county Philadelphia area will receive $1.9 million in state grants to help market local attractions. The awards were announced by Gov. Rendell as part of statewide tourism funding totaling $5.4 million. The money is to be used to create or expand tourism-promotion efforts, including advertising campaigns, online marketing, Web-site development and public relations strategies. The largest grant locally was $655,000 for the Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Undeterred by travel concerns after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, 14,400 people came to Philadelphia this week to attend the city's biggest trade show of the year. That's almost the same number of people expected before the attacks. The high turnout reflects the "solidarity" and "strong spirit" of the fruit and vegetable industry, said Bryan E. Silbermann, president of the Produce Marketing Association. The association's annual trade show, which ended yesterday at the Convention Center, lured travelers from 58 countries.

Philadelphia's convention sales team hopes to help itself this weekend by helping Atlantic City entertain some of the 900 trade-group executives who begin meeting in the casino city tomorrow. Forty hosts, laden with Tastykakes and other local delicacies, will greet more than 50 members of the American Society of Association Executives upon arrival their today at Philadelphia International Airport. The members will be transported by limo to the Sheraton Society Hill, where they'll spend the night.

Director of construction Nick Klein pointed at what would be an awesome sight - if it were at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia. It was parking space upon parking space, 1,600 parking spaces in all. Most impressively, each and every space was right underneath the 60-percent-completed Atlantic City Convention Center. The $260 million convention center, at 468,000 square feet, is larger than Philadelphia's convention center. You know Philadelphia's, the one downtown with no parking.

The steaks were thick, the hors d'oeuvres came both hot and cold, and the waitresses offered more wine. Joseph L. Wroblewski, chairman of the Lions Clubs International convention committee, told a story about a funny experience he and his wife had in Bangladesh. Mayor Rendell seemed delighted to learn they knew someone in common, a judge up around Scranton. It was Joe and Ed last night as the courses kept coming, the smiles stayed in place, the small talk never wavered and the Philadelphia convention industry's top salesmen did their best to snare a $24 million pack of Lions.

The opening bell is about to sound for a new kind of heavyweight prizefight - far different from the ones Atlantic City usually hosts. In keeping with a national movement to pour money into bigger and better meeting places, Atlantic City is scheduled in May to open the biggest convention center in the Northeast outside New York. The $268 million center is not only massive, it's also good-looking, with an skylit atrium that floods it with natural light running its length. The building is only four blocks from the string of glittering casino-hotels lining the Boardwalk.

The city's first new ground-up hotel since 2000, and the first tailored to support the expanded Convention Center, broke ground Tuesday at 12th and Arch Streets. Under a cavernous white tent, about 60 feet from the Reading Terminal Market and diagonally opposite the Convention Center, nearly 200 gathered to shovel the first dirt for the $60 million extended-stay Home2Suites by Hilton. Some say the development may represent a thawing of the lending markets for new hotels here.

Among the 3,700 at last week's gathering here of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene was Repon Paul of Dhaka, Bangladesh. For Paul, 35, a researcher who specializes in bacterial and virus surveillance, it was the first visit to Philadelphia. "The city's quite large. I love it," he said as he made his way back Tuesday to the Philadelphia Marriott, his group's headquarters hotel, from the Convention Center via the enclosed skywalk that connects the two buildings.

McLaughlin Asset Management, Inc. , a Haddonfield wealth-management firm, has hired Walter A. Eife as director of retirement plans. He had been supervising principal of his own independent investment-management firm, Waypoint Financial Partners L.L.C., an affiliate of ING Financial Partners. Helene Burns has been promoted to vice president of clinical services for Kennedy University Hospital in Stratford, from assistant vice president. Michael L. Stern has been hired as vice president of health-care services at Albert Einstein Healthcare Network , Philadelphia.

Royce W. Smith , a lawyer at Feldman, Shepherd Wohlgelernter, Tanner, Weinstock & Dodig L.L.P., has been reelected Minority Caucus Delegate to the American Association for Justice . Big Brothers Big Sisters Southeastern PA , a Philadelphia nonprofit organization that mentors youth, has selected Eric Artz and Gordon St. John to serve a three-year term on its board. Artz is chief financial officer of Philadelphia-based Urban Outfitters Inc. St. John is president of Integrated Benefit Services Inc. Tengion Inc. , an East Norriton regenerative-medicine firm, has appointed Scott Flora to its board.

The Big Five men's and women's basketball conference, in hopes of polishing its old reputation for dramatic rivalries at a time when fat TV contracts have made bigger state-school programs rich and well-known, is negotiating a fall 2012 basketball tournament that would pit Philadelphia's schools against a band of New York schools. Tom Muldoon is leading the effort. It proposes that Penn, Villanova, St. Joe's, Temple, and La Salle have tournament-style, head-to-head matches with Fordham, Columbia, Manhattan, Iona, and another New York City-area schools.

Little robots had lots of room to maneuver, and there was space aplenty for hands to explore in the hands-on labs. The bloggers' cafe fit quite nicely, too, the International Society for Technology in Education discovered last week when it returned to Philadelphia for the first time since 2005. The first time, in other words, that the 20,500-member ISTE gathered at the much-enlarged Convention Center. "The expansion made all the difference in the world, as far as giving us the flexibility to build the experience for attendees and have the kind of conference we wanted," said Don Knezek, chief executive officer of the Washington-based group.

Tourism agencies in the five-county Philadelphia area will receive $1.9 million in state grants to help market local attractions. The awards were announced by Gov. Rendell as part of statewide tourism funding totaling $5.4 million. The money is to be used to create or expand tourism-promotion efforts, including advertising campaigns, online marketing, Web-site development and public relations strategies. The largest grant locally was $655,000 for the Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau.

A year before the National Council of Teachers of English was to host its convention here, Jacqui Joseph-Biddle met with officials at the Convention Center to discuss details. Her group, 8,000 strong, had particular needs. Would it be possible, Joseph-Biddle asked, for her staff to erect a 10-foot-by-10-foot display inside a larger exhibit booth? "No problem," she was told. But on the eve of the convention in November, no problem turned into no way. She was told she had to hire three carpenters, plus a supervisor, to erect the display.

To get visitors out and about in the city, tourism and convention officials are taking the interactive approach. On Monday, Philadelphia becomes the first city worldwide to showcase its attractions via SCVNGR (pronounced scavenger ) and its Find Your Philly? mobile application. The app features five tours, or "treks," focusing on the city's history, arts and culture, sciences, and multicultural aspects, as well as the expanded Convention Center, due to open in March. How to Find Your Philly?