Los Angeles County and the City of Long Beach have been awarded the 2016 annual convention of the National Association of Counties (NACo), bringing in thousands of government leaders from across the nation, and several million dollars in local economic impact.
The convention will run from July 22-25, 2016, and will be based at the Long Beach Convention Center and several neighboring hotels. Nearly 3,000 county leaders are expected to attend, booking over 9,000 local hotel room nights, and contributing between $5-7 million to the local economy.
The 2016 event will mark NACo’s first return to the West Coast since the 2011 annual conference in Portland, Oregon.
“This is a tremendous win for Long Beach and the local economy, and an excellent opportunity to showcase the successes of Los Angeles County,” said Supervisor Don Knabe, who represents the Long Beach area on the Board of Supervisors, and serves as Los Angeles County’s representative to NACo.
NACo is the only national organization representing the nation’s 3,068 counties, parishes and boroughs. They range in area from 26 square miles (Arlington County, Virginia) to 87,860 square miles (North Slope Borough, Alaska). The population of counties varies from Loving County, Texas, with 84 residents, to Los Angeles County, home to more than 10 million people.