New York State Canal Corporation, Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor, and Visit Syracuse will host the conference from Sept. 24 to Sept. 28 at the Marriott Syracuse Downtown, according to a WCC news release. They say the event could generate a more than $2 million “indirect” economic impact for the city.
I Love NY and National Grid (NYSE: NGG), along with many other businesses and foundations, will sponsor the WCC.
The theme for this year’s conference is “Our Vital Waterways: Agents of Transformation.”
Organizers expect the 2017 WCC to draw hundreds of international delegates and draw thousands of local and regional residents to waterfront events. They’ll hold the conference as the Erie Canal, now a national historic landmark, commemorates its bicentennial.
The designation includes the Erie, Champlain, Oswego, and Cayuga-Seneca canals, “all much enlarged versions” of waterways that were initially constructed during the 1820s, according to the WCC release.
“We’re one step closer to the interchange of ideas and innovations from the industry’s greatest minds,” Cornelius (Neil) Murphy Jr., honorary chair of the World Canals Conference, said. “Each year, the WCC brings hundreds of canal enthusiasts, professionals and scholars from around the world together to discuss canals and inland waterways as a means to promote tourism, spur economic and community development, improve environmental quality and exchange best practices on protection strategies for these historic sites.”
Murphy is also a past president of the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse.
For more information on registering for the event and to view a program schedule, visit wcc2017syracuse.com.
Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com