ROCHESTER — Rochester is about to hit paydirt with the mother of all conventions. Some 18,000 Jehovah’s Witnesses from across the Midwest will descend on Rochester for a series of Mayo Civic Center conventions that run through July and part of August. The turnout is certain to deliver a powerful commercial boost to downtown restaurants, hotels and retailers still reeling from the loss of traffic and business from Mayo Clinic’s decision to have many of its employees work remotely.
If anything, the conventions this summer will be bigger than last year’s. The events last year signaled the resumption of in-person conventions of Jehovah’s Witnesses after a three-year pandemic-induced hiatus, and some may still have been wary of in-person events so soon after the pandemic's official end. If Jehovah's Witnesses are right about turnout this summer, more people are throwing off such inhibitions.
ADVERTISEMENT Several thousand more people will attend this year’s events than the 14,500 people who turned out last year. The economic ripple effect for the city will be considerable but hard to quantify. Last year's assemblies generated between $6.
1 million and $7.3 million in economic impact, according to officials with Jehovah’s Witnesses and Experience Rochester. Neither organization had estimates for this year’s conventions.
“As we get farther from the pandemic, more people are comfortable in crowds,” said Taylor Freier, a spokesperson for Jehovah’s Witnesses, Why d.