Trout Unlimited, a national conservation organization dedicated to conserving, protecting and restoring North America’s cold-water fisheries and watersheds, announced Tuesday that it has awarded its 2011 annual meeting to Bend. The meeting will be held Sept. 14-17.

“Visit Bend and our entire conservation community is honored and thrilled to be hosting Trout Unlimited and their members for a week of meetings, fishing and conservation work,” said Kevney Dugan, sports development manager for Visit Bend, the city’s tourism-promotion agency. “This is a great opportunity to introduce Bend to new visitors from across the country and share with them the exciting conservation work and natural beauty that make Central Oregon so special.”

The meeting is expected to attract 350 to 650 attendees from across the country, according to Doug La Placa, Visit Bend’s president and CEO.
That’s not as large as some sporting events, “but from a conference or convention standpoint, this would be one of the larger (ones) that we’ve landed,” he said. With two national bicycle races also scheduled next September, it “should be a lucrative month for Bend tourism.”

Visit Bend will work with Trout Unlimited over the coming months to identify meeting spaces, host hotels and locations for other meeting activities.

Published Daily in Bend Oregon by Western Communications, Inc. © 2010