In downtown St. Paul, 2,000 dentists party like its pre-March 2020 – Twin Cities

The dentists are back in town — both in-person and virtually.

In downtown St. Paul, the St. Paul RiverCentre this week welcomed back its first large convention since the start of the pandemic in March of 2020. Some 2,000 dentists associated with the Minnesota Dental Association began arriving Thursday. The association has been holding its annual “Star of the North” meeting at the city’s convention center since the building opened in 1998, and before that at the old St. Paul Civic Center.

In addition to more than 2,000 in-person attendees, the “hybrid” convention is expected to draw 1,200 virtual guests by the time it closes on Saturday.

“The return of group business to RiverCentre is a wonderful signal for St. Paul’s economy and the community in general,” said Terry Mattson, president and chief executive officer of the St. Paul RiverCentre and Visit St. Paul, formerly the St. Paul Convention and Visitors Authority, in a written statement. “We are hosting attendees with an abundance of caution for both guests and staff.”

Those precautions include handrail sanitizer, a Johnson Controls HVAC system and other forms of deep cleaning. Additional conventions coming to the RiverCentre include the 400-guest Northstar Fashion August Market, August 22-24, and the 400-guest Allen D. Leman Swine Conference, Sept. 18-21.