Baltimore Area Convention & Visitors Association

The Baltimore Area Convention & Visitors Association (BACVA) is a quasi-public organization started in 1980 by then-Baltimore Mayor William Donald Schaffer. BACVA is charged with bringing in tourists and conventions into the city of Baltimore and also managing and operating the Baltimore Convention Center. BACVA and its former C.E.O. Carroll R. Armstrong has recently come under fire since a Baltimore Sun article was published in the Summer of 2002 stated that the Baltimore Convention Center didn't meet projected expectations. An external review was completed in early-2003 of the organization's operations. The review showed that BACVA altered various numbers and fudged most of their results. As a result, then-C.E.O./president of BACVA, Carroll R. Armstrong was ousted from BACVA and a interim C.E.O/president was hired.

On July 17th, 2003, a permanent C.E.O/president for BACVA was hired, Leslie R. Doggett, an former U.S. Government worker. She promised to totally overhaul BACVA and try to bring more tourists and conventions into the city in a press conference on October 1st, 2003.