The Winston-Salem Dash (High A; Carolina League) will host the 2020 Minor League Baseball Innovators Summit at the Benton Convention Center on September 21- 24, 2020.
The Minor League Baseball Innovators Summit serves as a meeting place for all 176 MILB teams to come together for three and a half days of education, collaboration and community engagement. Formerly named the Promotional Seminar, the long-standing gathering has been a staple on the calendar of Minor League Baseball executives and staff for nearly five decades.
“We are honored to have been selected as the host city for Minor League Baseball’s Innovators Summit,” said Dash President C.J. Johnson. “This is a unique opportunity to showcase our beautiful ballpark and welcoming community to over 1,000 guests from across the country.”
Minor League Baseball has a proud history in Winston-Salem, as professional baseball dates back to 1905. The team has been competing in the Carolina League since 1945, and the Dash just wrapped up their 10th anniversary season at BB&T Ballpark. In 2019, Winston-Salem led all of High-A baseball in attendance for a third straight year.
This is the first time Winston-Salem and the Dash have hosted this event. According to Visit Winston-Salem, approximately 1,200 hotel rooms have been contracted generating an estimated $800,000 in economic impact for the local economy. “Bringing conventions to our city is one of daily objectives here at Visit Winston-Salem and at the sake of sounding cliché and using a baseball metaphor, being tapped as the host city for the Innovators Summit is a home run for our team and our town,” said Richard Geiger, president of Visit Winston-Salem.