But Minneapolis still lags behind most peer cities in recovery for a variety of reasons, Tennant said. For one, the city has not seen a robust return of business travel, perhaps in part because large employers still allow remote work. Meet Minneapolis also books conventions several years out, meaning there is continuing fallout from organizations that avoided the city in the wake of Floyd’s death.

“We were still dealing with questions and reputation management in 2021, 2022,” Tennant said. “So we probably don’t even know what we lost from conventions that would have been showing up this year from that booking window.

“I can tell you that during those dark days after George Floyd was killed, and we were in the midst of various types of unrest and riots, that some of us whose job it is to market our our great city, it was hard,” he added. “We know that it’s part of our story, and we need to tell it authentically.”

Tennant said Meet Minneapolis will defer to community members on how to best share that story. The agency’s plan also suggests the city could build a more inclusive future by investing more in its seven recognized cultural districts, including Central Avenue, East Lake Street and West Broadway.

Several aspects of the new plan aim to embrace identities and strengths that have emerged organically in Minneapolis, Tennant said.

For instance, the city has become a hub of sorts for women’s sports at the youth, collegiate and professional levels thanks to successful athletes, coaches and franchises — something that became even more evident after the popularity of last year’s gymnastic trials, the Lynx’s playoff run and the women’s Big Ten basketball tournament.