The listing, as published
The 24th Annual DC/Maryland Black College Expo runs Saturday, March 13, 2027, from 10:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Eastern. The venue is the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, 801 Allen Y. Lew Place NW, Washington, DC 20001. Eventbrite prints the duration as four hours 30 minutes and the format as in person. The listing was live and not sold out when read for this article. Eventbrite dates the listing to August 31, 2026.
The organiser is the National College Resources Foundation. The contact address on the listing is info@ncrfoundation.org.
What a chaperone party buys
The listing sells an admissions event. Students meet colleges, historically Black colleges and universities among them, and the copy asks them to bring plenty of copies of their transcript to "Get Accepted on The Spot." Seminars cover financial aid and scholarships, starting a business, and a session titled "The 411 for the Student Athlete." The scholarship headline reads "Over 5 million in Scholarships!"
The audience runs wider than high school seniors. The listing names college transfer students, underclassmen and adult learners, and it calls the day one for the whole family.
Ticket arithmetic for a party
Eventbrite publishes a price band of $9.10 to $12.29 per ticket. The listing publishes no chaperone rate, no school rate and no free-chaperone allowance. An adult accompanying the group pays inside the same band as a student.
Ten people land between $91.00 and $122.90. Twenty people land between $182.00 and $245.80. Checkout fees sit outside those totals.
The refund rule appears twice on the page and both statements agree. Eventbrite prints "No refunds". The organiser gives the cost of hosting and its commitment to fund scholarships from the money raised as the reason. A party that buys twenty tickets and then loses half its group carries the whole loss.
One night, and which night
A 10:00 a.m. Saturday start puts the arrival night on Friday, March 12, for a party travelling more than a morning's drive. That is the single night to budget.
The 2:30 p.m. finish leaves Saturday afternoon and evening open. A party that checks out Saturday morning and travels home the same day spends one room night, one breakfast and one travel day on a four-and-a-half-hour event.
A Saturday morning arrival removes the room night. It buys a 10:00 a.m. start against a same-morning journey. The listing publishes no doors-open time, so the arrival margin has to come from the organiser.
The room and the District surtax
Washington applies a 15.95 percent tax to gross receipts from transient accommodation. The Office of Tax and Revenue publishes the rate as extended through September 30, 2027, which covers this event.
Every $100 of room rate carries $15.95 of tax. A room quoted at $189.00 a night totals $219.15. A room quoted at $250.00 totals $289.88.
bookmyteam.org publishes its thresholds on the how-it-works page. Most hotels quote group rates at 10 or more rooms a night, and some offer discounts from five rooms depending on season and availability. A party of 24 in double rooms books 12 rooms and clears the ten-room line. A party of 12 in quad rooms books six and sits in the five-room band.
The Saturday is shared
The same weekend carries the opening of another citywide event. The National League of Cities lists its 2027 Congressional City Conference pre-conference sessions on March 13 and 14 at the Marriott Marquis, 901 Massachusetts Ave NW. The main conference opens March 15. NLC reports 2,800+ local leaders at its 2026 conference.
Two downtown bookings compete for the Friday and Saturday nights. A party that wants Friday, March 12, near the convention center should fix the rooms before NLC opens registration in November 2026.
Getting the party to the hall
The Convention Center sits atop the Mt. Vernon Square/7th Street-Convention Center station on the Green and Yellow lines, per Events DC. The Red Line's Gallery Place-Chinatown station is a five-minute walk from the building.
Events DC publishes one dedicated pick-up and drop-off point for the venue: the corner of Mount Vernon and 9th Street NW. The venue lists it inside its Lyft partnership section. Confirm with Events DC that a school bus may stage there and for how long.
Events DC counts over 3,000 parking spaces within a three-block radius of the building, in surface lots and garages. The same page warns that parking regulations are heavily enforced in the surrounding residential blocks. A bus that drops and parks adds two walks to the party's day.
The building offers complimentary Wi-Fi at 768 kBps in each direction, per the venue's facility page. That carries email and registration forms. A chaperone uploading forty transcript scans needs more.
What the listing leaves open
Four questions go to info@ncrfoundation.org before a party commits a bus. Ask for the earliest entry time for a group, whether bags and coats can be held during the day, whether $9.10 is advance pricing only, and whether the organiser issues a school invoice.
The room side is the part a booker controls. Set the arrival night, price the tax at 15.95 percent, and place the request through the RFP form. A Washington property list sits in the directory by city, and the group rate calculator prices a block against a per-night rate before any request goes out.
