WHERE TO MEET, PLAY, AND EAT
Long Beach Convention & Entertainment Center
This comprehensive meeting and event venue in Long Beach, CA, boasts a one-of-a-kind 45,000-square-foot Pacific Ballroom, a chic lounge (Bogart & Co.), and plenty of meeting and networking spaces (fire pits included). This is, after all, where the TED conference has been hosted for the past five years.
Hotel Nikko SF
Occupying a prime location in the heart of downtown San Francisco, this elegant 532-room hotel combines the best of Japanese hospitality with Western sensibilities, along with more than 20 different venues for meetings and events, many with panoramic views of San Francisco Bay and the surrounding city.
The Evans Garage
This striking event space in La Jolla, CA, transports attendees back in time with its private museum collection of vintage automobiles, where you can enjoy gourmet dining and admire some of the world's rarest cars. The off-site venue is owned by the Evans Family, which also owns the renowned Lodge at Torrey Pines.
This year, as always, the Golden State has a variety of new developments that make it an ideal meeting destination for groups of all sizes. From north to south, east to west, and everything in between, the most populous state in the nation has a little bit of something for everyone. Here's a closer look at a few places throughout the state that are more than ready for meetings.
San Diego Is Back
Following last year's controversy that surrounded former San Diego Mayor Bob Filner's decision to restrict millions of dollars in tourism funding, San Diego tourism is back on track, says Margie Sitton, the senior vice president of sales and services for the San Diego Tourism Authority.
"Everyone knows we had a very tough year last year with a mayor who didn't support tourism. He's gone," she says. [Filner resigned in August 2013 following allegations of sexual harassment, for which he was convicted in October]. "We're fortunate that our new mayor [Kevin Faulconer] is very supportive of tourism, and all of our funding is back into place. We rebuilt our organization, and we are rebuilding our sales team. We'll have a total of 13 people on our sales staff back, talking to customers and reminding them of all the wonderful things in San Diego. We are fully supported by the city council and the mayor."
Sitton adds that tourism is the second-largest industry in San Diego, and the city has returned that to a priority, with fresh new hotel products, attractions, and event spaces. One of the newest event venues to arrive in San Diego is The Headquarters at Seaport District. A restaurant/retail complex adjacent to the Manchester Grand Hyatt San Diego, it is housed within the city's fully restored former police headquarters and can host outdoor parties for up to 4,000. "You can still see some of the old jail cells and the lineup area," Sitton says. "The restoration is just beautiful."
In March, the 439-room Loews Coronado Bay Resort finished a $4.2-million room renovation that included two years' worth of resort-wide refreshments. New guest rooms have additional power and data outlets, USB ports, Wi-Fi, recycling bins, and luxury linens.
Luxury boutique property, The Westgate Hotel, also recently completed a multimillion-dollar renovation of its rooftop space, which is exclusive to guests. The 10,000-square-foot space has a Junior Olympic-size swimming pool and can also accommodate up to 340 for private events.
Just south of downtown San Diego on Coronado Island, the iconic Hotel del Coronado, a Victorian-era 757-room resort and National Historic Landmark is in the midst of completing an extensive $13-million, two-year renovation that includes updates to all of its original 368 Victorian-era guest rooms, Beach Village villas and cottages, common areas and lobby, and dining venues. The 214 guest rooms in the property's Ocean Towers, as well as its 97 California Cabanas located near the pool, were also refreshed with new interiors.
Sitton adds that the San Diego Tourism Authority is "continuing to work on an expansion of the convention center. The financing and plans have been approved." Those plans, she says, include a five-acre park on the top of the building that will overlook the bay. "Nothing has been formally announced or settled just yet, however," she says.
San Jose Continues to Evolve
The heart of California's Silicon Valley, San Jose debuted the results of a $130-million renovation at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center in October, which included the addition of 169,947 square feet of flexible ballroom and meeting space, bringing the amount of total usable space up to 550,000 square feet. Other new features include a brand-new networking lounge; more breakout rooms (for a grand total of 43); and a new open plaza entrance that faces the downtown area and can double as outdoor event space.
Team San Jose also recently released a new online, interactive meeting tool for planners. It enables planners to take a virtual tour of San Jose, as well as create in-depth meeting set-up options at various facilities throughout the city.
Groups who meet in San Jose also have a number of new tours and programs from which to choose. The Destination Services department at Team San Jose has developed an extensive Dine-Around Program for meeting delegates, which lets them experience the city's culinary scene like a local. History buffs will also appreciate the new History Walk Tour, which introduces the story of the city's evolution from an agricultural powerhouse to the epicenter of the modern tech revolution.
NOTABLY NEW IN THE GOLDEN STATE
Ace Hotel Los Angeles: This trendy 182-room property, housed inside an historic film studio building, opened in the heart of downtown Los Angeles in January, not far from the Los Angeles Convention Center.
The Ritz-Carlton, Rancho Mirage: On May 15, this long-awaited, 244-room luxury resort finally opened in the Greater Palm Springs area with 16,000 square feet of indoor meeting space.
Harrah's Resort Southern California: Following a $160-million multi-phase renovation, and the addition of a brand-new 403-room tower, the former Harrah's Rincon was renamed in April, and now boasts a total of 1,065 rooms.
Loews Hollywood Hotel: Slated to reopen this month, the former Renaissance Hollywood Hotel & Spa in Los Angeles has undergone an extensive, top-to-bottom $31-million renovation to its 628 rooms, 113 suites, and 120,000 square feet of meeting space.
Epiphany Hotel: This new 86-room boutique hotel from Joie de Vivre opened in January, catering to the tech set in downtown Palo Alto.
Terminal 3 at SFO: Opened in January, the new terminal includes 10 new gates for United Airlines.
Riverside Convention Center: This new convention center opened in March and features more than 65,000 square feet of indoor space that encourages networking with a campus-like layout. It can accommodate up to 3,000 meeting attendees and is located in Riverside, CA, which is approximately 36 miles northeast of Anaheim.
Affordable Cities Abound
California is also home to a number of cities that have the infrastructure and resources to host successful meetings at great value. In Northern California, the region known as Diablo Valley, located approximately 30 miles northeast of San Francisco, is making a concerted effort to attract MICE groups. Just last month, a new tourism branding and marketing initiative, "Diablo Valley - Defying Expectations," was launched to attract more visitors and groups to the area. The initiative is the brainchild of the Diablo Valley Tourism Business Improvement District, which consists of nine area hotels, the majority of which are located in the city of Concord, CA.
"Our goal is to let people, especially meeting planners, know where we are, who we are, and why we're an ideal place for a meeting," says Matt Hohenstreet, Diablo Valley board member and spokesperson, as well as the director of sales and marketing for the 329-room Hilton Concord. "You can plan a meeting here for half of what you might pay for in San Francisco," he says. "We have a wonderful variety of hotels from which to choose, including full-service properties like the Hilton Concord and the 324-room Crowne Plaza Concord to mom-and-pop independent inns." Hohenstreet says that while the Hilton and Crowne Plaza could, together, host a group as large as 750, he says that each property could ideally accommodate up to 200 attendees each. Currently, the city of Concord does not have a standalone convention center.
"Our proximity to the surrounding area, including San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley, Napa, Sonoma, and San Jose is, hands down, premier," Hohenstreet notes. "It's only an hour from here to Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco and only a half hour to Napa Valley. You can have meetings in the morning and then head to Napa or Sonoma for lunch at a winery. It's a truly prime location." The nearby airports in San Francisco and Oakland, as well as two Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) stations, make it easy to get to Concord as well, he adds.
In Southern California, the city of Ontario, some 35 miles east of downtown Los Angeles, is also making a concerted effort to attract MICE groups. Michael Krouse, president and CEO of the Greater Ontario Convention & Visitors Bureau and the Ontario Convention Center, says that new tourism marketing funding is helping put Ontario on the meetings map.
"Being a second- to third-tier city that caters to smaller meetings and conventions, we knew we needed to create some special guest experiences, including city-wide events that everyone -- locals and delegates -- can enjoy together."
Some of these include the Route 66 Cruisin' Reunion; the Huck Finn Jubilee, the largest bluegrass music festival in the West; and the Inland Empire Restaurant Week. Krouse says the city is on track to meet or exceed its goal of booking at least 64,000 MICE room nights by the end of its 2013/2014 fiscal year, which ends in June.
"In the past two years, we've launched all of these new events, new websites for the CVB and the convention center, and we're also making improvements to the convention center," Krouse adds. The 225,000-square-foot center is currently implementing new, more energy-efficient ballroom stage lighting, as well as a new solar roof. Soon construction will begin on a new Starbucks inside the center, which will also have outside entry.
Ontario's prime location is also a major draw for groups, says Krouse. "We're less than 30 minutes away from Anaheim, downtown Los Angeles, and 45 minutes from both the beaches and the mountains. Palm Springs is less than an hour away and we're on the route to Las Vegas, too." The city boasts its own international airport, and has more than 6,000 hotel rooms. "That's a lot of rooms and those rooms vary in product and price point. We can be as much as 50 percent less than a room rate in Los Angeles," Krouse notes. The size of the convention center, Krouse adds, also lends itself to hosting non-traditional meetings. "We can give you a deal where some other cities can't really."
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