Attendees of PCMA's annual Convening Leaders event in Austin this past January saw firsthand what makes the Live Music Capital of the World so special. There was the live music, of course, with performances by local acts (including country music icon Willie Nelson), but also on display was the city's convenient layout, strong infrastructure, and fast-expanding hotel inventory.
The city is going through a growth spurt, projected to add more than 3,000 hotel rooms to its inventory within the next three years, not to mention additional nonstop flight options, and memorable meeting venues for groups both large and small. On the hotel front, this spring will see the opening of the 139-room Hyatt Place Hotel, with an entrance right off the Austin-Berstrom International Airport's main roadway, as well as LEED Silver certification. Next month, the Hyatt House Austin Downtown/University will open its doors, with 190 rooms. In July, Starwood will open a pair of properties: the 278-room Aloft and 144-room Element, bringing 3,000 square feet of meeting space and offerings aimed at a younger traveler.
But the biggest opening of the year will come in September, when Fairmont Austin opens, offering 1,048 guest rooms, 60 suites, two ballrooms (with more than 25,000 square feet each), and 13,500 square feet of outdoor event space.
As Convening Leaders proved, Austin continues to stand out as an ideal destination for groups seeking a fun night out or to infuse their events with the city's famous live music. The 319-room Hotel Van Zandt (which boasts 11 different meeting spaces) has brought this music right into the property, with an on-site director of music who curates playlists and oversees entrance music, as well as running teambuilding songwriting sessions -- or can just tell visitors where to find the best concerts in the city.
Speaking of teambuilding, the wealth of offerings in Austin is also making it an ideal destination for experiential learning and hands-on meetings.
"Attention spans and the multitasking sense of the workforce today are pushing towards a more targeted and more focused learning experience," says Eric Wimbush, director of sales and marketing for Sonesta Bee Cave Austin, a 195-room property with 10,000 square feet of function space. Wimbush describes the property as "adept at handling a series of conferences, training sessions, meetings, and events of all sizes in a flexible and interactive event space with state-of-the-art A/V that blends well with property amenities, such as a courtyard pool and sundeck, 24-hour fitness center, and Meridian 98 rooftop bar and lounge."
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This article appears in the March 2017 issue of Successful Meetings.