Small Meetings: A Foxwood Specialty
At the Foxwoods Resort Casino in Ledyard, CT, 65 to 75 percent of group business consists of small meetings of 75 people or less. It’s an appropriate fit for Foxwoods’ 37 small meeting rooms which can accommodate up to 100 people. In total, Foxwoods has more than 150,000 square feet of meeting space and more than 2,200 guest rooms.
“Our space successfully serves the economic market right now. We also have 137 suites in two hotel towers that can be used for small meetings, client breakfast, or cocktail hours,” explains Jessica Baran, vice president of resort sales. “What we’re really good at is handling multiple groups at one time and making them feel like they are the only group on property.”
For example, there was recently a large food show at Foxwoods for a group of 2,000. A small high-profile group of team coaches were meeting at the resort at the very same time. Two floors of a hotel tower were customized for this group of 37 with bobblehead dolls, framed pictures of legends of the team, and the team colors. The program’s customization went so far as having the towels in each guest room embroidered with each coach’s last name.
Las Vegas is complex and its meeting spaces are large enough that a small meetings group could easily feel lost among its massive offerings. There’s a whopping 10.5 million square feet of convention and meeting space available, including the 3.2-million-square-foot Las Vegas Convention Center, the 1.8 million-square-foot Sands Expo and Convention Center, and Mandalay Bay’s 1.5 million-square-foot conference center.
Just because Vegas can accommodate massive events does not mean that a smaller group — which in Las Vegas can mean any group with less than 1,000 attendees — is not a priority.
“While Las Vegas has a reputation for the large city-wide conventions we host, small meetings make up the large majority of the more than 21,000 events we host every year,” says Amy Riley, senior director of convention sales for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA).
Whether by selecting a more manageable property, or certain activities that will allow a group to feel like they are the only one in town, there are a number of strategies that planners can use to make a big gaming city like Las Vegas feel quite a bit smaller.
The Property Makes a Difference
Nola Casey, project manager at CROSSMARK, a sales and marketing company that arranges all of Sam’s Club and Walmart’s in-store events, was in the final planning stage for her division’s first national meeting,, scheduled to be held at a Las Vegas resort at the end of January. The conference services manager at the resort was being less than responsive and Casey was concerned.
She knew the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) would be in town the same time as her group. The CES show, with more than 150,000 attendees, is no average gathering. This year, it used
1.92 million net square feet of exhibit space with more than 3,250 exhibitors unveiling some 20,000 new products.
“The center of the city literally becomes CES world,” says Drew Varga, vice president of sales for M Resort, Spa and Casino. “Anywhere near the convention center, Sands Expo Center, or Mandalay Bay Convention area gets very congested. You are putting 200,000 extra people in the city for a week who all need to get to the same places at the same time.”
But since Casey’s meeting was on the smaller side, with 455 attendees in total, she didn’t think CES would interfere. That was until she finally heard from the conference services manager who told her that the meeting’s audiovisual component would cost three times the amount she had allocated for the entire meeting.
“I had a really bad feeling and went to my VP,” says Casey. “He told me I could have the meeting at this resort and negotiate to get the A/V lowered, although I would probably pay for it somewhere else — or I could find another property.” It was a daunting task as the meeting was set to kick off in less than three weeks.
Casey printed out a map of Vegas, cut it in three, gave two pieces to her colleagues and took one herself. They started making phone calls and learned that the M Resort had availability. “This was Friday. I was on a plane the following Thursday and knew right away the M Resort was for us,” says Casey.
The property offers 390 guest rooms and suites, more than 60,000 square feet of meeting and conference space, and a 100,000-square-foot outdoor events piazza. The M Resort is on Las Vegas Boulevard, 10 minutes from the airport and 15 minutes from the center of the Strip.
“We’re in the opposite direction of where the action is heading for larger functions,” says Varga. “For those going to a city-wide convention, they head north from the airport to the corridor. To get to our property, they head south or away from the congestion. We’re an oasis from the chaos.”
He cites shows such as CES, the National Association of Home Builders’ International Builder’s Show, the International Council of Shopping Centers, and Magic Market Week as a few large events that really tie up the city. During these shows, if a small meeting is in one of the convention hotels on the Strip, Varga says that it’s easy for them to feel like an afterthought in comparison to the anchor groups that are also in-house.
That’s why Casey says all her future meetings will be held at the M Resort. Her group literally took over the property. A CROSSMARK welcome message was displayed on the resort’s outdoor marquee, in the lobby’s waterfall, on digital signs within the property, and a CROSSMARK video was broadcast in the elevators. “It was phenomenal. They rolled out the red carpet for us,” she says.
Not only was the M Resort able to accommodate the group on such short notice but it also helped them create an Amazing Race-type activity called “Expedition to Excellence,” which was held on the Strip. Stops included The Forum Shops at Caesars Palace, The Mirage, The Bellagio, The Miracle Mile Mall, the World of Coca-Cola Store, and New York-New York Hotel & Casino.
The M Resort is strategically designed with meetings in mind as all the meeting space is on the ground level. The casino sits one floor above. “The conference or meeting guest never has to interact with the casino patron,” says Varga. “The old mentality of forcing you through a maze so you may put a $10 bill into a slot machine doesn’t hold true here. Our casino is an amenity you can enjoy if you’d like to but we will not force feed it to you.”
Las Vegas: Meeting Mecca
Las Vegas is a mecca for meeting and incentive groups. According to the LVCVA, the city’s resorts hosted 4.9 million delegates in 2012, a 1.6-percent increase over last year and the highest convention attendance in four years. Las Vegas hosted 21,615 meetings, tradeshows or conventions, up 13.6 percent from the 2011 total of 19,029. The 2012 total was the highest number of meetings and conventions held in Las Vegas since 2008.
Even with all this big business, many Vegas properties and the LVCVA have taken steps to accommodate smaller groups looking for more intimate experiences in the city.
“Some of Las Vegas’ resorts have developed hotels within their hotels,” says LVCVA’s Riley. “The LVCVA and most of our resort partners all have dedicated staff to work with small groups to make sure that they have the best possible experience in Las Vegas.”
The new Nobu Hotel that recently opened inside Caesars Palace, the HRH tower at the Hard Rock, and THEhotel and the Four Seasons Hotel at Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino are some examples of more focused products that cater to small meeting groups.
Another way to make Las Vegas more manageable is to consider properties outside of the city itself. Among the properties that fit this bill are the Green Valley Ranch Resort and Spa and the Red Rock Casino, Resort and Spa, which is based in Las Vegas but off the Strip. Being away from the lights and sounds of the Strip offers the added benefit of letting planners draw a clear line between the work and play of a meeting.
“Business is business here, and pleasure is pleasure,” explains Veronica Kistner, vice president of sales, luxury brands, for Red Rock Casino, Resort, and Spa, as well as Green Valley Ranch. “Entertainment and dining are steps away, but all our meeting space is on one level and isn’t accessed by walking through our casino.”
The 500-room Green Valley Ranch is located in Henderson, Las Vegas, five miles from the airport, and has more than 65,000 square feet of meeting space. The 800-room Red Rock is 14 miles from the airport and has close to 100,000 square feet of meeting space.
“When booking a meeting, we ask planners to expand their search outside of the Strip,” says Kistner. She emphasizes that many groups coming to Las Vegas are under the mistaken perception that once they leave the Strip, they leave the fun and excitement behind.
“This is not true,” says Kistner. “We provide the best of both worlds. We have all the amenities of Strip-size resorts but also have a much more conducive business atmosphere.”
All the Fun, On a Different Scale
Size doesn’t matter, say some. “It is not about how big your meeting is; it’s how you plan that meeting. It all depends on how you strategize,” says Jaki Baskow of Baskow and Associates, a Las Vegas-based event, meeting, and destination management company that has been in business for 37 years. “Smaller meetings do the same thing that bigger meetings do but on a smaller scale. It’s still special.” Knowing Las Vegas inside and out helps, and Baskow is able to secure out-of-the-ordinary venues for small groups. A current favorite of Baskow’s is the Keep Memory Alive Event Center, designed by legendary architect Frank Gehry. It includes 199 windows in an undulating stainless steel canopy.
At the end of February, Baskow planned and executed a small meeting at Caesars Palace, a 3,348-room property with 300,000 square feet of meeting space, set on 85 acres. “At Caesars, the staff treats a small meeting the same as they treat a big meeting. Small meetings are just as important,” says Baskow.
But she adds that the wow factor of a small meeting should be as powerful as a large meeting. She has a cadre of performers from American Idol and America’s Got Talent whom she works with to add big-meeting power to even her smaller events. Tiffany Evans, a Star Search winner who was homeless and living in a van with her family before she reached success, performed at a recent meeting that Baskow planned. Ben Vereen, an actor, dancer, and singer, was recently performing in Las Vegas and Baskow booked him for a small meeting, which he entered dressed in tails and top hat, singing, “The Impossible Dream,” acappella. “It didn’t cost a lot of money but it made a huge impact,” says Baskow. “A planner does not have to spend a fortune to create a big look for a smaller meeting.”