By Nancy Mann Jackson
Need a convention center to house your next meeting or event? No problem. Even so-called “second-tier” cities (and many third- and fourth-tier destinations as well) boast spacious, state-of-the-art facilities, and new centers and expansions are continually in the works. While that means increased competition for each center, it also means planners have a wide array of venues to consider in their quest to find the perfect locale for their next event. Here are a few such destinations:
Anchorage
The Dena’ina Civic and Convention Center (named after the Dena’ina Athabascans who first settled the Upper Cook Inlet basin approximately 1,500 years ago) opened in Anchorage this past October, offering 200,000 square feet of space for meetings and events. During its first two months of operation, the center was booked for all but two days, and Anchorage CVB sales staff have signed up more than $12 million in convention business, including seven national and four international conventions.
“Probably the most important advantage Anchorage’s new expanded convention facilities bring is the ability to hold a meeting in a state-of-the-art building in one of the most incredible settings in the world,” says Julie Dodds, Director of Convention Sales for the ACVB. “The Dena’ina Center is much more than a boxy building for meetings; it has amazing views of the Chugach Range and the latest in technology. The building was designed to maximize light – even in the Exhibit Hall – and it also features beautiful artwork depicting the history and modern life of the area’s Athabascan people.”
The new center also offers delegates heated sidewalks on three sides of the building, a 50,000-square-foot exhibit hall, four loading bays, six meeting rooms with a total of 11,000 square feet of space, a 25,000-square-foot ballroom and a pre-function area with a heated outdoor terrace.
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Chicago ‘Southland’
Just 30 minutes from downtown Chicago, the city’s southern suburbs offer an array of big-city amenities without the logistical hurdles and higher costs of center-city meetings. And the meeting package in Chicago Southland is getting even better, as the Tinley Park Convention Center – already one of the largest in the region – will more than double its available exhibit space in an expansion scheduled to be completed by June 2010.
The expansion will add 24,000 square feet of additional clear-span exhibit space, bringing the total exhibit space to approximately 42,000 square feet, says Mary Patchin, Director of Sales for the Chicago Southland CVB. The expanded center will also include 6,000 square feet of divisible meeting space for a total of 21,500 square feet; technology upgrades; 450 additional free parking spaces; a new business center; expanded loading dock; and a second convention center kitchen. The adjoining convention center hotel, a Holiday Inn Select, will also add 68 additional guest rooms on two floors, for a total of 270 rooms.
The 10-year-old convention center will now be “more competitive with other convention facilities in the Chicago metropolitan area,” Patchin says. “The expansion will enable [us] to solicit new, larger meetings, groups and conventions, as well as assist existing groups in growing their events.”
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Cleveland
The new Cleveland Convention Center is one step closer to becoming a reality, as construction is scheduled to begin later this year. The new center will be built with an accompanying medical mart (a permanent, state-of-the-art showroom for medical devices and equipment), with a total price tag estimated at $536 million.
“Proposed specifications for the convention center site include 300,000 square feet of divisible exhibit space, ample meeting rooms and a state-of-the-art ballroom,” says Kelly Brewer, Vice President of Sales for Positively Cleveland – aka the Convention and Visitors Bureau of Greater Cleveland. “[With the accompanying medical mart], the center will be positioned as a draw for large medical meetings, but will also be utilized by all of our familiar market segments, including religious, hobby and other SMERF groups.”
Until the new center is completed, groups can book their meetings and events into the existing Convention Center, also located in the heart of downtown Cleveland and surrounded by first class hotels and restaurants. With 21 meeting rooms – including a grand ballroom that can accommodate 4,000 guests (1,600 for a formal dinner) – this complex offers over 375,000 square feet of usable exhibition space that can be arranged to accommodate over 1,500 individual exhibits. The performing arts area of the Convention Center was constructed in the “grand opera” tradition and features a spacious 21,780-square-foot registration lobby, a 10,000-seat auditorium, the 3,000-seat Cleveland Music Hall and 600-seat Little Theater.
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Pasadena
In operation since 1973, the Pasadena Convention Center was ready for a facelift and expansion to meet the needs of today’s meeting industry. With a $150 million upgrade scheduled to be completed early this year, the state-of- the-art center will nearly triple its available space. For instance, the new center will include a 60,000-square-foot exhibit hall, a new 25,000-square-foot ballroom, a new seven-bay loading dock, a 10,000-square-foot kitchen, a new business center and full audiovisual services and Internet technology.
The new building “offers more meeting and exhibit space for groups, still in close proximity to hotels, shopping, dining and entertainment,” says John Kearns, Director of Communications for the Pasadena CVB.
With its close proximity to Fuller Theological Seminary, the largest multi-denominational seminary in the United States, as well as its status as home of the Rose Bowl, the Rose Bowl Aquatic Center, five major universities and a number of historic churches, Pasadena is an ideal destination for many SMERF groups. “Pasadena has long been a very desirable destination,” Kearns says. “Now we’re opening a beautiful center that will provide the necessary space and amenities to host our clients. The destination, and now the center, sell themselves.”
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Quad Cities
Located on the Mississippi River in the Midwest, the Quad Cities include Davenport and Bettendorf, Iowa, Rock Island and Moline/East Moline, Illinois and the surrounding communities. And with the addition of two brand-new meeting facilities, the area’s meeting landscape is expanding dramatically.
“Over the past 10 years, the Quad Cities have hosted thousands of meetings, conventions and sports tournaments,” says Lynn Hunt, Vice President of Sales at the Quad Cities Convention and Visitors Bureau. “New riverfront development projects planned over the next two years will emphasize our region’s ties to the mighty Mississippi River. Newer attractions like the Figge Art Museum have come on board in just the past three years, and the addition of new meeting facilities and unique meeting venues has transformed the Quad Cities landscape into one of the Midwest’s finest meeting destinations.”
Opening in late January 2009, the new $20 million Quad-Cities Waterfront Convention Center in Bettendorf offers 24,000 square feet of flexible meeting and banquet space, as well as eight meeting rooms, making it ideal for groups up to 1,400.
In addition to the new center, the Quad Cities recently welcomed one of Illinois’ largest land-based casinos, Jumer’s Casino & Hotel, which features 216 guest rooms and 7,400 square feet of meeting space.
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Santa Fe
The city’s new Santa Fe Community Convention Center, which opened in September 2008, “is worthy of Santa Fe’s name and can meet the needs of our event partners,” says Steve Lewis, spokesman for the Santa Fe CVB. “Groups that have met in the building so far – UNESCO Creative Cities and Revive, among others – have uniformly praised the center’s functionality, flexibility and features, and have noted with approval the green design incorporated into the building.”
The new center offers 18,000 square feet of exhibit space, 4,000 square feet of kitchen space, 40,000 square feet of event space, several outdoor meeting areas, a large reception/registration area, multiple breakout rooms, a dedicated loading dock and two dedicated planners’ offices. Built to LEED Silver Certification standards, the center “takes the city a long way towards being able to host more environmentally responsible events,” Lewis says. Located on the site of the old center, the SFCCC retains a central, downtown location within walking distance of 1,500 sleeping rooms and a large variety of downtown shops, restaurants and attractions.
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Tulsa
Construction is underway on a major expansion at the Tulsa Convention Center, which will include a 30,000-square-foot ballroom, additional meeting rooms, pre-function space and a new grand entry. The project is slated for completion in March of next year.
“The addition of our new ballroom will open the door for many more formal dinners, galas, general sessions and other events,” says Kathy Tinker, Director of Convention Sales and Marketing for the Tulsa Convention Center.
After the renovation is complete in fiscal year 2010-2011, the Convention Center anticipates 200 events, not including local sports teams, whose events have moved next door to the newly opened BOK Center, a 550,000-square-foot arena also available for groups.
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Virginia Beach
When Virginia Beach’s convention center outgrew its space for local events, city government leaders wanted to reposition it as more of a regional and national meeting destination, “to strengthen our shoulder seasons and off season and to transform Virginia Beach into a year-round destination,” says Al Hutchinson, Vice President of Convention Sales and Marketing for the Virginia Beach CVB. With the new Virginia Beach Convention Center, which opened in 2007, the city was able to do just that.
The new center tripled the city’s available meeting space from 188,000 square feet to 516,000 square feet. It is the first convention center in the state certified by Virginia Green, a Virginia Department of Environmental Quality program that awards certification to tourism-related business that take voluntary actions to reduce harmful impacts on the environment.
“Being eco-friendly is a big draw for the convention market, and a number of our hotels, our performing arts center and aquarium have also earned the green designation,” Hutchinson says. “Virginia Beach is now officially a green destination as recognized by the Virginia governor.”
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