Western Reunion

By Marc Boisclair

There’s something about the West Coast that brings out the best in both a religious conference and its attendees. Perhaps it’s the low-key, hard-working professionalism of the region’s hospitality industry. There are top-tier hotels and meeting facilities for planners to choose from, even when considering the region’s mid-sized and smaller destinations. And you can’t rule out accessibility, be it by air or automobile. The West Coast also comes with an inherent spirituality, thanks to a setting blessed by snowy mountains, arid deserts, abundant forests and seemingly endless Pacific shoreline. It’s a place where people like to meet, retreat and generally come together, again and again.

Anaheim, California

Anaheim Convention Center

If theme-park icon Walt Disney were around today, he’d be impressed by how the home of Disneyland, his first venture, has evolved. Disneyland opened in the 1950s, and Anaheim has since blossomed into a self-contained, all-around group destination, home to a first-tier convention center and a series of major meeting properties, generously complemented by family-friendly amenities (e.g., shopping, dining, entertainment). It’s all available in this compact, accessible and very walkable city. “There really is a purpose to our design here. It’s really a campus now,” says Charles Ahlers, president and CEO of the Anaheim/Orange County CVB.

Ahlers is enthused about what lies ahead for his campus, notably the new Grand Plaza. “It’s a splendid idea,” he says of the $20 million project, which, when completed by January of 2013, will reroute Convention Way traffic to the rear of the Anaheim Convention Center and nearby hotels, turning what’s now the area’s main thoroughfare into a park-like pedestrian mall. “There will be cultural events conducted in this common area when it’s completed,” says Ahlers, adding that “a lot of the key shows that come here regularly will also be able to hold outdoor exhibits and concerts in this space as part of their programs.”

Upgrades, renovations and expansions are buzzwords elsewhere around Anaheim these days. John Wayne Airport is in the midst of a $543 million redo that includes a new 282,000-sq.-ft. third terminal, additional parking spaces, dining concessions and extensive retail set for completion any day. Area hotels also have kept busy upgrading, with the Hyatt Regency Orange County recently wrapping up a $25 million renovation and the Hyatt Regency Huntington Beach Resort and Spa finishing its own $6 million makeover. The Wyndham Orange County in Costa Mesa is about to launch a $14 million renovation, while Great Wolf Resorts plans a 2013 opening for its new resort in Garden Grove featuring a 600-room hotel, 30,000 square feet of meeting space and an attached water park.

Portland, Oregon

Oregon Convention Center

While Oregon did not invent the green movement, it certainly exemplifies it. In fact, the Beaver State and its largest city (population 570,000) have long been leaders in developing a cleaner, greener lifestyle, dating back more than 40 years to then-Governor Tom McCall’s campaign to clean up the Willamette River. Those early efforts bear fruit today at Gov. Tom McCall Waterfront Park, a 1.5-mile stretch of green along the Willamette in downtown Portland that’s a favorite for group events and city festivals.

“We put sustainability as one of our major priority areas and Portland is a great match for us,” says Jan Sneegas, director general assembly and conference services for the Unitarian Universalist Association. Since Sneegas first brought her general assembly meeting to the Rose City in 2007, she has become a huge fan of how Portland works in sync with her needs. “They have an affordable range of housing that’s close to the convention center and their light rail system really works well—it’s both inexpensive and easily accessible,” she says. “And as a planner, you can draw on the entire city and all of its interesting green spaces.”

For Mike Smith, vice president of convention sales at Travel Portland, what ultimately makes his city a meetings winner is its overall value. “We’ve got everything that a planner looks for when they ask the question, ‘Will my attendees be happy meeting here?’” says Smith. “We have no sales tax and no food or beverage taxes, and our 12.5 percent room tax is well below the median level across the country.” At $125, the city’s average 2011 daily room rate remains a big draw among the many competitive West Coast destinations.

Outdoor enthusiasts also enjoy meeting here because of Portland’s natural assets. Besides its urban parks, greenways and area golf courses, the city is also a great jumping-off point for recreation and group day trips, lying within a few hours drive of Mt. Hood, the Columbia River Gorge, Oregon’s wine country and the Pacific Ocean.

San Francisco, California

San Francisco's Moscone Center

First-time attendees can be forgiven for feeling a sense of déjà vu here, as it’s likely due to San Francisco’s status as one of America’s venerable pop culture icons. The city’s landmarks—Alcatraz, Golden Gate Bridge (75 years young in 2012), Fisherman’s Wharf, Chinatown and those cheery, ubiquitous cable cars among them—are legendary, as are its quirky neighborhoods (e.g., Haight-Ashbury, Union Square, Balboa Park, the Presidio), burned into our subconscious through films, TV shows and by the smoky intonations of Tony Bennett. Overlay this onto a first-rate hospitality system and it’s no surprise to find San Francisco ranked consistently high among planners and attendees as a favorite meeting spot.

While those inherent attendance-building factors have hooked many a delegate, planners have learned to rely on San Francisco for a hospitality infrastructure that supplies a wide range of hotel rooms (both in style and price points) and the city’s adaptable, 1.2 million-sq.-ft. Moscone Convention Center. If anything, the 30-year-old center continues to evolve along with the meeting groups that book business there. With a better meeting spot in mind, Moscone is working its way through an extensive $56 million renovation (the biggest in two decades) of its lobbies, meeting rooms, exhibit space, ballrooms and public restrooms that, when completed by late spring of 2012, should make the entire facility more environmentally friendly and sustainable in its operations.

The upgrade is also designed, per San Francisco Tourism Improvement District Chairman Dan Kelleher, to bring more of San Francisco’s delightful pop-culture persona into the actual center itself. “In its current state, Moscone Center gives meeting attendees very little sense that they are in San Francisco,” according to Kelleher. “A major part of this renovation is incorporating recognizable colors like the Golden Gate Bridge’s international orange and integrating the city’s iconic images into [Moscone’s] public spaces and meeting rooms.”

In that spirit, several city and area properties have spruced up as well, including the 489-room Oakland Marriott City Center, Sausalito’s Casa Madrona Hotel and Spa, and the boutique Hotel Diva on Geary Street. The historic Starlight Room lounge on the 21st floor of Kimpton’s Sir Francis Drake Hotel has reopened after a multimillion-dollar makeover, while the city’s newest cultural venue, the International Art Museum of America, opened its doors in October.

Tacoma, Washington

Tucked into the southern edge of scenic Puget Sound and flanked by a pair of equally picturesque national parks (Olympic to the west and Mt. Rainier heading east), Washington’s third-largest city often reminds visitors of home. That’s due in great part to Tacoma’s friendly attitude—always a plus for faith-based attendees—and a comfort factor that derives from being a big city with a smaller-town ambience.

While getting there is easy—20 minutes from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport on the I-5 corridor—holding a meeting in Tacoma is easier still. “We have a very walker-friendly destination,” says Shauna Lunde-Stewart, director of sales and marketing for the Tacoma Regional CVB. “The facilities are compact, you don’t need a car, and everything is right there in downtown for the attendees: great shopping, dining and museums. You check into your hotel and the convention center is right across the street.”

Indeed, the Great Tacoma Convention and Trade Center works nicely for both its central location (it’s also on the free Link Light Rail line) and green policies, using local, organic and sustainable cuisine in many of its menus. The center is also a short stroll from downtown’s trio of cool museums—the Tacoma Art Museum, Washington State History Museum and the Museum of Glass—all of which feature creative meeting and elegant reception space.

Cheney Stadium in Tacoma

“There’s definitely a city life, but it’s not as expensive as being in a major city,” says Krista Fleming, president of KF Events in Shoreline, Wash. “The hospitality community also works really well together. You feel that as a community they’re coming together to work with you for a full-package experience.” And come June of 2012, the city will officially unveil its newest cultural “vehicle,” the snazzy LeMay—America’s Car Museum, with a cafe, meeting rooms, banquet hall, 3.5-acre show field and some 500 nifty cars, trucks and motorcycles on display.

Planners also can count on Tacoma to supply plenty of recreational options. Fresh from a $30 million renovation, Cheney Stadium, home of baseball’s AAA Tacoma Rainiers, provides a lively setting for group outings, team-building and pre/post family activities. Area golf courses prove challenging and rewarding for group play, and come with the built-in backdrop of snow-capped mountains and Puget Sound. For post-meeting fun, downtown Tacoma is renowned as a home for two attendee favorites: dine-arounds and pub crawls.

Tri-Valley, California

With its quaint downtowns, county fairs and golden rolling hillsides, this triangular swatch of Northern California could easily be mistaken for Northern Vermont or Virginia’s horse country. Instead, the scenic, laid-back Tri-Valley area, stitched together from the Amador, San Ramon and Livermore valleys, is centrally positioned just a short drive (via I-5, 580, 680 and 880) from the cities and airports of San Francisco, San Jose, Oakland and Sacramento. Not to mention, it’s in the heart of California’s hottest new wine country.

Tri-Valley's Livermore is California's oldest wine region

“We have over 50 wineries here, which are a huge draw,” says Tri-Valley CVB Executive Director Grant Raeside. “A lot of them are mom and pop operations, so chances are you’ll get to meet the owners who are also the winemakers. Attendees definitely want to come here and enjoy that experience as part of their overall itinerary.”

What attendees also want is value, an area in which Raeside says the Tri-Valley compares well to its competition. “We have over 4,500 hotel rooms in the area and are certainly priced right with top-of-the-line amenities,” he says. “If your group really wants to spread out, we also have the Alameda County Fairgrounds right smack in the middle of the area.”

Many Tri-Valley hotels and restaurants are either embarking on or in the midst of renovation and expansion projects to suit the needs of their growing meetings business. The 368-room San Ramon Marriott, for example, is wrapping up a $4 million redo of all its meeting space, including the property’s junior and grand ballrooms, part of a valley-wide effort to enhance meeting and function space for incoming groups. “We have a great number of special event venues throughout the Tri-Valley area,” says Marriott General Manager Tom David. “That means groups coming here can find a unique setting for their evening functions without taking on the travel and travel expenses of areas like Napa and Sonoma.”

Planners should also pencil in outdoor activities for their Tri-Valley meetings, as attendees can take advantage of the area’s accommodating climate with such group adventures as golf, cycling, farmers markets and year-round festivals.

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