Smart Meetings

Want to know a great secret in California? Take it from a native: You needn’t travel hundreds of miles north, south, east and west to sample the range of the state’s charms. Your group can experience California’s soft-sand beaches (on a lakefront), its dense and peaceful forests, its delicious wine country, its inspiring mountains and its rich native and Spanish history, by actually staying in one place. It’s the Inland Empire, one place that delivers great value in a high-demand region.

Made up of the southwest corner of the 27,000 square miles of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, the area of interest, as far as meeting professionals are concerned, is the 30-mile-wide swath that incorporates the cities of Ontario, and nearby Rancho Cucamonga, San Bernardino, Lake Arrowhead, Redlands, Riverside and Temecula.

Overall, the IE, as locals call it, starts in the west on the border nearest Los Angeles and reaches over to Redlands about 30 miles in the east. The north-south range is about 50 miles, as the crow flies, between Lake Arrowhead up in the San Bernardino Mountains sweeping down to the south where it meets San Diego County at Temecula. And it’s especially nice that the IE is served by an outstanding regional transportation hub, LA/Ontario International Airport.

THE LAY OF THE LAND
Aside from the value and the convenience, the Inland Empire has considerable allure. It is home to the Cucamonga Valley, the oldest and historically the largest grape-growing district in the state. It’s got topography; it’s rimmed by mountains, some of them rising more than 10,000 feet above sea level. It’s also got mid-century cachet, bisected as it is by historic Route 66, which is also home to the world’s first McDonald’s. There are spots in the IE where ski slopes in the San Bernardino Mountains are just 45 minutes away in one direction and (traffic-permitting) Pacific beaches are 45 minutes away in another. There’s no place in the entire country with such close-at-hand diversity. Indeed, the entire IE is home to more than 120 distinct cities.

This is the California of the earliest Spanish settlements after the explorers moved inland from the coast. This is the California that native tribes roamed for its abundant game and resources for 4,000 years. This is the California that produced most of the state’s wine in the 19th century and which still contributes fine wines—even some superb whites—to California’s reputation as the finest wine region in the New World. This is the California of the Mission Inn, of the Arrowhead Resort and Spa sited on the location of the historic Arlington Lodge, and of elegant Victorian homes in Redlands.

This is a familiar California, too: the IE’s landscape and communities have been featured in literally thousands of films and television shows. As Becky Brake, the supervising location manager for Mission Impossible III says, “It’s very cinematic. It’s got that old grit.” Adds Dan Taylor, production coordinator for the Inland Empire Film Commission, “It’s one of the very few, if not the only, places in the U.S. where you can film in mountains in the morning and that afternoon be in the desert and do a desert shoot.” The Film Commission might describe the IE’s diversity best: “The Inland Empire has locations that can double for the Midwest, the South of France, the Napa Valley, the Sahara Desert, Las Vegas, the Southern United States, Vietnam and countless other places your script may call for. We even have an ocean look-alike called the Salton Sea.” 

With settings and locations like that, it’s no wonder that in 2002 the film and television industry had a $250-million economic impact on the area.

One thing more: drive times to Disneyland, to the heart of Los Angeles, Palm Springs and the Mt. Baldy Resort are less than an hour. LAX is about an hour away during less congested hours.

MAJOR MEETING SPOTS
The Inland Empire offers three. The contemporary Ontario Convention Center is five minutes away from your likely arrival point, the LA/Ontario International Airport. It offers more than 225,000 sq. ft. of exhibit, meeting and function space overall. This includes 70,000 sq. ft. of meeting, convention and exhibition space, with a convertible 20,000-square-foot ballroom and another 24,000 sq. ft. of individual meeting space, as well as video-conferencing, WiFi, Internet and DS3 capabilities. Within walking distance, you’ll find nearly 2,500 hotel rooms; the Ontario Convention & Visitors Bureau can assist you in your choices.

There’s also the Riverside Convention Center, which provides 45,000 sq. ft. of indoor meeting space, plus outside plazas and courtyards that are perfect for early-evening gatherings on sultry IE nights. It will handle meetings and conventions up to 2,000. The Riverside Convention & Visitors Bureau is ready to introduce you to this facility, located less than 20 minutes from Ontario International.

If your gathering is on a rather larger scale, consider San Bernardino’s huge NOS Events Center, which can accommodate Springsteen-size throngs of 60,000. The facility hosts 300 conventions and events every year, including the National Orange Show, source of the center’s acronym name.

Looking forward, the groundbreaking for the Citizens Business Bank Arena, a state-of-the-art, 11,000-seat sports and entertainment arena in Ontario, was held in early March. The facility is scheduled to open in the winter of 2008. The arena will include 9,500 fixed seats with additional portable seating risers to accommodate capacities of 11,089 for concerts, 9,736 for ice hockey and 10,832 for basketball. The 225,000-square-foot venue will also feature 36 luxury suites located on two levels and a continuous concourse hosting a variety of refreshment stands and merchandise kiosks, a VIP club and other fan amenities.

The new arena is the centerpiece of Piemonte at the Ontario Center, currently under construction, as an urban, mixed-use project, with office and specialty retail space, a 200-plus-room full-service hotel, entertainment and urban living components. In addition to sporting events and concerts, Citizens Business Bank Arena will host conventions and special events. The venue will be the biggest and most modern arena within the Inland Empire.

UNIQUE VENUES
The IE’s take on art and science is represented by several outstanding museums. The San Bernardino County Museum is building a new three-story, 12,400-square-foot Hall of Geological Wonders. The highlight will be its focus on the mighty San Andreas Fault, which transects the IE and is responsible for its mélange of earth forms and landscapes.

The Historical Glass Museum, in Redlands, features more than 6,000 examples of American glassmaking in an Victorian-era cottage; they are in the process of adding a mid-20th to 21st-century glass museum in a second cottage directly next door.

Your meeting’s rock and rollers and country twangers will not want to miss the Fender Center for Music Education in Corona, sponsored by the famous guitar-maker.

A major area attraction is the NASCAR California Speedway in Fontana, just a few miles northeast of Ontario. Take your group to a luxury suite or skybox located over the main grandstands. There are also entertainment centers at various spots throughout the facility. They can accommodate groups from 30 to 1,000.

In Riverside, head to the March Field Air Museum, where your group can party in a plane. To be specific, you can have a sit-down event inside a huge C-141 Starlifter, or inside a hangar amid 71 historic aircraft. In nearby Perris, your group can take turns riding with an engineer up in the cab of a big diesel locomotive at the Orange Empire Railway Museum. And as a special experience, under the museum’s Run One program, individuals can receive instruction and then go on to operate the locomotive (under the watchful supervision of an experienced engineer). The experience includes one engineer’s cap and a certificate of accomplishment, plus, as they say, “a huge sense of control.”

Riverside’s world-renowned Mission Inn is a destination unto itself. It may be the most distinctive hotel in which you’re ever likely to host a meeting or event. A National Historic Landmark, the Inn comprises an assemblage of arcades and gardens, turrets and domes, flying buttresses and spiraling staircases, catacombs and carillon towers. It is decorated with fine art and Spanish cannon, stained glass and ceramic tile, saints and dragons, bells and wrought iron. And it’s big, occupying an entire city block.

The property has 20,000 sq. ft. of indoor meeting space and 5,000 of outdoor patio space. While there, you may want to take your group on one of The Mission Inn Foundation’s tours of the hotel; it’s the best way to take in the hotel’s splendor and to see private treasures like the Tiffany glass.

NORTH TO ARROWHEAD
Lake Arrowhead sits nearly a mile above sea level in San Bernardino National Forest, a quiet and scenic respite from the crowded metropolis below. There, your group can enjoy hiking, biking and boating. Top attractions are the Arrowhead Queen for tours of the lake and the Blue Jay Ice Castle for ice skating. The lake is privately owned, so swimming access is through beach clubs or through the various resorts and conference centers. Nordic and downhill skiing are about a 25-minute drive away at Big Bear Lake.

First developed in the 1890s, Lake Arrowhead has attracted visitors for nearly a century. The lake has been the location for scenes from The American President, Space Jam and The Parent Trap, among others. Charming Lake Arrowhead Village offers dining and shopping, as well as a multiscreen movie theater.

The area’s two major meetings facilities are The Lake Arrowhead Resort and Spa and the UCLA Conference Center. The resort, with 12,000 sq. ft. of indoor meeting space, has a ballroom that can accommodate up to 400. It has just completed a $17-million renovation that has brought all meeting facilities, as well as the guest rooms and spa, to the luxury level. Of special interest is the Pinnacle, a state-of-the-art executive meeting space above the lobby for up to 16. It also contains a private wet bar, lounge and separate business center.

The resort’s origins date back to the original Arlington Lodge, which opened on the shores of the lake in 1923. The Lodge burned in 1938 but was quickly rebuilt, forming the basis of the present facility, which was opened as the Resort and Spa in 1982. Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Ethel Barrymore and Natalie Wood lead the long list of Hollywood celebrities who stayed at the old Arlington, a tradition that continues at the Resort and Spa.

The story of the UCLA Conference Center also began in the early 1920s, when it was a resort on the lake, only reachable by boat. Today it can accommodate meetings ranging in size from 10 to 200 guests on its 40 acres. The facilities include 12 meeting rooms and also the Ropes Course Program. The center holds 300 conferences annually.

SOUTH TO TEMECULA
Temecula derives its name from a local native tribe’s language meaning “sun shining through sea mists.” The Temecula Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau will be glad to help you decide where to stay and meet. In the IE’s justly famous wine country, the Temecula Valley, you’ll find 18 wineries.

Thornton hosts private functions in the Vineyard View Room, in its champagne caves, and outside on the Fountain Terrace overlooking the valley’s vineyards. Wilson Creek Winery & Vineyards has a 6,000-square-foot outdoor pavilion that’s lighted for evening events, and your group can even take home a bottle of Wilson Creek wine that’s been specially labeled for the meeting. Ponte Winery is probably the valley’s leading meeting-oriented winery, with in-house planners to help you organize an event or meeting, state-of-the-art A/V equipment in the meeting room and on-site catering.

Steve Bjerklie is a frequent contributor to Smart Meetings, and he also writes regularly for The Economist.

Getting There

Not To Be Missed

• The Inland Empire’s Temecula Valley is home to 18 wineries, which produce some world-class wines. Several of the wineries can accommodate small meetings and corporate lunches.
• The St. Francis Chapel at the Mission Inn in Riverside is illuminated by original stained-glass windows designed and made by Louis Comfort Tiffany, and they are arguably the finest examples of original Tiffany glass in the West. Richard and Pat Nixon were married in the chapel, as well as many other notable couples.
• The San Bernardino County Museum’s Hall of Geologic Wonders, now under construction, will focus on the San Andreas Fault, the Inland Empire’s signature landform creator, and will offer interactive and immersion exhibits to inform and educate about earthquakes, plate tectonics and other geological events that brought California’s dramatic landscapes into being.