Smart Meetings

MONTEREY
Whether it’s the summer doldrums or memories of fun family vacations, August seems to call for a change of scenery. And what better way to experience Northern California than checking out its Pacific coast, vibrant cities, postcard icons, vineyard-dotted wine country, craggy mountains and one gorgeous, big blue lake. So scroll down to some Willie Nelson on your iPod and join our “journey” to some of the West’s best meetings destinations.

We begin our (hypothetical) road trip in Monterey, and there’s no place more logical to start. The Pacific-blue city of Monterey was, after all, the first capital of California, under the Spanish flag. Its history evolved through waves of immigrant fishermen, artists and writers, and later, entrepreneurs who saw the potential of a beautiful bayside location. The threads of this history are woven throughout the city, from restored historic buildings that date back to the early 1800s to today’s burgeoning hotel scene, a world-famous aquarium and myriad outdoor recreational pursuits.

Fanning out from the city, in Monterey County, are 99 miles of shoreline, 40,000 acres of premier wine grapes (more than Napa and Sonoma) and 25 golf courses.

Map points such as Seaside, Carmel, Carmel Valley (slightly inland) and Big Sur flesh out a locus that’s incredibly rich as a meetings destination.

And, for planners, it has another major attraction. “I wish everyone knew how accessible Monterey is as a destination,” says Shannon Marshall, director of communications for the Monterey County Convention & Visitors Bureau. “It’s easy to fly into—the airport is three miles from our historic downtown, there are new direct flights and new airline service by ExpressJet. Plus, it’s close to three Bay Area airports. That’s key: It has the charm of a secluded coastal hideaway but accessibility to major airports.”

MEETINGS VENUES
First and foremost is the Monterey Conference Center, the largest meeting and function space in the region (58,000 sq. ft.), plus it transitions seamlessly into the Portola Plaza Hotel. Close to the city’s historic downtown, the center is also linked to the Monterey Marriott by a footbridge.

UNIQUE VENUES
Give your attendees a chance to mingle among sharks, jellyfish and other denizens of pristine Monterey Bay at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, a fascinating glimpse of ecology that hosts private parties for 30 to 3,000 people—after hours.

To please your inlanders, or even those who just like sand-and-surf experiences, plan a beach party or a kayak excursion through Adventures by the Sea or Monterey Bay Kayaks. Events can be all-in-good fun team-building exercises, like beach volleyball, or paddling a kayak and going eyeball to eyeball with some of the bay’s frisky critters, like sea otters or sea lions.


SAN JOSE
Back in the day, Dionne Warwick crooned, “Do you know the way to San Jose?”—a song that mercifully disappeared when Silicon Valley began to take shape (interestingly, the tagline for the San Jose Convention & Visitors Bureau is “This is the way”).

The way is clear—and you don’t even need a password to enjoy this bustling, diverse city with a compact, walkable downtown. Here you’ll find SoFa, the South of First area jam-packed with restaurants, lounges and live music, and nearby Santana Row, a hip shopping, dining and entertainment destination.

“San Jose is a fun and exciting destination to explore beyond business, and we offer great facilities,” says Dan Fenton, president and CEO of the San Jose Convention & Visitors Bureau and chairman of Team San Jose. Perhaps the most compelling reason planners choose San Jose, he says, is “our innovative one-stop shopping program. We offer service no one else can because we created Team San Jose, a unique partnership between hotels, organized labor, the arts and business community—all at the table ensuring a seamless experience.”

MEETINGS VENUES
San Jose McEnery Convention Center is the city’s major meeting venue—and plans are underway for possible expansion of the 223,000-square-foot facility. Earlier it added South Hall, an 80,000-square-foot, permanent “tentile structure” that greatly increased the center’s flexibility as well as function space. Other venues under the CVB’s purview are the Civic Auditorium, Parkside Hall, Center for the Performing Arts, California Theatre and the Montgomery Theatre (sjcc.com).

Another option, in nearby Santa Clara, is the Network Meeting Center, an IACC-certified day meeting and event facility that can host meetings of up to 300 people and special events up to 500.

UNIQUE VENUES
A slight detour from downtown San Jose is Dolce Hayes Mansion, an elegant former mansion with service rivaling that of the original. The hotel-cum-conference center is ideal for a retreat but also works for day use, as Victoria Escuton, meeting planner with Software Executive Briefing Center in San Jose attests. Recently she held a series of corporate-client briefings there, with an average attendance of 15 to 20. “Catering is a big deal with these briefings, and I never had to worry about that part, so it left me free to do my job,” she says. All the details were taken care of, and if there was a problem, it was corrected within minutes. “That speaks a lot about the team there.”

Coming soon to Cupertino, another high-tech hub, is Strike, a new-concept bowling center with an upscale atmosphere, gourmet food and private party rooms outfitted with state-of-the-art A/V equipment. (It’ll put the “team” in your team-building event.)

SAN FRANCISCO
This summer marks the 40th anniversary of the Summer of Love (so be sure to wear some flowers in your hair), a benchmark in San Francisco’s colorful history. And love is all around—from the Cupid’s Span sculpture along the palm-fringed Embarcadero to the “heart” art installations at the Ferry Building Plaza. Visitors also still leave their hearts here—according to newly released figures by the San Francisco Convention & Visitors Bureau, 15.8 million people visited in 2006—representing a modest increase in numbers but a major increase in spending over 2005.

The city’s hospitality scene is robust as well, with the transformation and renovation of numerous meetings hotels, including the Sir Francis Drake ($20 million), the San Francisco Marriott (formerly the Pan Pacific, a multimillion-dollar upgrade) and the Hyatt at Fisherman’s Wharf ($6 million).

MEETING VENUES
Moscone Center, the city’s convention facility, is located only a few blocks from Union Square. It totals 1.2 million sq. ft. in three venues: Moscone South, Moscone North and the smaller, free-standing Moscone West. The buzz is, the city is considering expanding the center. According to Leonard Hoops, executive vice president, sales and marketing for the CVB, “the general desire is to expand in the Yerba Buena area and connect to the existing facilities, as opposed to enlarging any of the existing facilities or building a new facility outside the current Moscone area.”

Larger convention space would make Moscone more competitive, but the possible expansion (2014 or perhaps sooner) is also sparked by San Francisco’s robust convention business. “2008 will be a very strong convention year, one of the busiest in San Francisco history based on contracted room nights,” Hoops says.

UNIQUE VENUES    
It’s easy to go into “unique” overload in San Francisco, but a good place to start is the Ferry Building Marketplace. In addition to fabulous food stalls ready to entice you with chocolates, artisan cheeses and ripe organic produce, there’s an airy, open second-floor event space overlooking the scene below.

Or take your group out on San Francisco Bay for a meeting or a dinner cruise on a sleek yacht from Signature Hospitality Group or Hornblower Cruises & Events. Both offer flexibility in group size, including Hornblower’s  2,000-person San Francisco Belle.

Or, if you’re looking for a quiet retreat that’s also close to the city, check out Marconi Conference Center, north of the Golden Gate Bridge in rural west Marin County. This full-service center on Tomales Bay is capable of hosting 89 attendees in four lodges. Meeting space capacity is 106, and there’s outdoor space for receptions as well.

WINE COUNTRY
Sonoma or Napa? It’s not quite a “lady or tiger” decision, but at the fork of Highways 121 and 116, you make a choice. To the left is Sonoma Valley (116), straight ahead leads to Napa. While Sonoma County itself is large, (more than 1,600 square miles) stretching west to the ocean, the Sonoma Valley is a picturesque sliver. Also a narrow ribbon (29 miles in length), the Napa Valley is well-known far beyond its size. Both mingle briefly in the Carneros region—an area where, if you can say “pinot noir,” you know it. "There's a lot of unique things here. It's the birthplace of wine country," says Kimberly Scargle, sales manager for the Napa Valley Conference and Visitors Bureau. "We are a very specialized destination, for board retreats and intimate gatherings. Prices are a little more, but you get a little more of the experience."

Meeting space in these two valleys centers primarily around resorts, some of which have been major players in the industry for many years, some of which are new.

In Sonoma Valley, for instance, there’s the elegant Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn. In Napa, stalwarts such as Silverado and Meadowood are joined by the new Meritage Resort—with the largest conference space in the Napa Valley—and the brand new Gaia Napa Valley Hotel and Spa. In Carneros, chic Carneros Inn draws retreat and incentive groups.

UNIQUE VENUES
Of course you’ll want to try out a tasting room or two—or three, if you’re not the driver. But they’re also venues that can host meetings, offer team-building activities (such as making your own wine) and provide sensational venues for dinners and receptions in the wineries, in their gardens or in their surprisingly elegant caves. Try Kenwood Vineyards or St. Francis Winery in Sonoma Valley; St. Supery or Merryvale in Napa.

Other wine country activities include perennial favorites such as golf, hot-air ballooning, bicycling—even an excursion (or charter) on the Napa Valley Wine Train, for a trip through the scenic vineyards.


SACRAMENTO
During the Gold Rush, Sacramento bustled with miners on their way to, or returning from, the Sierra Nevadas. They wanted a place to stay, a good meal and a good time. Today, a lot of that same energy has revitalized the state capital, which is growing by leaps and bounds. The dining scene is booming, there are cafes and live music; people linger after business hours. In fact, National Geographic Traveler recently recognized this major change in a story titled “Sacramento: From Boring to Booming.”

Meeting planners have also taken note. Rebecca Reber, meeting planner with Les Schwab Tire Co. in Prinevile, Ore. brought two large meetings to the city in 2006, a managers meeting for 1,000 in July and an assistant managers meeting in August, with 1,200 attendees. She chose Sacramento because it’s one of their market areas, with facilities large enough to hold her groups. She also likes Sacramento as a location because it’s easily accessible by air and by car. Plus, she says, “Our attendees went to many restaurants during the course of the week...There’s lots of activity, plenty to do.”

Steve Hammond, president and CEO of the Sacramento Convention & Visitors Bureau, points out that “We have enhanced our convention product by recently adding 12 new restaurants, and we currently have five new hotels under construction due to open in 2007–2008.” When you combine that with “affordable convention center rates, additional parking, new retails shops and improved in-house services, he says, “Sacramento has become a vital and significant factor in the meetings industry marketplace.”

MEETINGS VENUES
Sacramento’s Convention Center is conveniently located downtown, with two major meetings hotels across the street (the Hyatt Regency and the Sheraton). The center can provide groups with 384,000 sq. ft. of flexible meeting and event space that includes 134,000 sq. ft. of exhibit space and 31 meeting rooms. There’s also a 24,000-square-foot ballroom.

Sacramento also has several other options for large groups. First, there’s Cal Expo, home to the California State Fair, which can accommodate a whopping 50,000. For special events, or even just appeasing your sports fans with tickets, there’s ARCO Arena, home court for the Sacramento Kings basketball team, with 17,000 seats; and Raley Field, home field for the Sacramento RiverCats minor-league baseball team, offering 15,000.

UNIQUE VENUES
You don’t have to be a train buff to appreciate the California State Railroad Museum in Old Sacramento. Hold your meeting, reception or dinner at locations such as the Museum Roundhouse (up to 550) or the Eagle Theatre (capacity 150)—or choose Dinner in the Diner (up to 48). Of course, you can also charter one of the steam or diesel-powered excursion trains.

While no longer a moveable feast—it’s permanently docked on the Sacramento River—the 1920s-vintage riverboat Delta King can host groups up to 180 for dinner—dancing optional. Or, a totally new venue is the Aerospace Museum of California, which opened last February in McClellan Park. The $7-million facility, which has a 37,500-square-foot Pavilion and a 4.5-acre Air Park with 40 aircraft on display, is available for private events, including catering, after hours.

LAKE TAHOE
Climbing up into the Sierra, we reach another favorite destination: Lake Tahoe, at 22 miles long and 12 miles wide, the largest alpine lake in North America. Decisions, decisions—South Shore or North Shore? Summer is fun at either: skis are replaced by mountain bikes, snowboards by WaveRunners. With more than 300 days of sunshine a year, meetings here include golf tournaments and as many outdoor functions as you can squeeze into an agenda.

South Shore has undergone a major transition that makes it even more appealing to planners, ranging from the multimillion-dollar renovation at Embassy Suites Lake Tahoe Hotel & Ski Resort to Heavenly Village’s collection of boutiques, restaurants and entertainment venues, which replaced the old-time shops. And it’s part of “The Fun Zone,” which extends along the casino corridor into Nevada.

North Shore has a more laid-back vibe, with a clutch of towns like Tahoe City and Truckee that are going more upscale but still retain their rustic mountain-village flavor. North Shore properties are sprucing up as well. “With all the new development and renovations at North Lake Tahoe, it’s an absolute must-see meetings destination,” says Jason Neary, director of sales for North Lake Tahoe Visitors & Convention Bureau.

MEETINGS VENUES  
South Shore draws on its California hotel properties, as well as its Nevada partners, for meetings. “Whether you need a 1,300-foot seat showroom or a traditional boardroom-style meeting facility with state of the art technology, South Shore Lake Tahoe is the place to find it,” says Patrick Kaler, executive director of the Lake Tahoe Visitors Authority.

But coming in May 2010 is a new large-scale convention center, located just across the street from the Heavenly gondola at Stateline. The facility, which broke ground earlier this year, will accommodate 1,600 people for meetings and 4,400 for concerts or other similar functions.

North Lake Tahoe also relies primarily on its resort properties and hotels for meeting space, including the all-inclusive Granlibakken Conference Center & Lodge, situated on 74-acres within minutes of the lake, and, soon to come, at The Ritz-Carlton Highlands, Lake Tahoe on Northstar Mountain.

UNIQUE VENUES
You’ll want to take full advantage of Lake Tahoe’s scenic beauty, and one way to accomplish that is a cruise aboard the M.S. Dixie II paddlewheeler or  Tahoe Queen. Both can be rented by the floor for your event or as a buyout.

Or get your group into the water with a splash on a two- or three-hour rafting trip on the Truckee River with the Truckee River Raft Co. It’s an easy Class I, so even your landlubbers will enjoy it.

And, so, the answer to the perennial question “Are we there yet?” is “Yes.”  

 

News

• Monterey’s hotel scene continues to percolate, with construction continuing on the Fairmont Hotel in Seaside and a new hotel on Cannery Row  Renovations are currently underway at the Hyatt Regency Monterey, the Monterey Plaza Hotel & Spa and Casa Munras.
  
  
• Planning continues on the possible expansion of San Jose McEnery Convention Center. Construction has begun on phase one of the $1.5-billion expansion at San Jose International Airport.
  
  
• San Francisco is in the very early stages of exploring expansion ideas for Moscone Center. The city’s major hotels continue to change flags, upgrade and renovate—among them the former Miyako Inn in Japantown, now under Joie de Vivre management and renamed the Best Western Hotel Tomo.
  
  
• Solage Calistoga (89 rooms) opened in the Napa Valley in July, the first of the new Solage brand from Auberge Resorts. Also in Napa, next to Copia, is the Oxbow Center, a marketplace similar to San Francisco’s Ferry Building. New in the Carneros region of Sonoma is the Jacuzzi Winery, a 18,000-square-foot Italian stone structure set on 190 acres.
  
  
• In Sacramento, the Embassy Suites Capital Park, one block from the convention center, opened at the end of June. Joie de Vivre is opening a new hotel, The Citizen, in an old historic building in 2008.
  
  
• South Shore Lake Tahoe: Construction has begun on The Chateau of Heavenly Village, a $420-million project operated by RockResorts that will feature two luxury condominium-hotels with 477 rooms and a 50,000-square-foot convention center (which will hold up to 4,400).
  
  
• North Shore Lake Tahoe: The 172-room Ritz-Carlton Highlands, which broke ground at Northstar-at-Tahoe in 2006, is scheduled to open in 2009. Just outside of Tahoe City, Granlibakken Conference Center and Lodge recently opened its expanded Executive Lodge, for a total of 16,000 sq. ft.

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Getting There

MONTEREY
Monterey Peninsula Airport is served by five carriers, including new service by ExpressJet, which provide flights to San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Denver, Las Vegas, Salt Lake City, LA/Ontario and San Diego. Monterey is also a 75-mile drive south from San Jose International Airport and 119 miles south of San Francisco. 

SAN JOSE
Norman Y. Mineta San Jose International Airport, located five minutes from downtown San Jose, offers 182 daily departures with 13 airlines providing nonstop service to 31 destinations. In May, Southwest Airlines added flights from SJC to Chicago Midway and Burbank.

SAN FRANCISCO/WINE COUNTRY
San Francisco International Airport is served by approximately 40 passenger carriers, including all major airlines. San Francisco welcomes new service by JetBlue, Southwest Airlines and Virgin America.  Oakland International Airport has service by all major domestic airlines, including Southwest and JetBlue. Like SFO it is BART-accessible (bart.gov). Amtrak runs through Oakland and has a Coliseum/Oakland Airport station; see amtrak.com for schedules.    

SACRAMENTO
Sacramento International Airport provides service from 14 major carriers with more than 150 daily departures to all major U.S. cities. This summer ExpressJet started new airlift to Spokane, Albuquerque, Tucson, San Antonio, Oklahoma City, Tulsa and Colorado Springs.

Amtrak has a station in Sacramento with access to coastal routes from Seattle to Los Angeles and through the San Joaquin Valley; see amtrak.com for schedules.  

LAKE TAHOE
Reno-Tahoe International Airport serves Lake Tahoe area with 160 daily arrivals and departures on Alaska/Horizon; Aloha; American; Continental; Delta Connection/Skywest; Frontier; Southwest; United/Ted and US Airways. The drive market can access Lake Tahoe from Nevada and the San Francisco Bay Area via U.S. Route 50 and I-80, and I-5 from Southern California. Back to Top

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