Seattle has long been maligned as a rain-drenched city often made monochrome by cloud cover. But, as a matter of fact, the city receives less rain annually than New York and Houston. And, for many longtime residents of the city—indeed the entire state of Washington—the weather reputation is both an exaggeration and a blessing. Were it not for this image barrier, Washington could become the most desirable place to live in North America—and crowd them out.
This truly memorable state is divided in half by the magnificent Cascade Mountain range, which runs from Canada to Oregon and is crowned by Mount Saint Helens (which infamously erupted in 1980) and the iconic Mount Rainier, towering over western Washington like a proud king on his throne.
The western half—the most populous part of the state—is split by Puget Sound, which provides a maze of watery playgrounds dotted by several hundred magical islands. Hugging its eastern and southern shores are cities like Bellevue, Seattle, Everett, Tacoma, Renton and Olympia. The northwestern corner of the state hosts the near-mystical forests and mountain ranges of Olympic National Park, which is a temperate rain forest.
Cross the Cascade Mountains to the eastern half, however, and you’ll find yourself in what seems a different country—perpetually sunny, warm flatlands host dozens of first-rate wineries, the deep and twisting Columbia River gorge and endless outdoor recreation possibilities.
And this is just the geography: the state’s communities are equally diverse and unique.
There are cities like Spokane and Tacoma, which underwent a rebirth into premium meetings destinations with exceptional hotels, restaurants and arts. The secluded San Juan Islands, with their quaint B&Bs and small resorts. The city of Bellevue, which ascended into a meetings and conference powerhouse within the last five years. The numerous mountain resorts providing a wealth of options. And, of course, there's Seattle, which retained its sparkle, its energy and its namesake as “The Emerald City” while surviving a roller coaster transition from adolescence to maturity, evolving into a year-round hotspot.
Seattle
Seattle has always had a strong pull for outdoor enthusiasts and adventure seekers, with its endless mountains, forests, rivers and Puget Sound, but only recently has it matured into a major business destination. Once it was largely at the whim of its industries, from logging, fishing and port trade to a reliance on Boeing, Microsoft, Nordstrom, Costco and Starbucks. With the surge of high-tech companies during the dot-com wave, however, Seattle shook off the past, becoming a player in the business world and, not coincidentally, in the meetings market.
What is exciting about Seattle today is that, not only have the city’s hotels, restaurants and meeting venues made serious advances in size and sophistication, but neighboring communities, like Bellevue and Tacoma, have really taken off, funneling more people into the city for events and dining and creating peripheral accommodations for large conventions. Seattle has also built up its downtown, giving visitors plenty to do within a small area. “One of the best things about Seattle is it has such a concentrated core,” says Kae Block, director of convention and visitor services for the Seattle Convention and Visitors Bureau (visitseattle.org). “People can leave a meeting for lunch, walk down to the water and come back. You don’t lose people, like in a huge city that is spread out.”
This January, the city will host the next annual meeting of the Professional Convention Management Association (PCMA), allowing thousands of meeting professionals to see just what Seattle has to offer these days.
Meetings Venues
Downtown is where you’ll find most of the city’s best hotels and restaurants—all within walking distance of each other and the city’s convention center. Among them is the Seattle Sheraton (sheraton.com/seattle), which just completed a major renovation, adding a new 25-story tower for a total of 1,253 guest rooms; it features 75,000 sq. ft. of meeting space and 47 meeting rooms. The hotel, now the largest in the state, is also ideally located near the state-of-the-art Washington State Convention & Trade Center (wsctc.com), which has more than 300,000 sq. ft. of meeting space and 61 separate meeting rooms. In addition to advanced A/V equipment and more than 1,500 covered parking spaces (a rarity in any major city), the Center adds style and appeal with more than 120 fine art pieces throughout the facility and an award-wining on-site kitchen, providing excellent cuisine for groups up to 11,000. Within six blocks of the Center, amid a number of top restaurants, you’ll find almost 30 hotels with more than 2,000 guest rooms.
“We would go back in a heartbeat,” says DJ Kaman, senior meetings and exhibits manager for the American Association of Orthodontists. More than 14,000 of their delegates came together at the Convention Center for four days last May and booked 22,000 room nights at the Sheraton and other nearby hotels, such as the Edgewater (edgewaterhotel.com). “The convention center staff was phenomenal,” she says. “They do their job very seriously, but are also very friendly. This is not something you find very often.” Haman says she appreciated the proximity of the major attractions and restaurants to the hotel and convention center. “A lot of people walked everywhere—I just like everything about Seattle.”
Seattle has yet another advantage for meeting professionals—in addition to its convention center and large hotels, many of its major attractions are also well suited to groups and meetings. One of the most visible is the landmark Space Needle (spaceneedle.com). As a major attraction, meeting space and restaurant rolled into one, it is a planner’s dream come true. The Skyline level, at the top of Space Needle, can handle a reception for 360, while several other meeting spaces range from 900 to more than 32,000 sq. ft. SkyCity, a circular restaurant at the top of the Needle, slowly rotates around the core, providing 360-degree views of the city from every seat. Group seating of up to 21 is available.
The Space Needle juts up from the middle of the Seattle Center (seattlecenter.com), a fantastic smorgasbord of venues that includes several major meeting and conference facilities and dozens of attractions. The Experience Music Project (empsfm.org) is a state-of-the-art tribute to music, with high-tech exhibits chronicling rock and roll history, a hands-on music lab and a stage for live shows. With the recently added Science Fiction Museum—featuring unique exhibits about the literature and media of this genre—the EMP can handle groups from 10 to 3,000.
Several other traditional meetings venues can be found at the Seattle Center, including the 15,500-seat Key Arena, several large auditoriums and meeting rooms at the Marion Oliver McCaw Hall and the 15,000-square-foot Fisher Pavilion. Situated just a few miles from downtown Seattle, the Center is quickly accessed via the Seattle Monorail (seattlemonorail.com), which zips riders through the city at 50 miles an hour.
Unique Meeting Venues
A surprising fact for many locals, the state’s most popular visitor attraction is the Washington State Ferries (wsdot.wa.gov/ferries), which make the Puget Sound area accessible to commuters but also serve as an interesting and refreshing venue for small pre- and post-event meetings when en route to your destination. Cruise times range from 20-minute jaunts across the lower Sound to three-hour crossings up to Canada.
For a much more private and catered affair, Argosy Cruises (argosycruises.com) takes groups of eight to 700 from downtown Seattle on a variety of vessels such as yachts, a historic ferry and a dining ship for scenic tours on the Sound.
Bellevue
Outside of the recent Sheraton expansion, the hottest news coming out of Washington is the boom of Bellevue, which has morphed from a quiet Seattle bedroom community into a first-rate meeting destination. “Retail and hotels are growing at an unprecedented rate,” explains Tom Norwalk, senior vice president of sales and marketing for the Seattle CVB. The growth is a result of Bellevue’s winning combination—plenty to offer as a city, but also a destination only minutes from Seattle. Originally an upscale residential neighborhood, the city aggressively pursued the meetings market and is now well designed for this purpose. If you require the kind of top hotels, restaurants and meeting venues that only a city can offer, yet you could do without the accompanying traffic, distraction and intensity, Bellevue may be your answer.
Meetings Venues
The sophisticated Meydenbauer Center (meydenbauer.com) handles the major meetings in the city, with 48,000 sq. ft. of flexible meeting space, a 410-seat theater and nine meeting rooms. A number of hotels within walking distance of the center provide more than 3,000 total guest rooms to complement the space, and many excellent restaurants have settled in to accommodate this surge of growth.
Among the hotels are the new Hilton Bellevue (bellevuehilton.com), which features 353 guest rooms and 22,000 sq. ft. of flexible meeting space; the Hyatt Regency Bellevue (bellevue.hyatt.com), which, following a $20-million renovation in 2006, offers 382 guest rooms and 17,000 sq. ft. of meeting space; and The Westin Bellevue (westin.com/bellevuewa), less than two years old, with 337 guest rooms and 33,000 sq. ft. of meeting space.
Spokane
Tucked away on the eastern edge of Washington State, Spokane has followed Bellevue’s lead and reinvented itself as a meetings destination. As the second-largest city in the state, it has also become a cultural beacon in the less populated, lesser-known flatlands of eastern Washington. In addition to a $1.6-billion renaissance of the downtown, it is also graced by 100-acre Riverfront Park. And, despite the major hotels, restaurants, museums and other attractions of a major city, Spokane—between the flat Columbia Plateau and the Rocky Mountain foothills—still offers boundless nature and outdoor recreation. “Spokane has all of the amenities of a city but still retains a small-town feel,” says Keith Backson, vice president and director of sales for the Spokane Convention and Visitors Bureau (visitspokane.com). “The area is beautiful, and you walk everywhere downtown.”
Meetings Venues
The Spokane Convention Center (spokanecenter.com) offers more than 164,000 sq. ft. of meeting space and 24 meeting rooms, with 1,200 committable guest rooms within walking distance. In lockstep with recent eco-friendly efforts in building design, the center’s Group Health Exhibit Hall, completed in mid-2006 with 100,000 sq. ft. of space, earned the rare Silver Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification from the U.S. Green Building Council.
Immediately adjacent, The Doubletree Hotel Spokane-City Center (doubletree.com), with 375 guest rooms and more than 16,000 sq. ft. of meeting space, is connected to the Convention Center via sky bridge.
Island Escapes, Mountain Retreats and More
While Washington has an eclectic collection of larger cities, it also has many secluded and remote venues—found in the islands, the mountains and other idyllic alcoves. The San Juan Islands Visitors Bureau (guidetosanjuans.com) can provide a number of options for unique and intimate meetings. Robin Jacobson, public relations manager for the bureau, explains the effect the islands have on many visitors: “What we hear from meeting planners and the attendees is that there is this really nice feeling of leaving their normal life behind, which opens up creative and positive energy.” She adds, “This allows them to shed their traditional roles…the pretense drops.”
Rosario Resort (rosarioresort.com) on Orcas Island is the largest lodging venue in the San Juans, with 116 guest rooms and 6,000 sq. ft. of flexible meeting space. Most of the properties on the islands, however, are more tailored to smaller groups, and charming bed and breakfasts abound. The Friday Harbor House (fridayharborhouse.com) on San Juan Island offers 23 guest rooms and a new 1,070-square-foot meeting facility. “We are just crawling with B&Bs here,” Jacobson says. “What many of the meeting planners are looking for is taking over an entire B&B and having that total privacy.”
The Cascade Mountain range, which splits the state in half from Canada to Oregon, is home to a number of lodges and resorts. Suncadia Resort (suncadia.com), set into the eastern side of the mountains near the town of Roslyn, is undergoing a $1-billion expansion, and by mid-2008 will have a 254-room resort, a 20,000-square-foot conference center with breakout rooms and two championship golf courses.
Wine lovers are no doubt aware of the state’s premium wine labels—Washington is now the nation’s second-largest producer. Most of the vineyards are found in the relatively unpopulated south central part of the state, as well as in the east, near Spokane. Though still young compared with California’s vineyards, Washington’s wine country is on pace to become just as popular. If you want to mix in some wine with your next meeting, most of the meeting facilities and accommodations are located in Yakima, Spokane and the Tri-Cities area.
Perched on the southern end of the Puget Sound between Olympia and Seattle, the city of Tacoma has experienced significant revitalization of its downtown and makes for a solid meeting destination, with a convenient 18-mile proximity to Sea-Tac airport. In 2004, the city made a major play toward the meetings market with the Greater Tacoma Convention & Trade Center (tacomaconventioncenter.com), featuring more than 130,000 sq. ft. of space.
For accommodations, the adjacent Sheraton Tacoma (sheratontacoma.com) and Tacoma Courtyard Marriott (marriott.com) provide a total of 479 guest rooms.
The Tulalip Resort Casino (tulalipcasino.com), half an hour north of Seattle, provides more of a Las Vegas-type gaming alternative, and is adding a 370-room resort, a spa and 30,000 sq. ft. of meeting space by early 2008.
Like all parts of Washington, however, the great outdoors remains dominant, and it never lets you forget exactly where you are.
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Getting There
• Sea-Tac International Airport (portseattle.org/seatac) is the primary airport for the state and is 20 minutes from Seattle. Much of the western half of the state is within driving distance of Sea-Tac or can be accessed by ferry (wsdot.wa.gov/ferries). Several seaplane charters also service the San Juan Islands. In eastern Washington, Spokane International Airport (spokaneairports.net) is more convenient.
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