Smart Meetings

Everybody, everywhere dreams of seeing the Land of the Midnight Sun, so putting together a meeting in Alaska pretty much guarantees record attendance. After all, no one wants to miss their chance to see the last frontier. Where else can you glance out a conference room window and perhaps spot a bear or trace an eagle’s glide across the sky? Or fish during lunch break and catch something bigger than your pet back home?

As Jillian Simpson, trade and international marketing director of the Alaska Travel Industry Association, points out, “Alaska is a perfect place to have a meeting. Not only do we have world-class facilities throughout the state, but it is also the ideal destination for meeting-goers to add on a couple of days either before or after their meeting to experience the vast greatness of the 49th state.” In fact, when a meeting is held in Alaska, about 75 percent of attendees bring a spouse or guest.

And that’s because Alaska is all about how the wild meets the civilized. Per capita, the state’s population is one of America’s most educated; high culture thrives here. Alaska has its own ethos of the indoors: if you must be inside—rather than outside playing—then inside should be as comfortable as possible and its views should be completely unobstructed.

Alaska does present a few unique challenges. Many people perceive it as too far away, although from the West Coast, it’s considerably closer than New York. These towns are small, so catering tends to be a better option than cramming everyone into a restaurant. Either way, everyone goes home talking about what salmon tastes like when it was swimming only hours before.

Weather also causes worries; forget them all. The ocean warms most towns in winter and marvelously cools them in summer. New Mexico has more temperature extremes.

Geographically, Alaska is bigger than Texas and California combined. The state isn’t much smaller than Australia. For meeting planners, three regions should be considered: Anchorage and Valdez, in the central coast; the interior, home to Denali, Fairbanks and Nome; and Southeast, the chain of islands along the Canadian coast, with the beautiful small towns of Sitka and Ketchikan, as well as the state capital, Juneau.

ANCHORAGE AND VALDEZ
Alaska’s biggest city, Anchorage, has more than 8,000 hotel rooms, and far and away the greatest variety of meeting venues. It also operates a central Web site to help planners, which covers all major sites.

Downtown options include the striking Alaska Center for the Performing Arts, which features a choice of theaters ranging from 350–2,000 seats. Nearby, and linked by a glass-walled skywalk, is the William A.Egan Civic & Convention Center, with more than 40,000 sq. ft. of art-filled meeting, exhibit and function space on two floors. The strikingly beautiful 215,000-square-foot Dena’ina Center is now under construction and is projected to open in September 2008. Providing more than 87,300 sq. ft. of meeting, ballroom and exhibit space, it will be topped by a light-filled 28,000-square-foot ballroom with terrace. Naturally, there will be unobstructed views of the Chugach Mountains off to the east. The new center’s extra-large kitchen can produce up to 5,000 meals at a time.

For smaller gatherings, and for a great introduction to the area’s cultural life, the Anchorage Museum of History and Art offers both its atrium with outstanding catering for 200 for a sit-down dinner or 400 for a reception, and an auditorium. The museum’s extraordinary full-scale exhibits, which show how the region’s first peoples survived across the hardships of 10,000 years, add a fascinating dimension to an Alaska visit.

Alaska Native Heritage Center, located on 26 acres about 12 minutes’ drive northeast of downtown, can accommodate up to 700 guests. The experience of meeting in the center’s 26,000-square-foot Welcome House adds a living history dimension to the story begun at the Anchorage Museum. Here tribal artists perform timeless dances and songs and create artworks, all toward keeping traditions alive as a vibrant heritage for the young. The grounds include re-creations of early village structures and a two-acre lake.

Nearly half the state’s population lives in or near Anchorage, but there’s more to the city than city. Chugach State Park, starting in the foothills of Anchorage to the east and circling around to the north of town, is laced with hundreds of miles of skiing and hiking trails. And how many other metropolises offer salmon fishing in the shadows of downtown?

Anchorage is also the departure point for the navy blue and yellow-hued Alaska Railroad, which offers a selection of tours and can carry a group, with catered meal service in their dining, passenger, bar and dome-liner cars, of up to 1,800 attendees.

According to Laura Tanis at the Anchorage Convention & Visitors Bureau, the advantages are obvious: “The wild, ruggedly beautiful surroundings in an urban setting, the independent spirit and our sense of community make this a special, exotic destination. Visitors are amazed by the sheer abundance of exciting, unique recreational activities and wildlife viewing opportunities available right in town. Our convention sales team works closely with the city’s hoteliers and restaurant owners to ensure every detail is taken care of.”

And that’s something Michael Barbour, who helped arrange an event for the Center for Ecological Sciences, agrees with. “The staff at the Anchorage CVB is the best I have ever come across. I wish I could clone them and put them around the U.S.”

Perhaps Jim Henderson, vice president, convention sales for the Anchorage CVB sums up their range of convention services best.

“If you want a pink elephant on the roof, we’ll get it there,” he says.

Incidentally, keep in mind that rooms in the major, full-service hotels are tougher to secure during peak season, which is May 15 through September 15. This is when cruise companies take major room blocks. Convention season, therefore, is April 1 through mid-May, and September 16 through October, although the winter months are certainly a viable option, as well.

Of course, one of the greatest things about Alaska is that no one lives here who doesn’t want to. Across the region, people genuinely are excited about showing off their hometowns and the great landscape that surrounds them.

Just over 300 miles east of Anchorage, Valdez (Valdez Convention & Visitors Bureau) is situated on a protected inlet of Prince William Sound, and serves as the terminus of the 800-mile-long Trans Alaska Pipeline. The community has made international headlines twice: for the 1964 earthquake, which nearly destroyed the town, and for the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill, which nearly destroyed the local economy. But bad publicity belies the truth: Valdez is one of the state’s most beautiful communities, an extreme sports mecca and home to Alaska’s most important theater festival.

The major meetings facility is the Valdez Convention and Civic Center, which includes a theater, grand ballroom and conference rooms totaling 18,000 sq. ft., accommodating groups of up to 478. The ballroom can be divided into three separate sections, each fully equipped for light and sound.

Valdez’s coastal location is like a playground for wildlife; whales, seals and otters frisk everywhere. Daytrips to Columbia Glacier, one of the sound’s largest tidewater glaciers, showcase these sights. The ship approaches the glacial face through a channel jammed with icebergs, crackling and groaning as they melt. In the endless summer sun, the ice is a shade of blue found nowhere else in the world.

Don’t miss the fishing, either. The annual Valdez Derby nets halibut in the range of 200 lbs and king salmon of 50 lbs.

DENALI, FAIRBANKS AND NOME
From just the right spot in Anchorage, on a very clear day, visitors can glimpse Mt. McKinley. At 20,320 feet, it’s the highest point in North America and the centerpiece of Denali National Park. Except nobody in Alaska calls it Mt. McKinley; here, it’s either Denali or just “The Mountain.” Located 237 miles north of Anchorage, the park encompasses more than six million acres of wilderness. Only one, highly restricted road slices through that space. More moose and caribou cruise the strip than cars. It’s not unusual to see a Toklat grizzly—smaller and more cinnamon-colored than their more famous coastal cousins—checking roadside berry bushes for a snack.

A string of luxury hotels surrounds the park’s entrance in the narrow belt of land between the highway and the Nenana River. The combination is intoxicating: mild and wild together, luxurious nights and rugged days. Debate in the conference room, then cut loose with a dog-sled demonstration or an outing to Wonder Lake, where the mountain resembles a wall across the horizon.

Fairbanks is the Chicago of Alaska: the Second City. The city is home to the University of Alaska’s main campus and a population in the overall urban area of 86,000. In summer, Fairbanks is also a vital stop on the migration route for millions of birds. Hundreds of sandhill cranes fight for space some days at Creamer’s Field, minutes from downtown.

The main venue is the Carlson Center, with 35,000 sq. ft. and a theater that can seat 1,600, as well as smaller meeting areas. On the University of Alaska campus is the architecturally striking Museum of the North, which features one of the best collections of Alaska artifacts anywhere. Recently renovated and expanded, the facility’s perfect for smaller gatherings. Its brick walkway allows 100 people to mingle and inspect the collections, plus gaze over the city. The conference room provides facilities for 35.

Karen Lundquist of the Fairbanks CVB praises the town’s personal touch, as well as that of her colleagues. “We all ensure the success of a convention,” she says, “whether it be arranging for the Golden Heart Greeters who meet and welcome delegates at the airport, arranging itineraries for pre- and post- tours, or assistance with local publicity.”

This far north, the weather can be a special consideration—not for its extremes, but for the distraction it can bring. Winter meetings recess so everyone can watch the northern lights ripple red and green over the horizon. And in summer, the daylight simply doesn’t stop. As Kathy McCauley, meetings and conventions services coordinator, says, “you don’t have a clue what time it is, and you don’t really care.”

Every town in this article is accessible by either road or boat except one: Nome, on the northwest coast of the state. The most well-known way to get there is actually by dog sled, since it’s the finishing line of the Iditarod, a thousand-mile race across Alaska’s backcountry. The airport is also the departure point for flights into Russia, about an hour away across the Bering Strait, and tours into the Arctic.

Nome was once the center of the state’s biggest gold rush, and even today, the beaches of Bristol Bay are lined with people hoping to strike it big. In the cafes, conversation is held in ounces, as miners discuss their latest finds.

CVB director Josie Stiles explains the allure of bush hospitality: “Our town has over 100 years of gold rush history that includes legends of Wyatt Earp and Jimmy Doolittle. We also have over 300 miles of road and wildlife like musk ox.”

Nome has several conference facilities, such as Old St. Joseph’s Hall. This renovated Catholic Church from the early 1900s is centrally located in the city, which has 200 hotels rooms altogether.

JUNEAU, SITKA AND KETCHIKAN
At the other end of the state, Southeast Alaska has become famous as the premier summertime cruise ship destination. But the region offers more than ports and t-shirt shops.

Juneau is the only capital in the U.S. not accessible by road: the only way in is by boat or plane, but the reward for the effort is huge, according to Lorene Palmer of the Juneau Convention and Visitors Bureau. “Juneau is not your typical convention destination,” she says with some understatement. “Unlike large-scale sites with their massive centers and corporate hotel chains, Juneau provides a real sense of community.” This is reinforced by Juneau’s size; the facilities are all within walking distance, according to Palmer, and so you spend time with your fellow attendees rather than dispersing into the urban landscape. 

“Juneau’s surrounding coastal mountains and Tongass Rainforest provide inspirational relief to any conference agenda,” she says. “Summer meetings have the added benefit of enjoying some of Alaska’s best recreational activities, like whale watching and glacier trekking.”

For traditional venues, the capital offers the Centennial Hall and Convention Center, downtown, but for the best views, the Mt. Robert’s Tramway can accommodate a banquet for 250 in its Timberline Room, set high above town, overlooking the Gastineau Channel and Douglas Island.

But, really, there’s no need to stay indoors. Juneau’s favorite recreational sites also make good venues. For example, the Crustacean Society took advantage of Auk Nu’s excursion boat, which holds up to 50. Its final May 2006 session convened on a ship headed for Tracy Arm, a dramatic landscape of calving glaciers. Even when the group stayed in town, “We broke up from three in the afternoon until seven,” says organizer Sherry Tamone. “During those four hours, folks would go out hiking or fishing. There’s so much daylight.”

The riches of Alaska’s outdoor life is why the Russians stayed even after they’d killed all the otters. They chose Sitka as a base, a location ridiculously scenic even by Alaska standards, lying in the shadow of the perfect volcanic cone of Mt. Edgecumbe.

Sitka’s Harrigan Centennial Hall may have one of the most dramatic backdrops of any facility in Alaska: open the curtains behind the stage to reveal a building-wide window and views of Sitka Sound. The building also features stunning acoustics in its 500-seat theater, home of the Music Festival, which attracts world-class chamber music to the town each summer.

Sheet’ka Kwaan Naa Kahidi Community House is on Katlian Street, center of Sitka’s Native Community. Resembling a traditional home, it offers an open floorplan accented by classic Southeast Alaskan artworks and seating for 200.

Another option, The Alaska Raptor Center lies a few minutes from downtown. A facility to rehabilitate bald eagles and other injured birds, the center also has a 175-seat auditorium and an outdoor deck with views of the aviaries—perfect for parties and receptions.

To get an even closer look at the outdoors, various companies operate ships for whale watching. Sitka is one of the rare places in Alaska that has whales year-round.

Only 90 minutes by air from Seattle, Ketchikan is Alaska’s southernmost city, and perhaps the place in the Southeast where traditions still thrive most strongly. The Totem Heritage Center, the community of Saxman, and Totem Bight State Historical Park offer the best look at local native carving.

For venues, the town offers the Ted Ferry Civic Center, a 4,500-square-foot site with a 1,500-square-foot stage. The ballroom can be divided into three smaller venues, each with full lighting and sound systems. For the caterers, food preparation is enhanced because the kitchen is one of the best in Southeast Alaska.

Says Linda Mackey of the Ketchikan CVB: “Our meeting facilities make the most of the natural assets. The beauty of the place is inspiring, so far away from the humdrum.” With full-time meeting planning assistance available, “we’ll go the extra mile.”

For team-building exercises, the town has a zip line and ropes challenge course. No better way to see Southeast Alaska’s rainforest up-close than when dangling among the treetops!

Superlatives come easily to Alaska. Highest mountain, most coastline, biggest animals: the list doesn’t stop. But whether you’re talking about the vast tundra of the far north, the calm waters of Prince William Sound or the cathedral-quality light of Southeast Alaska’s rainforests, surely an important point on the list should be “best place to hold a meeting.”

Edward Readicker-Henderson, honored by the Society of American Travel Writers as a Lowell Thomas Award winner, has written for National Geographic Traveler, Sierra and Art & Antiques. He has additionally co-authored with Lynn Readicker, Adventure Guide to the Alaska Highway and Adventure Guide to the Inside Passage and Coastal Alaska, among other travel books.

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Getting There

Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport is located about 15 minutes’ drive from downtown Anchorage. Nonstop service is available from: Atlanta, Boise, Chicago, Cincinnati, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Honolulu, Houston, Kahului (Maui), Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Newark, Orange County, Orlando, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, Portland, Salt Lake City, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, Seattle, Vancouver BC, Washington, D.C. (some on a seasonal basis). Alaska Airlines, America West Airlines, American Airlines, Continental Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Frontier Airlines, Northwest Airlines, Sun Country Airlines and United Airlines provide service.

Fairbanks can be reached by Alaska Airlines, connecting through Anchorage or Seattle, or seasonally via Delta from Salt Lake and Northwest from Minneapolis.

Ketchikan, Juneau, and Sitka are accessible via Alaska Airlines through Seattle.

For Nome, connections are through Anchorage, via Alaska Airlines.

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Not To Be Missed

• See Denali. The highest point on the continent, surrounded by rock spires, glaciers so big forests grow on them, and must-see wildlife. By train or plane, easy access from Anchorage or Fairbanks.
• Check out the national bird. Sitka’s Raptor Center and Ketchikan’s Deer Mountain Eagle Center use injured birds to help educate people on the dangers bald eagles still face. Additionally, the Bird Treatment and Learning Center in Anchorage will bring a live bird with trained handler to your event. But to see them in the wild, anywhere along the coast, just look for white spots in the tallest trees.
• Discover how much splash 30 tons can make. Alaska has more coastline than the rest of the U.S. combined. A boat trip is the best way to see it all—including the whales—and can make an interesting venue for meetings. Any one of them offers glaciers, seals, otters and always a chance to watch a breaching humpback whale.
• Strike it rich. Alaska was settled by gold fever. Nome, Juneau and Fairbanks were all gold rush towns, and still have places to pan for nuggets and flakes, as well as old mine works and dredges to tour.
• See who came here first. Alaska’s first people’s heritage is a strong force in the state’s daily life. The best place for a closer look is at the Alaska Native Heritage Center, right outside Anchorage. Reconstructions of traditional houses from around the state, regular dance performances and more. 

 

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