Smart Meetings

Without sacrificing the area’s cultural history—which continues to weave its magic with a renewed sense of place—the Phoenix metropolitan area is finishing up a fabulous, massive transformation. Coming up shortly is the opening of the vastly expanded Phoenix Convention Center—more than triple the size of the original—plus brand-new and renovated hotels that will quickly capture a meeting planner’s close attention. And, once on-site, your groups will whiz around town, starting this December, on the first line of the Metro light-rail system.

Scottsdale is undergoing its own resurgence, with a $3.3-billion redevelopment program that has seen both the north and south sides of the Arizona Canal, an ancient Native American system, glammed up with high-end shopping, nightlife, restaurants, hip ho-tels and residences. They’ll be linked by a stunning pedestrian bridge designed by world-renowned architect Paolo Solari (ground-breaking is slated to begin this winter—which in Phoenix/Scottsdale means blue skies and 70-degree temperatures).

All this activity and development takes place with the scenic backdrop of Camelback Mountain, a Phoenix landmark. From its slopes you can see what’s loosely defined as the Valley of the Sun, encompassing more than 20 cities that sprawl across the gor-geous Sonoran Desert. The desert of course surpasses anything manmade.

“There is a special feeling that you get from the desert that you don’t get anywhere else in the world,” says Kevin Kamenzind, sen-ior vice president of sales and marketing for the Greater Phoenix Convention and Visitors Bureau (visitphoenix.com). “Whether it’s the spectacular sunsets, the dramatic rock formations of the local mountains, or the unique flora like the Saguaro cactus that is found nowhere else but right here.”    

PHOENIX
There are remains of prehistoric ball courts, dating back to the Hohokam Indians, which suggest ceremonial games involving various communities were played in the area. Today is no different. Greater Phoenix is home to a raft of national sports teams, from football and baseball, to basketball and hockey.

Last February, nearby Glendale played host to the 2008 Super Bowl, a mind-boggling extravaganza they captured for the first time (rumor is, they’ve put in a bid for another event in the not-too-far-distant future). This January sees the NBA All-Star Game bring another huge contingent of sports fans to the city.

But Phoenix is no stranger to large groups—nor small to midsize ones either. The weather is appealing—“That, combined with nearly 400 hotels and 30 resorts to choose from gives the meeting planner plenty of options regarding the type of property required, with a range of rates,” Kamenzind says. “Also, it’s accessible. Sky Harbor Airport is only minutes from downtown and is served by more than 20 airlines.”

Plus, the bureau exec says, “I don’t recall ever hearing of a meeting being affected here in Phoenix due to the airport being shut down because of bad weather.”

And speaking of weather, the sun shines 320 days a year, allowing visitors to
take advantage of the uniqueness of the Sonoran Desert, whether playing a round of golf on one of more than 200 area golf courses or hiking the local mountain trails. “Phoenix is a great place to mix business with pleasure,” he says.
    
MAJOR MEETING VENUES
You can’t get more major than the expanded Phoenix Convention Center (phoenixconventioncenter.com), which opens its doors to the first meeting group this January. After five years, the $600-million dollar project goes live on three campuses with 900,000 sq. ft. of exhibition and meeting space, three ballrooms with cutting-edge A/V technology and outdoor meeting spaces.

Along with its dramatic architecture and vibrant colors, it showcases a host of eco-friendly features like solar paneling and a water-harvesting garden.

One block from the convention center, the brand-new, $350-million Sheraton Downtown Phoenix (starwoodhotels.com) opened last month. Not only is this hotel the largest in the Greater Phoenix area, with 1,000 guest rooms, it’s the largest in the entire state.

Its conference center houses more than 80,000 sq. ft. of flexible space, including 17 meeting rooms, two ballrooms, two board-rooms and a terrace for outdoor events.

Other nearby properties include the newly renovated Wyndham Phoenix (wyndham-phx.com) with 530 guest rooms and 60,000 sq. ft. of space, and the Hyatt Regency Phoenix (hyatt.phoenix.com), with 712 guest rooms and 48,000 sq. ft. of function space, including multiple boardrooms. Plans for a new W Hotel have fallen through, at least for the time being.

UNIQUE VENUES AND ACTIVITIES
Phoenix abounds with intriguing off-site venues for meetings and events—both indoors and outdoors. The renowned Heard Mu-seum of Native Cultures and Art (heard.org), which focuses on the Native American history and cultures of the American South-west, has a variety of spaces and can accommodate from 20 to several hundred guests. Housing a world-class collection of early and contemporary art, the Phoenix Art Museum (phx.art.org) is also ideal for receptions and dinners.

Reveling in a $14-million restoration, the historic Orpheum Theatre (ci.phoenix.az.us) has state-of-the-art production services to match the splendor of its 1,400-seat space. Operated by the city, it’s available for buyouts—think awards ceremonies and product launches.

A terrific option is the Desert Botanical Garden (dbg.org), which showcases one of the world’s finest collections of desert plants. It has several traditional meeting spaces, but also hosts private events in a variety of open-air pavilions, scenic courtyards and his-toric settings.

Or, if your dudes are aching for a taste of the Old West, Corona Ranch (coronaranch.com) will customize a rodeo for your group with plenty of  adventure and audience participation, including bull riding, roping and barrel racing. Ten minutes from the convention center, the ranch can accommodate 30 to 3,000 guests for a rodeo and banquet, either Mexican-style or Western steak fry.

SCOTTSDALE
Scottsdale is sizzling with new development. The Waterfront, a huge retail, condo and restaurant complex on the north side, and SouthBridge, an “urban village” with high-fashion boutiques, restaurants and open-air courtyards on the south, have opened, as have some very hip urban hotels, such as the Hotel Valley Ho (hotelvalleyho.com).

They add to the attributes Scottsdale is most noted for: its championship golf courses, luxurious spas and world-class resorts, says Rachel Sacco, president and CEO of the Scottsdale Convention & Visitors Bureau (scottsdalecvb.com).

Plus, there’s the desert, whose exquisite beauty always surprises first-time visitors. “The towering Saguaros, mountain vistas and abundant wildlife give Scottsdale a natural advantage over other destinations, and provide scenery unlike any other in the world,” she says.

MEETING SPACES
Like Phoenix, Scottsdale has also seen a flurry of hotel openings, with more to come. According to Sacco, two world-class hotel brands made their Arizona debut last month: Arizona’s first W Hotel, the W Scottsdale Hotel & Residences (starwoodhotels.com), and the InterContinental Hotel Group’s first InterContinental Hotels & Resorts property in the U.S. The W features 224 guest rooms and its meeting space includes a 3,500-square-foot ballroom and 2,000-square-foot outdoor terrace. The InterContinental Montelucia Re-sort & Spa (montelucia.com) is an Andalusian-style property that offers 253 guest rooms, a 31,000-square-foot spa and 27,000 sq. ft. of indoor meeting space.

Sprinkled throughout the area are a number of other resorts of interest to planners. Set on 125 acres at the base of Mummy Mountain, the Camelback Inn, A JW Marriott Resort & Spa (marriott.com) has wrapped up a $50-million renovation that featured  upgrades to its 300 guest rooms and expansion of its meeting space to include a 20,000-square-foot ballroom. The Five-Diamond resort also features 36 holes of golf.

Another great option is the Four Seasons Resort Scottsdale (fourseasons.com), which recently saw a $17-million enhancement that included its 210 casita guest rooms and suites, the creation of a new restaurant and expansion of its lobby lounge. The resort is located adjacent to the Weiskopf & Morrish-designed courses of Troon North, where hotel guests have priority use of both the Pinnacle and Monument championship courses.

Also of this caliber is The Boulders Resort (theboulders.com) in Carefree, picturesquely wrapped around ancient boulders on 1,300 acres. Along with 160 casitas and 55 villas, the property encompasses 12,000 sq. ft. of dedicated meeting space and a world-renowned Golden Door Spa. The Boulders also features a recently expanded organic garden, which can be utilized for al fresco events. One fun team-building experience that takes advantage of the garden is the new Mixer Mixology program, a build-your-own-cocktail bar for groups.  

UNIQUE VENUES AND ACTIVITIES
The spectacular Sonoran Desert awaits exploration, and one way to experience it is via jeep tour with Arizona Cowboys Jeep Tours (arizonacowboysjeeptours.com). This company will guide you through the Tonto National Forest, bringing the desert to life with a mix of history, legends and facts about the unique eco-system. They can also get your group of two to 200 started for the day with a cowboy breakfast cookout—or end the day with a Western dinner.

If you’ve got a really large group, consider Fort McDowell Adventures (fortmcdowelladventures.com), which can handle up to 1,600. Located on the Yavapai Indian Reservation, the company will saddle up your city slickers on cattle drives and trail rides, and get them working with each other on team-building exercises like buckin’ barrel races and Wild West shoot-outs.

Geo-caching takes a new twist here—as in searching for gold in the Superstition Mountains foothills. It’s one of several group ex-peditions offered by Apache Trail Tours (apachetrailtours.com), a full-service outdoor adventure and special-event company with a client list that includes Xerox, Toshiba, Westinghouse and Honeywell.

A truly unique venue, Taliesin West (franklloydwright.org) was the winter home and school of renowned architect Frank Lloyd Wright. It’s now an architectural school and offers an educational component to a visit and a variety of event spaces for functions.

An offbeat opportunity for group fun—and perfectly suited for the Arizona desert—is a Moroccan theme party. A local company—which operates throughout the U.S.—Zohar Productions (zoharproductions.com), can create an entire Arabian Nights and Moroc-can evening with shimmering tents, decor, food and entertainment under the stars.

MESA
Mesa (visitmesa.com) is well known to planners as a convenient,  affordable alternative to Phoenix—becoming all the more conven-ient with the new Phoenix Metro light-rail service beginning this December. The Mesa Convention Center (mesaconventioncen-ter.com) provides 40,000 sq. ft. of exhibit and meeting space. Next door is the 275-room Phoenix Marriott Mesa (marriott.com), which has a variety of venues for groups, including a separate convention center with 52,000 sq. ft. of flexible meeting space plus an outdoor amphitheater.    

The big news in Mesa, of course, is the announcement by Gaylord Entertainment that the company is planning to build an anchor resort and convention hotel
at the Mesa Proving Grounds. The project will also include a Westcor retail
development, a golf course designed by Tom Fazio, office space and residences, among other components.

TEMPE
Also being linked to Phoenix by light rail, Tempe (tempecvb.com) is home to the 2,000-acre Papago Park, Tempe Town Lake and the main campus of Arizona State University. Among its largest event venues is the new Tempe Center for the Arts (tempe.gov/tca), a complex that encompasses a state-of-the-art, 600-seat theater, a 200-seat studio theater and a 3,500-square-foot gallery. Overlooking Town Lake, with views of the Papago and Camelback mountains, it is available for meetings and special events.  

The university’s Grady Gammage Auditorium (asugammage.com), which was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, is another pos-sibility; it seats a total of 3,017 people on the main floor, grand tier and balcony.

A number of meetings hotels have undergone renovation over the past couple of years. The largest, The Buttes, A Marriott Re-sort (marriott.com), has 345 guest rooms and 40,000 sq. ft. of total meeting space. Embassy Suites Phoenix-Tempe (hilton.com), with 224 suites and more than 10,000 sq. ft. of function space, completed its multimillion-dollar re-do last summer. And the Sheraton Phoenix Airport Hotel Tempe (starwoodhotels.com), with 10,000 sq. ft., completed a $7-million renovation that included its 210 guest rooms and outdoor oasis pool. Plans for a Le Meridien hotel have fallen through, but word is that another major brand of equal luxury status is considering the site.

CHANDLER
A former agricultural town and Phoenix suburb, Chandler has seen recent growth due to the influx of such tech giants as computer chip manufacturer Intel, which has several locations throughout the city, including a LEED-certified factory. Its historic downtown, lined with galleries, shops and restaurants, is also home to the Chandler Center for the Arts (chandlercenter.org), a 1,500-seat regional performing arts venue. Nearby is the Crowne Plaza San Marcos Golf Resort and Conference Center (sanmarcosre-sort.com), the first golf resort in Arizona, offering 35,000 sq. ft. of meeting and function space.

Located on the ancient Gila Indian River Community, the Sheraton Wild Horse Pass Resort & Spa (wildhorsepassresort.com) is a 500-room, Four-Diamond resort with two 18-hole Troon-managed golf courses, a spa and an equestrian center. A boat cruise de-livers you to the Wild Horse Pass Casino and Rawhide Western Theme Town. Of particular note is the resort’s new initiative: Going beyond green, it promotes both cultural sustainability and environmental responsibility, becoming the first “GeoGreen” resort in the country.    Back to Top

Getting There

Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX) has nonstop service to more than 100 cities and is served by 23 airlines––the largest are US Airways and Southwest. Free wireless Internet service is available on the gate levels of all three terminals.

• December 2008 will see the launch of Metro light rail service from Sky Harbor into downtown Tempe, Mesa, Phoenix and the Phoenix Convention Center. Back to Top

Not To Be Missed

• Tour the Sonoran Desert by Jeep, ATV, Hummer or hot-air balloon

• A sunset hike up Camelback Mountain or Pinnacle Peak

• Desert Botanical Garden, for the largest collection of cacti in the world

• Grand Canyon National Park daytrip and the Grand Canyon Railway  

• Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving  

• Stroll along landscaped pathways on the Arizona Canal in Scottsdale

• Red rocks of Sedona daytrip

• Heritage Square, the Arizona Science Center and the Phoenix Museum
   of History in Heritage and Science Park

• Heard Museum’s Native American and Southwest art, artifacts and
    fine crafts

• A round of golf at one of more than 200 courses

• Phoenix Art Museum’s European, Asian and American Western art
    exhibits

• First Fridays Art Walks in downtown Phoenix

• Thursday evening ArtWalks in Scottsdale

• Hiking and biking at McDowell Mountain Regional Park  

• Frank Lloyd Wright architecture at Taliesin West Back to Top