Honda Center demonstrated its ability to host on a grand scale
Honda Center did something incredibly challenging. Amid ongoing renovations to the facility and the surrounding OC Vibe entertainment district, the venue managed to host its longest, largest and most complex event yet.
D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event, Disney’s biannual fan celebration, has grown since its extension to Honda Center for the first time in 2024. To accommodate its growth, Disney needed a venue that could support its three showcase events: Disney Entertainment Showcase, Disney Experiences Showcase and Disney Legends Award Ceremony.
“Honda Center was able to provide that space and the infrastructure to support productions of this scale, and that was the result of a strong partnership between Disney, the city of Anaheim, Honda Center and our OC Vibe special events team,” says Katie Pederson, vice president of special events for OC Vibe.
“Supporting those three showcase events was an ambitious undertaking,” she says. “The production occupied Honda Center for 20 days, brought in 42 production trucks and required more than 250,000 pounds of steel rigging, making it the largest production footprint in Honda Center history. We did all of this while Honda Center was undergoing a $1 billion transformation, so having an experienced in-house team that understands how to operate through complexity was critical.”
Honda Center’s Capabilities, Exemplified
Pederson says hosting D23 2026 was a great example of how Honda Center can serve as an extension of Anaheim Convention Center. “When a convention grows to the point where it needs additional space or wants to create a different type of experience for its marquee programming,” she says, “we can provide that arena environment while remaining part of the larger Anaheim convention ecosystem.”
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Honda Center’s renovation will be completed in phases through 2027, while most of OC Vibe’s refresh will be completed by the end of 2028, in time for Honda Center to host the volleyball portion of the 2028 Olympics and showcase the new district for visitors and meeting planners.
“As the district takes shape, we’re creating even more opportunities for planners to expand their events across a single, walkable destination, with multiple venues, private event spaces, dining, hospitality, public spaces and other amenities,” Pederson says. “We’re not just giving planners more space; we’re giving them more ways to design the experience.”
Managing at Scale
Pederson says the biggest challenge of hosting the event was managing the operation’s sheer scale while working with a venue undergoing renovations. For the 20 days D23 occupied Honda Center—including load-in, rehearsals and the event itself—the operations team also needed to prepare for upcoming events, the start of the hockey season and other obligatory operational demands inherent in running a venue.
“Our events, operations, culinary, guest experience and other team members stayed in lockstep throughout the event planning process with our clients at Disney, while also coordinating with local partners like Anaheim Fire Department and Anaheim Police Department,” she says. “Our team has the experience to manage complex productions while balancing multiple priorities at once. We plan well in advance, anticipate challenges, and make real-time adjustments while keeping the guest and client experience at the center of every decision. D23 was an extraordinary production, but the ability to execute at this level while the building continues to operate and transform is a core strength of the team here.”
Pederson says the team learned something new each night, paying attention to how guests moved throughout the building, their needs and where the team could improve. Merchandise, for example, is an area in which Pederson and her team saw strong interest, and they continually looked at ways to better support those opportunities and create a more seamless experience. “That ability to listen, adapt and improve throughout an event is a real strength of our in-house team,” she says. “We carried what we learned from one showcase into the next and continuously improved the guest experience over the three nights.”
Food and Beverage for All
For an event such as D23, in-house food and beverage isn’t solely for feeding guests during the events—there are also pre-production culinary needs. The in-house food and beverage team also needed to support the production teams during the load-in and rehearsal period, in addition to talent, celebrities, VIPs and event staff, all of whom have different schedules and needs.
Pederson says a major part of the planning was understanding all these needs in advance. “We worked closely with the event organizers to manage dietary restrictions and allergies, talent riders and VIP requirements, while also ensuring appropriate nonalcoholic options and a wide range of food choices were available,” she says. “The team had to be able to pivot quickly as schedules changed and new requests came in. Having an in-house culinary and food-and-beverage operation was a significant advantage because it allowed us to manage the experience from planning through execution and maintain consistency throughout the 20-day production. At this scale, catering becomes an extension of the event operation. It is not simply about serving food; it is about keeping thousands of people, from production crews to talent to guests, taken care of throughout the experience.”
High-Profile Safety and Security
With its extensive list of high-profile attendance and ongoing construction, an extra layer of safety coordination was added.
“Managing those two dynamics required close coordination among venue, construction, and public safety teams,” Pederson says. “We worked closely with Anaheim Police Department, Anaheim Fire & Rescue, city partners, and event organizers well in advance to review the event plan and address safety considerations.” Because Honda Center was actively undergoing construction during the event, plus the surrounding district construction for OC Vibe, Pederson says the event required particularly close coordination between event, construction and public safety team members.
She adds that the Honda Center team’s experience operating events at the venue while managing construction, large crowds and high-profile talent allowed them to anticipate those complexities and implement the right plans.
Scale Changes Nothing
Pederson says one of the biggest lessons for her is that scale doesn’t change the fundamentals of good event planning. “Whether you’re hosting thousands of guests or a much smaller corporate gathering, the strongest events start with understanding the purpose of the experience and anticipating the guest journey from beginning to end,” she says.
Pederson acknowledges that D23 reinforced the importance of early planning, communication across teams, strong vendor and partner relations and contingency plans. “Those same principles apply to events of every size. It also reinforced that details matter,” she says. “Our venue team is accustomed to handling large-scale tours and productions and can draw on past experience to provide insight to the client during early planning. Our special events team brings that same level of planning and attention to detail to every event we support, whether it’s a major convention experience or a smaller corporate gathering.”
“D23 is a great example of what is possible when a major convention extends beyond a traditional convention footprint,” Pederson says. “OC Vibe gives Anaheim the opportunity to build on that model and compete for even more of the world’s largest and most sophisticated conventions and events.”
