After a long day of meeting sessions, the last thing many attendees want is to spend the evening in yet another hotel function room. Fortunately, destinations across the West are stepping up to the plate with innovative venues designed to energize the spirit and engage the senses.
In urban areas, off-property options increasingly include pedestrian villages, restored historic districts and landscaped plazas that provide a ready-made backdrop for events. Among the planners who appreciate this trend is Dan Nilsen, president and owner of Bishop-McCann, a Kansas City, Mo.-based meeting planning company, who recently blocked off part of San Diego’s Gaslamp Quarter, a restored district filled with restaurants and galleries, for a street party.
“It’s so expensive to bring in decor,” he says. “You can do so much more if the place already offers authentic decor.”
Sizzling nightclubs that allow for glamorous and versatile events with live music, spicy cuisine and inventive cocktails are also on the increase, most notably in Las Vegas. Other great venue choices bring a touch of cultural insight to a festive occasion, whether they showcase the traditions of Native Alaskans or the art of Latin America.
By contrast, the West also offers plenty of options that let the great outdoors take center stage. Attendees can roll across the Sierra foothills on board a vintage railway, cruise under the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, drift along in Venetian-style gondolas or sip cocktails in a mountaintop aerie.
Regardless of site or purpose, the following options are sure to ignite a feel-good mood among any group.
SOPHISTICATED REVELS
Diablo’s Cantina, Monte Carlo Resort & Casino, Las Vegas
Diablo Cantina, scheduled to open in September in front of the Monte Carlo Resort & Casino on the Las Vegas Strip, will be a 10,000-square-foot multilevel dining and entertainment complex available for private events. Adorned with fiesta colors, handpainted murals and rustic tiles and furniture, the first floor will consist of a main dining area bar and lounge, while the second floor will offer a patio with a bar and a stage for live music, entertainment acts and DJs. The drink menu will feature mojitos, sangrias, margaritas, and specialty cocktails such as watermelon-infused tequila. The club will also have large plasma screens for custom entertainment viewing.
Bare, Mirage Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas
Bare is the Mirage resort’s new poolside spot for cocktail receptions, dinner parties or private soirees. Shaded by towering palms, it is available for private events seven nights a week for groups of up to 450 people. DJs spin a music mix as guests enjoy specialty food and cocktail service.
Santana Row, San Jose, Calif.
Groups are in for a stroll through a European village when they come to Santana Row, a 10-block complex of boutiques, restaurants, cafes, green spaces, and flower-bedecked sidewalks. An on-site concierge is now available to assist meeting planners with arrangements for events held at the various venues within the complex.
The Vintage Wine Bar and El Jardin Tequila Bar, both offering spacious outdoor patios, can be used for cocktail parties and receptions. Park Valencia is an intimate garden and lawn area with a seating capacity for 200 guests that can be tented if required. It also has a stage area for speakers and entertainment.
About a dozen restaurants in Santana Row, including Maggiano’s Little Italy, Left Bank, Straits, Sino, and Tanglewood, have private dining rooms and meeting spaces. Santana Row’s Hotel Valencia accommodates up to 200 people at Citrus restaurant and its adjoining fountain-filled courtyard.
BOATS AND TRAINS
Sierra Railroad, Oakdale, Calif.
For the 2007 season, the Sierra Railroad offers VIP service at its new train station in the San Joaquin Valley. The station’s 400-foot-long deck with a partial covering can be used for catered events. Theme trips onboard the Sierra Railroad Dinner Train, which makes three-hour excursions through bucolic Stanislaus County, include murder mystery dinners, Wild West lunches and a rail-and-raft trip where passengers ride out by train and raft back on the Stanislaus River.
While normal capacity of the train is for 300 passengers, additional cars can be used for larger groups. Private dining cars for 40 to 80 passengers are also available.
Ferry Building Cruise Line, San Francisco
Launched in August, the new Ferry Building Cruise Line features 90-minute cruises on the newly refurbished Harbor King, an historic vessel that appeared in the 1962 film “Birdman of Alcatraz.” The main deck accommodates catered events for up to 125 people, while the upper deck features indoor and outdoor seating to view the sights.
The bar staff and crew serve guests and the captain can provide live narration. The tour boat chugs around McCovey Cove, visits the harbor seals of Yerba Buena Island and then passes under the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. Convenient to the Financial District, the Harbor King departs from the San Francisco Ferry Building at the foot of Market Street.
Gondola Getaways, Long Beach, Calif.
A sunset cruise through the canals of Long Beach’s Naples Island with gondoliers pulling long wooden oars is a tranquil finish to a day of meetings.
As the sun sets, lamps alight on the gondolas and on the streets by the canals. The gondoliers often sing as the gondolas, authentic versions of their Venetian counterparts, glide past luxury homes and under arched bridges.
Gondola Getaways offers two large gondolas that seat up to 14 people in each, and also rents out the entire fleet for up to 65 passengers. Passengers can enjoy wine and cheese while drifting along the canals. However, while the company provides French bread, cheese, salami, glasses, and an ice bucket, groups need to bring their own beverages.
ARTS & CULTURE
Alaska Native Heritage Center, Anchorage, Alaska
The Alaska Native Heritage Center, a cultural center showcasing Native Alaskan traditions with indoor exhibits and outdoor village replicas, now provides on-site catering, and offers a variety of memorable venues and entertainment options. For a uniquely Alaskan event, the center staff books Native Alaskan artists and performers such as dancers, Athabascan fiddlers, storytellers, and personal tour guides at each outdoor village site. The entire center accommodates up to 700 people, while function spaces such as the outdoor deck, Talking Circle, Crossroads, and Gathering Place are geared for smaller groups.
The Museum of Latin American Art Sculpture Garden, Long Beach, Calif.
The Museum of Latin American Art (MoLAA) in the emerging East Village Arts District has a rental facility with a seating capacity of 700 and a standing capacity of 1,000 in its sculpture garden. Guests pass through the contemporary Latin American art galleries to enter an art-filled oasis. Thick walls enclose a landscape filled with brightly colored sculpture surrounded by a running creek, fountains, cacti, and palms.
Events in this 15,000-square-foot space also have the advantage of a performance stage, and state-of-the-art lighting and audio systems. Boeing, Jet Blue, National Health Foundation, Paramount Pictures, and Toyota have all had corporate banquets in this urban hideaway that was once the site of a silent film studio.
MOUNTAIN TIME
Top of the Sierra Interpretive Center, Mammoth Village, Mammoth Lakes, Calif.
The Interpretive Center opened in March at the summit of Mammoth Mountain. Groups can ride a gondola to the highest point in the High Sierra for a cocktail reception or dinner party. The circular, glass-enclosed room, which can accommodate up to 90 people for a reception or 50 for a seated event, puts guests at eye-level with the Sierra Nevada Crest. The Village at Mammoth, which offers condo accommodations and resort amenities, is also home to a brand-new, state-of-the-art conference center with 3,700 square feet of meeting space.
Silver Rapids Indoor Water Park, Kellogg, Idaho
The first of its kind at a ski resort in the Western U.S., Silver Rapids is an exciting indoor year-round waterpark opening this September at Silver Mountain Resort. Groups can enjoy aquatic adventures after-hours when the waterpark is available for rent. The park will feature swirl pools, body and tube slides, a lazy river, a group raft slide, and the FlowRider Surf Wave, which offers the risk-free thrills of surfing.
For More Info
Alaska Native Heritage Center 907.330.8055
www.alaskanative.net
Bare, Mirage Hotel & Casino 702.791.7111
www.mirage.com
Diablo’s Cantina 702.693.8300
www.diabloslv.com
Ferry Building Line Cruise 415.673.2900
www.davisareacvb.com
Gondola Getaway 562.433.9595
www.gondolagetawayinc.com
Museum of Latin American Art Sculpture Garden 562.437.1689
www.molaa.org
Santana Row Concierge Center 408.551.4611
www.santanarow.com
Sierra Railroad Dinner Train 209.848.2100
www.sierrarailroad.com
Silver Rapids Indoor Water Park 877.230.2193
www.silvermt.com
Top of the Sierra Interpretive Center 760.934.2571
www.mammothmountain.com
