Oklahoma’s history is rugged, filled with tales of Western cowboys, Native Americans, oilmen, farmers, and the value of an honest day’s work. Today, that heritage is complemented with a modern approach to business in Tulsa and Oklahoma City, giving planners two unique, bustling destinations to choose from. In both cities, art and culture mingle with that irrepressible Sooner State pride, and meetings are entertained with flair, from the classical passion of Tulsa’s symphonies to the hopping nightlife scene in Oklahoma City’s Bricktown.
Tulsa
Tulsa is a city of surprises, from its dedication to the arts, including two symphonies and an historic opera company to the largest collection of Art Deco architecture in the Midwest.
There’s another pleasant surprise for planners, too: The city is enjoying a development boom. The 550,000-square-foot Bank of Oklahoma (BOK) Events Center is expected to open this September as an 18,000-seat, multipurpose arena, and renovations to the Tulsa Convention Center will be completed by mid-2009. When finished, the convention center, which currently offers 227,000 square feet of event space, will boast a 34,800-square-foot ballroom, the largest in the state, as well as more than 20,000 square feet of new meeting space.
The two projects are part of Vision 2025, a long-range plan to improve and expand Tulsa’s infrastructure. The plan also involves revitalizing several neighborhoods, creating new public spaces and enhancing the historic Route 66 roadway. Another component of Vision 2025 will be Concept100 Visual Arts Center, slated to break ground this year in the Brady Arts District. The center will feature gallery space, working artists’ studios and meeting space.
Several new hotels and renovations are also under way; the Crowne Plaza Tulsa finished renovations to 462 guest rooms last July, the Doubletree Downtown Tulsa recently finished a $2.1 million renovation, and a new Courtyard by Marriott and Hampton Inn and Suites are slated for completion by the end of the year.
With new rooms and fresh meeting space coming online, Tulsa is ready to go after larger markets and can host groups as small as 100 or as large as 45,000, according to Suzann Stewart, executive director for the Tulsa CVB.
“Our largest groups right now are sports, religious and equine markets,” she says.
The area’s heritage is preserved through museums and historic sites, from Route 66, the classic mother road, to the Gilcrease Museum, which features the world’s largest collection of Western and Native American art, including several bronze sculptures by Frederic Remington.
The Gilcrease and the Philbrook Museum of Art were built by philanthropic oil barons. The Philbrook offers impressive spaces for group events and features an historic mansion and gardens on the grounds.
The Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame brings attendees up close and personal with live jazz as well as the history of this uniquely American art form, while at the Tulsa Air and Space Museum, visitors can operate a robotic arm like those used on the space shuttle or test their stamina in a wind tunnel.
Art is an important part of Tulsa as a community. The Tulsa Opera is listed among the top 10 regional opera companies in the country, while the Tulsa Symphony and Signature Symphony play to packed houses throughout the season. For a different take on the performing arts, groups catch a show at Cain’s Ballroom, which is the birthplace of Western swing music and has also staged concerts by the Sex Pistols, Van Halen and The Police.
In addition to the Tulsa Convention Center and upcoming BOK Center, other major facilities include the Tulsa Exposition Center, with extensive exhibit space and an historic pavilion, while the Renaissance Tulsa Hotel and Convention Center is a primary meetings hotel in the city.
Oklahoma City
From the beginning, Oklahoma City has thought big. The “Sooner” nickname came from people slipping into the area to stake their claim before the official start of the land rush in 1889, and in the early days, the city was built with big ideas like drilling for oil and creating the region’s largest stockyards.
A can-do attitude is an understatement here, especially when considering some of the latest projects, like moving a section of Interstate 40 to open up more land for development and creating their own nine-mile Oklahoma River from a storm drain canal for recreation and sports events. The newly minted waterway even hosted the kayak and flatwater canoe Olympic trials.
In a state of wide open spaces, Oklahoma City, nicknamed OKC, has room to spread out. Both the capital and the largest city in the state, OKC is also the second-largest city in the nation, geographically speaking. With so much space, the city is remarkably compact.
“It’s a planned city, so it’s easy to get around,” says Mike Carrier, president of the Oklahoma City CVB. “The downtown is very walkable, with hotels, venues, attractions, and entertainment.”
The city itself is easy to get to as well. Located at the crossroads of interstates 30, 40 and 44, OKC draws meetings from across the region, especially association, religious and educational groups.
A niche market for the city is equestrian groups, and it has earned the nickname of “Horse Show Capital of the World,” with venues like State Fair Park, where 25 major equestrian shows are held annually, and Lazy E Arena, home to several pro rodeo events. State Fair Park is finishing a $60 million expansion and upgrade this year.
The ideal group size can be as broad as the town, from 25 attendees up to 14,000, according to Carrier, although meetings in the 2,500 to 3,000 range are a good fit.
New hotels and the possibility of a new convention center may pump up those numbers in the next few years. A new Hampton Inn is currently under construction downtown, and the historic Skirvin Hotel reopened last year as the 225-room Skirvin Hilton Oklahoma City. With these two new properties, the room inventory downtown will be 1,600, with a citywide total of 14,000.
Meanwhile, 12 miles south of downtown Oklahoma City, the Embassy Suites Norman is scheduled to open this fall with 283 guest units and 75,000 square feet of meeting space.
While a new convention center is still in the early stages of discussion, Carrier expects some information on the feasibility of the project to be available by late spring.
Popular off-site venues include the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum, “truly a place that shows off the heritage of Oklahoma,” Carrier says; the Oklahoma History Center; and the Oklahoma City National Memorial, a tribute to the victims of the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building.
Another must-see attraction is the Oklahoma City Museum of Art, which offers the largest collection of glass art by Dale Chihuly, including a 55-foot tower in the atrium. Available for group events, the museum is located in Bricktown, a former warehouse district that has been revitalized with shops, restaurants, theaters, nightclubs, and art galleries. Sports fans can catch a hockey or football game at the Ford Center, or a baseball game at AT&T Bricktown Ballpark.
The Cox Convention Center and its connected facilities, as well as the Coca-Cola Event Center, are primary group facilities in town, while top meetings hotels include the Sheraton Oklahoma City Hotel and the Renaissance Oklahoma City Convention Center Hotel.
For More Info
Oklahoma City CVB 405.297.8912
www.visitokc.com
Tulsa CVB 918.585.1201
www.visittulsa.com
