Reno has been the scene of constant reinventions during its roughly 160 years of life, first as a crossroads for California-bound settlers, then as a mining and agricultural boomtown thanks to the silver fever of the Comstock Lode, then as the divorce and gambling capital known as the “Biggest Little City in the World.”
Today, Reno and neighboring Sparks anchor a metropolitan area of 400,000 people, so isn’t it now the “Biggest Midsize City in the World?” John Leinen, vice president of convention and tourism sales at the Reno-Sparks Convention and Visitors Authority (RSCVA), begs to differ.
“I don’t think we ever could drop that [motto]. I’m a Chicago boy who moved here two years ago, and that symbol and phrase are appropriate. There’s so much you can do that’s like a big city but there’s a lot more charm; there are elements of a small town that make that the appropriate moniker.”
Reno began diversifying away from a primarily gambling-oriented economy with the advent of competition from Native American casinos, so family-friendliness and the meetings business both took on added significance.
“It certainly was a conscious choice to try to develop the downtown area [to aid] the diversification of our business model,” Leinen says. “So we decided to make [attractions] accessible to the group business and more diverse. The Triple-A Aces ballpark for the Arizona Diamondbacks has just been a fabulous draw to the downtown area, and attached is the Freight House nightclub and entertainment district.”
Leinen notes that the city also constructed a whitewater rafting park along the Truckee River, which runs between Lake Tahoe and Pyramid Lake (see sidebar), and has encouraged new restaurant development along the river as well. The railroad tracks that used to run through the city center have been repositioned underground, contributing to walkability.
Reno also becomes a festival city with great frequency throughout the year, with the Best in the West Nugget Rib Cook-Off attracting foodies, the National Championship Air Races and Air Show luring aviation buffs and Hot August Nights drawing around 800,000 classic-car fans—and this is without even mentioning the rodeos, the River Festival, the Shakespeare Festival, the men’s and women’s golf tournaments and the balloon races.
Thrill-seekers can ski Mount Rose on the Nevada side or head over to any of downhill and cross-country resorts on the California side, while hard-core adventurers can try this year’s inaugural Expedition Man race, an Ironman-distance triathlon, with a swim in Lake Tahoe that leads to punishing bike and run stages and a finish in Sparks, Nev.PageBreak
RSCVA’s Leinen lists corporate, association and SMERF groups as sweet spots here, with eight hotels that start at around 800 rooms and top out around 2,000. Meetings-friendly properties include Atlantis Casino Resort Spa, Circus Circus Reno, Grand Sierra Resort & Casino, Harrah’s Reno Hotel & Casino, John Ascuaga’s Nugget Casino Resort, Peppermill Resort Spa Casino, Sands Regency and Silver Legacy Resort Casino.
“Very rarely do you see a city of this size with that kind of inventory at their disposal,” Leinen says, noting that the Grand Sierra Resort alone has 200,000 square feet of meeting space, plus a 1,000-seat theater with a stage that is nearly an acre in size.
RSCVA likes touting that an unusually high proportion of its hotels are independent properties, giving planners additional flexibility with contract negotiations. RSCVA plans to highlight this fact with a campaign centered on the slogan “Nevada declares its independence,” Leinen says, noting that independent hotels can give you a more memorable experience.
“Overflow accommodations” from Reno and Sparks take on a bit of a new meaning here, meaning beautiful Incline Village along the northernmost corner of Lake Tahoe, where properties include the Hyatt Regency Lake Tahoe Resort and Cal Neva Lodge and Casino.
The Reno-Sparks Convention Center (RSCC) is a 500,000-square-foot facility with 381,000 of that being contiguous convention space, along with 53 breakout rooms, all of which are on one level. RSCVA owns the RSCC and several other venues in town, increasing its ability to wrangle a nearly complete meeting-and-entertainment experience for planners, Leinen says.
“RSCVA owns and manages five different facilities, offering a breadth of experiences: the convention center, the Reno Events Center, the National Bowling Stadium, the Reno-Sparks Livestock and Events Center, and Wildcreek Golf Course. So the ease with which we can structure the deal to have your convention and secure someone like Elton John to perform—we have a lot of flexibility on how we can create unique meeting experiences.”
Other gathering choices can be found at the Reno Ballroom; Pioneer Center for the Performing Arts; National Automobile Museum; Lake Mansion, built in 1877; and farther afield on the shores of Lake Tahoe, the Thunderbird Lodge, a 1930s estate with its own 50-foot waterfall, floor-to-ceiling windows featuring unobstructed lake views and 5,400 square feet of meeting space.
Cultural facilities include Reno’s arts district (with galleries and art spaces located along the Truckee River), the Nevada Museum of Art and the Reno Philharmonic Orchestra.
Access to Reno and the surrounding area is straightforward via Reno-Tahoe International Airport, which is served by no fewer than six airlines, as well as the Amtrak station located across from Harrah’s.PageBreak
Lake Tahoe
Southwest of Reno is Lake Tahoe, one of the world’s largest lakes by volume thanks to its extraordinary depth, and one the most popular because of its extraordinary clarity. Needless to say, it’s a popular destination year-round, and towns, cities and free-standing resorts dot Tahoe’s shores to accommodate visitors who come here to enjoy the seemingly limitless forested mountains.
Famous resorts such as Heavenly, Alpine Meadows, Northstar California, Homewood and Squaw Valley—site of the 1960 Winter Olympics and a likely candidate for the 2022 Winter Olympics as well—cause many a skier to salivate during the winter, then return in the summer to hike, bike and ride horseback. The Lake Tahoe area is also a popular training area for athletes of all types because the lake’s elevation is about 6,200 feet, making it an ideal place to build endurance and the mental toughness that comes from training at over a mile above sea level.
Access to Tahoe from Reno is straightforward via well-maintained highways branching off Interstate 80 or Interstate 395.
Carson City
About 30 miles south of Reno is Carson City, which can be thought of as Nevada’s West Coast thanks to its location on the eastern shore of Lake Tahoe. Carson City has been Nevada’s capital since 1864, when silver and gold pouring out of the nearby Comstock Lode vaulted it into national prominence. Visitors today can tour the U.S. Mint that was built here to process precious metals into coins.
Carson City excels at board and other smaller meetings, says Janet Jones, group sales manager at the Carson City CVB.
“We focus on that because in one location we can do 250 to 300 people, although we can also take larger groups and put them in different locations,” Jones says. “We have a lot of historic buildings where you can do meetings, and I like to push historic venues and golf. We have the Divine Nine consortium of golf courses, so you can do a meeting and golf in the afternoon or vice versa.”
Jones mentions historic venues such as the State Capitol, Brewery Arts Center, Stewart Indian School and Capital Christian Center as versatile meeting spaces that combine history with beautiful, well-appointed facilities. The historic Virginia & Truckee Railroad can also take visitors on excursions from Carson City to the historic boomtown of Virginia City, and it is available for group events as well.
Visitors can tour downtown’s historic buildings via a 2.5-mile walk on the Kit Carson Trail, or drive 15 miles to Virginia City to investigate its mining-town past, which included news articles written by a young reporter named Mark Twain.
Several hotels also provide conference space, including the Carson Nugget Casino, Casino Fandango, Gold Dust West Hotel Casino and the non-gaming Hampton Inn & Suites and Plaza Hotel and Conference Center.
Paul D. Kretkowski writes frequently about travel, food and sports. He is also the founder of Beacon, a blog about foreign policy.
