There couldn’t have been a better testament to a destination’s ability to successfully pull off a massive citywide, complete with countless events in every corner of town, than the “little” football extravaganza that took place in San Francisco for nearly a week in early February 2016.
Yes, Super Bowl 50—the golden anniversary—was played between the Broncos and the Panthers 45 miles south of town at 2-year-old Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, but the fanfare leading up to and surrounding the big event was at its finest in the “City by the Bay.” Best of all, it gave meeting planners an idea of just how awesome S.F. can be for group events of all sizes, all interests and all pocketbooks.
“What’s crazy is they believe more than 1 million people came to the Super Bowl and just over 70,000 went to the actual game,” says John Reyes, executive vice president and chief sales officer, convention sales and services division, at the San Francisco Travel Association.
In a place famous for grand and distinctive welcomes, the diversity of events, venues and attendees spanned the spectrum and showcased the best of ever-evolving San Francisco: a magnetic cultural energy that’s hard for anyone to resist.
Pick Your Pleasure
During the span of a few days surrounding the event, you could choose Pharrell Williams or Dave Matthews at Pier 70, a giant old warehouse newly repurposed as an event and concert venue in the historic, up-and-coming Dogpatch district; Metallica at the emblematic AT&T Park, home of the San Francisco Giants and a venerable event venue in itself; and just down the waterfront stretch of the Embarcadero, where a giant Super Bowl City had been built to encompass several city blocks, with other major celebs like Matt Nathanson, One Republic and Alicia Keys, all on separate nights. Of course, if you were lucky enough to be in the audience at Super Bowl 50, you were treated to a half-time show featuring Coldplay, Bruno Mars and Beyonce.
Janis, Jefferson Airplane, Jimi, Jerry and every other Summer of Love legend would have been proud, but the music acts were just the beginning. There was the spectacular fireworks kickoff show over the bay; the relighting of the iconic Bay Lights, a light sculpture cascading up and down the cables of the Bay Bridge; and the Taste of the NFL’s Party With a Purpose at the Cow Palace, which drew celebrity chefs from 32 NFL cities and 2,500 guests.
“Talk about extremes,” Reyes says. “The reason the NFL loved San Francisco is because any type of need they had when it came to the number of Super Bowl events, everybody found someplace that they thought was unique and different to fit their audience. The Super Bowl Host Committee had a big party at The James R. Herman Cruise Terminal at Pier 27, and then the mayor did a great VIP dinner for the NFL at City Hall. How many places can you use City Hall as a special event venue?”
Reyes points to City Hall’s historic grand interior setting under the rotunda as well as outdoor areas that have recently impressed groups such as MPI for its 2015 WEC last August.
“It’s the variety of venues,” Reyes says. “What’s old is new and what’s new is hip.”
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City of Reinvention
Indeed, San Francisco is going through one of its most aggressive periods of transformations to date when it comes to newly revamped and new product. Reyes notes recent openings such as the Jazz Heritage Center, a group favorite, and projects that are taking shape over the next several years, such as the Moscone expansion, which will add more than 170,000 gross square feet of flexible meeting space, including a 50,000-square-foot ballroom when it opens in 2018, and the 18,000-seat Chase Center, slated to debut in the Mission Bay area near AT&T Park in time for the NBA’s 2019-2020 season. It will be home to the Golden State Warriors and available as a special event venue.
This year’s hottest debut is the newly expanded San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, set to open in May. The project nearly tripled the museum’s gallery space and added several new venues, for a total of 460,000 square feet.
“The new SFMOMA is going to trigger a landslide of interest for various special events,” says Oleg Nakonechny, director, convention services, for the San Francisco Travel Association. “It will be a completely different space.
Another great venue getting a lot of buzz nowadays is the Twitter building, he adds.
“It has a lot of open space, a high-end grocery store, a beautiful courtyard and Dirty Water, an anchor restaurant that is a popular buyout venue,” Nakonechny says.
Other hot event options, he adds, include Press Club, a sleek wine bar and lounge; The Commissary, a restaurant and mercantile in the Presidio; Anchor Brewing Company in Potrero Hill; and for fantastic waterfront views, the renovated Maritime Museum, an Art Deco treasure at Fisherman’s Wharf, and the Exploratorium on the Embarcadero.
San Francisco’s anchor venues also continue to be all the rage, he says, including City Hall and the Asian Art Museum across the street, as well as the California Academy of Sciences and the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park.
Meet the Neighborhoods
Meanwhile, Reyes says a big marketing push of late has been giving planners with smaller groups new ways to envision meeting in the city. The SFMeetings Neighborhood Network Connections initiative provides groups of up to 2,500 with a personalized approach to combining meeting space and room blocks at hotels near each other.
The project currently includes four Neighborhood Connections: San Francisco Downtown Connection, encompassing Clift San Francisco, Handlery Union Square Hotel, Hilton San Francisco Union Square, Hotel Nikko San Francisco and Parc 55 San Francisco, A Hilton Hotel; Nob Hill Connection, offering The Fairmont San Francisco, InterContinental Mark Hopkins San Francisco, The Ritz-Carlton, San Francisco, SF Masonic, The Scarlet Huntington San Francisco and Stanford Court San Francisco; SOMA One Connection, featuring Four Seasons San Francisco, Park Central San Francisco, A Starwood Hotel, and San Francisco Marriott Marquis; and Union Square Alliance, consisting of Grand Hyatt San Francisco and The Westin St. Francis.
“This effort is aimed at letting planners know we are perfect for both the big citywides like Salesforce and Oracle, but we are great for all types of meetings, including smaller gatherings,” Reyes says, adding that people are looking for something unique and local. “Nowadays you have five different age groups coming to a meeting or convention, and the attendees growing the most are Millennials, who want to experience neighborhoods, good food and trends—and travel like a local. In San Francisco, you’re part of the urban environment and you are part of the locals’ scene wherever you go. San Francisco is a trend.”
