There’s never a dull moment in the Lone Star State’s dynamic capital city. Everything from new Texas-sized hotels to an ever-expanding array of live music venues, great restaurants and resources for tech and medical groups are turning Austin into a meetings capital as well.
A downtown hotel building boom and expanding air service are aiming to keep pace with skyrocketing demand for meetings running the gamut from corporate incentives to citywide conventions, according to Steve Genovesi, senior vice president of sales for the Austin CVB.
In particular, the new Dell Medical School at the University of Texas at Austin is acting as a catalyst for medical meetings, including citywide conventions, he says.
“We’re up over 200 percent in our medical bookings,” he says. “The med school is rethinking everything in terms of medical education and they are a great partner for us, offering access to their resources and facilities that are just a mile from the convention center. We’re a new destination for medical groups and many are putting us on their rotation list for the first time.”
Also working in the city’s favor are new hotels that include two headquarters properties for the Austin Convention Center, the 1,021-room JW Marriott, which opened early last year, and the 1,068-room Fairmont Austin, set to open in summer 2017. Sleek new boutique properties are also part of the mix, including the 322-room Hotel Van Zandt in the Rainey Street Historic District and the 71-room South Congress Hotel downtown. Both opened last summer.
“This new high-end hotel product is really a great fit for the medical and tech markets, which also love our high-end cuisine and the fact that we’re safe and walkable,” Genovesi says. “What’s really exciting is getting the convention hotels to serve those larger groups.”
Genovesi is equally enthused about expanded nonstop air service coming into Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, including to such international destinations as Frankfurt and London.
“We’re up to almost 350 flights daily, including new service on British Airways, which has proven to be very successful,” he says. “We’re also highly rated by Cheapflights.com as an affordable airport to fly into. All of this is good for drawing international visitors, whether they’re here for meetings or leisure.”
The fact that Austin does draw high numbers of visitors from around the world means that, despite its growing hotel inventory, groups can face competition for getting the space and rates they need. Genovesi advises planners to be flexible on dates.
“We are running the highest hotel occupancies of any city in Texas, with demand especially high on the weekends,” he says. “Midweek is a time of high demand among business travelers. Sunday and Thursday nights are lighter on occupancy, so including one of those nights can help. Late summer, as well as December and January, are also value times here.”
Music Scene
For many visitors, groups included, Austin’s eclectic live music scene is a major draw. Not surprisingly, the city’s dozens of live music venues and its wealth of performing talent figure prominently into event planning.
“While many cities rely heavily on cover bands to provide entertainment, this is not the case in Austin, which has so many local artists playing original music,” says Marisa Negri, marketing manager for Kennedy DMC Austin. “We love to incorporate them into events, and we can find the music to go with any theme. You can have a Spanish guitarist and salsa dancers for a fiesta event or bluegrass and country for a Texas theme. There are 20 or 30 different music genres that we work with.”
Not only offering a wide range of music styles to choose from, Austin also has a wide choice of venues and entertainment districts, says Cindy Lo, owner of Red Velvet Events.
“We actually have five entertainment districts in downtown alone, so depending on the age and interest, there’s something for everyone,” she says. “Rainey Street, which has all these cute little Victorian cottages converted into bars, is very big with younger people and is great for pub crawls. Fourth Street, which skews a bit older, is where we have fine-dining restaurants and bars offering live jazz.”
Among Negri’s favorite venues is Austin City Limits Live at The Moody Theater. In addition to being the location for the long-running Austin City Limits show on PBS, the three-level venue can host private events for up to 2,500 people.
“The options for great lighting, balloon drops, video and sound are amazing, plus the seating is arranged so that no matter where you are, you have great visibility,” she says. “You can piggyback an event when there’s a live taping or use it as a blank slate for your own event. We’ve worked with the city on street closures and putting food trucks with a stage outside. Then you can move inside for the speakers and live music.”
Another favorite venue is the Long Center for the Performing Arts, which offers event spaces that include a 2,443-seat concert hall, a 229-seat black-box theater with flexible seating, a glass-enclosed lounge for seated dinners and an outdoor terrace accommodating up to 2,000 people.
“It’s a real blank slate where you can do anything,” Negri says. “There are floor-to-ceiling windows on the lobby and pavilion levels and a sprawling patio with huge columns that you can project light onto for branding your event. And the views of the Austin skyline with lights reflecting onto the Colorado River are amazing.”
Winning Formula
Along with music, Austin is also famous for its annual Formula 1 U.S. Grand Prix racing event, scheduled for Oct. 21-23 this year, which takes place at the Circuit of The Americas (COTA). Along with a 9,000-seat grandstand, COTA offers the adjacent 14,000-seat Austin360 Amphitheater and opportunities for groups to enjoy race-themed events throughout the year.
“Some groups choose to come to Austin for Grand Prix, which is a great perk for sales incentives,” Negri says. “You can also replicate the experience at other times of the year. We do Track and Tower tours of the facility and include driving training where attendees actually get out on the track themselves. You can drive anything from a Dodge Charger to a Lamborghini.”
Austin’s cultural aspects also include several outstanding museums with versatile event space, including the Bullock Texas State History Museum, which has exhibits covering 13,000 years of Texas history as well an IMAX theater and an outdoor plaza with a three-story bronze Lone Star sculpture.
“The Bullock has a great indoor pavilion and some really dramatic spaces for events,” Negri says.
Also providing stunning backdrops for events is the Blanton Museum of Art on the University of Texas at Austin campus. Receptions for up to 3,000 guests can be held in the Rapoport Atrium, which has a soaring 50-foot ceiling and skylights. More intimate spaces include the Capitol Room, an AV-equipped meeting room overlooking the capitol building.
Heading for the Hill Country
The rolling, wildflower-strewn Hill Country lies just beyond Austin, offering numerous options for visits to wineries, historic sites, golf clubs, historic ranches and nature preserves. Wine-themed tours are an especially popular choice for groups, according to Negri.
“We can set up transportation with a sommelier coming along on the bus who can talk about the horticulture and viticulture as we go between the wineries,” she says. “Or we can have the bus pull over and pick up what appears to be a hitchhiker. It’s actually a musician who will play for t
