Meeting News - January 7, 2008 - (Page 27)

Destination Insider: L.A.& The Beaches Edited by William Ng william.ng@nielsen.com $4.5B Los Angeles Complex Goes Live, Energizing Downtown youthful energy come together. And now, event planners are right at the heart of it. “We chose the dates for E for All expo around the opening of the Nokia Theatre,” said Mary Dolaher, CEO of IDG World Expo, based in Framingham, MA. Dabney Bixel, CEO of Bixel & Company, an event and meeting planning company in Los Angeles, said,“Downtown is having this whole rejuvenation of hot clubs and restaurants, not to mention L.A. Live and the Nokia Theatre.” A 54-story Marriott hotel tower, consisting of a JW Marriott and topped off by a Ritz-Carlton, will add 1,000 guest rooms adjacent to the convention center, giving downtown what it has needed to be competitive with other convention cities, said Bixel. When the two hotels open in March 2010, it “is going to be fantastic,” she said, as attendees will be able to walk across the street not just to shows at the convention center, but to the Staples Center for Lakers games and concerts and to a variety of dining spots. Energized by L.A. Live, many downtown properties have undergone renovations, including the Los Angeles Marriott Downtown, the Omni Los Angeles Hotel, the Westin Bonaventure Hotel & Suites, the Kyoto Grand Hotel & Gardens (formerly the New Otani Hotel & Garden), and the Sheraton Los Angeles Downtown. The Wilshire Grand, meanwhile, has installed new AV technology in all of its ballrooms. —Julie Barker Downtown Los Angeles welcomed the Nokia Theatre as part of L.A. Live. The city center will also see 3.2 million sf of development around Walt Disney Concert Hall by 2010. In late October, the Nokia Theatre, the ﬁrst element of the ambitious L.A. Live complex that is transforming the Los Angeles Convention Center area, opened with a concert by the Dixie Chicks and the Eagles. However, the country and rock stars were given the next night off so that the Nokia could host the grand-opening event of the E for All expo, a video gaming consumer show put on by IDG World Expo (see Event Report for more). Gamers and exhibitors were treated to a symphony orchestra and choir that performed music from classic video games under synchronized lighting and special effects. It was the kind of event that symbolizes the new Los Angeles, where entertainment, technology, and Event Report IDG Brings L.A. Two New Shows Green technology show is one of the IT show organizer’s pair of events Citing Los Angeles as the epicenter of the convergence of the entertainment industry and the creative ﬁelds, Mary Dolaher, CEO of major IT events producer IDG World Expo, said there were no better choices than the City of Angels to hold the ﬁrst-ever E for All video gaming consumer show. But Los Angeles will also be the incubator for a new IDG event, the GreenXchange Xpo, a show for green technology and innovation. The E for All show attracted 18,000-plus attendees to the Los Angeles Convention Center Oct. www.meetingnews.com 18-21. IDG, based in Framingham, MA, has used Los Angeles for 12 years for its “retired” Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) computer and video gaming trade show. E3’s largest exhibitors, including Sony and Nintendo, wanted limits on booth size, said Dolaher, because they were “in an arms race to see who can outspend who.” E3, which continued on page 28 The Los Angeles Convention Center will be the venue for IDG’s new green technology conference in October. January 7, 2008 MeetingNews 27 http://www.meetingnews.com

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