Meeting News - October 20, 2008 - (Page 45)

Destination Insider: California MeetingNews Q&A: A True Hollywood Ending for L.A.’s Convention Center Area The Los Angeles Convention Center and its surrounding development have endured years of controversy. Now, even before the $1 billion L.A. Live project makes its official debut next year, the convention center is having a great year—which makes Michael K. Krouse, senior VP of sales for LA Inc. (the city’s convention and visitors bureau), very happy. We just had a record-breaking fiscal year in convention bookings. We booked 53 conventions and just under 7,000 room nights, and about 50 percent of those will be consumed between now and the end of 2010. What makes that an important number is it was a record for our city—up 39 percent over last year, which was the previous record. And the year before that was the previous record. We have had three years running of record growth in bookings. That is $369 million in economic impact, so it’s a significant number. Q A Sounds like things have really turned around for the convention center. The building was quick to announce, “We’ve had an experience, but with no loss of power and no structural damage.” Some of the people at NBTA had never experienced an earthquake, and they didn’t realize how fast it is. It’s startling because you’re not expecting it, but it calms down, and then everything goes away. Q A They also had a little extra excitement—like an earthquake. The mayor used to call the convention center “the white elephant” in the mainstream press. Now, Los Angeles is one of two convention centers in the country that are profitable. Q A You hosted the National Business Travel Association in July. Yes, and NBTA had record attendance and record hotel rooms. For the opening reception (at L.A. Live, in the Nokia Theatre, which opened last November), we had a Cindy Lauper concert— which we produced. It was quite a fun thing to see, because you’d think that with a down market we would see some decline in attendance, but that was not the case at all. The convention center’s got a lot of glass; it’s a very unique design and very modern building. But, like everything in L.A., it is designed on a ballbearing system, and it is built to withstand an 8.0 quake. In addition to being earthquake-safe, it has been running on solar power for more than 10 years, and any balance of energy that the solar panels don’t produce comes from renewable sources. Our building is very green. And, we’re still the best bargain in the country; we are not overpriced, we are not overbuilt with hotel rooms, and construction still continues. Our new hotels [a JW Marriott and a Ritz-Carlton, originally slated to open in 2010] are still going full bore. We’re expecting that they will open in December 2009, when the L.A. Live Phase II project, with the Grammy Museum, Club Nokia, and Lucky Strike Lanes, will come on line and all the restaurants, bars, and nightclubs that go in there will open. You’ve Got Kin at Manchester Hyatt in San Diego The 1,625-room Manchester Grand Hyatt San Diego, located on the waterfront and within walking distance of the San Diego Convention Center, recently opened its 8,000-sf Kin Lounge, an upscale, poolside venue overlooking San Diego Bay. Private events of up to 400 can be accommodated. The Kin Lounge joins the propwww.meetingnews.com erty’s 125,000 sf of meeting space, including the 41,856 sf of outdoor space (plus a 25,000-sf pool deck) and the 30,000-sf Elizabeth Ballroom—the largest hotel ballroom in southern California. Kin Lounge events are weather-permitting, and, from mid-April to mid-November, need to end by 10 p.m., when the lounge opens to the public. r October 20, 2008 MeetingNews 45 http://www.ssfconf.com http://www.ssfconf.com http://www.meetingnews.com

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Meeting News - October 20, 2008

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