Prevue January/February 2012 - (Page 32)

LIVE IN L.A. [ON LOCATION] DAWNA L ROBERTSON L.A. LIVE, The Ritz-Carlton + JW Marriott redeﬁne 1-stop shopping for planners The $2.5 billion L.A. LIVE entertainment and sports district is a 5.6 million-sf “live content campus.” Signature venues include the 770,000-sf Los Angeles Convention Center, STAPLES Center, Nokia Theater, GRAMMY Museum and the two anchor hotels: JW Marriott Los Angeles L.A. Live Hotel and The Ritz-Carlton Residences at L.A. Live. Inside the museum, we gawk at Katy Perry’s fruit dress from the Grammys in 2009. Then there’s “The Dress”—the infamous plunging Versace number that JLo barely wore in 2000. From there, we retreat to cool private pods with touch screens for our virtual sessions with artists like Janet Jackson. “Groups can work as teams to create a special relationship with the music through our multimedia and interactive aspects,” says museum director, Robert Santelli. “We’ve made the GRAMMY Museum an L.A. Live point of entrance where attendees take a private docent tour, then get into the music making process,” says Dani-Lee Landa, with 360 Destination Group. For receptions, there’s the outdoor 8,100-sf Target Terrace handling 350 attendees with views of the LA skyline and iconic Hollywood sign. Catering is handled by Wolfgang Puck. “Planners can utilize a convention center, stage a big name concert at Nokia, get great NBA seats at STAPLES, have dinner functions at L.A. Live restaurants, and have attendees stay at JW Marriott and The Ritz-Carlton,” says Michael Krouse, senior vp of meetings/sales with LA Inc. “Nowhere else in this city can you go to one place that has all this happening.” WHAT’S YOUR VIBE? On the upper ﬂoors of a 54-story tower, the 123-room Ritz-Carlton achieves a ﬁne balance between LEED standards and its hallmark interior aesthetics. With a palette of soft browns, caramel and baby blue, my 22nd ﬂoor room overlooks L.A. Live’s massive 8,000-sf LED video screen on the side of the JW Marriott. What stands out about this hotel pairing is that they’re both upscale but exude two distinctive attitudes: “see and be seen” and “ﬂy under the radar.” At the Ritz, I lay low at dinner 24 ﬂoors above it all at Wolfgang Puck’s WP24 Restaurant, the celebrity chef’s latest concept spotlighting modern Chinese cuisine. The urban garden-inspired lounge seats 153 on large wooden seating pods. The dining room hosts 90 with a 10-seat Wine Cave for private meals. Love the Szechuan chicken “dan dan” dumplings, prawn toast with sweet and spicy garlic chili, lobster and prawn spring rolls with 10-spice honey. Kyle Guerin, a planner with Paciﬁc Dental Services organized a kick-off party here for an annual conference last summer. Guerin cleared the space to create a nightclub setting for karaoke. “We wanted it to be more fun than sleepy to match L.A.,” says Guerin. “So we brought in a DJ and set up karaoke. The view is just beautiful up there with the city lights and mountains.” At the 878-room JW Marriott, chef Kerry Simon’s LA Market is much more lively, located off the buzzing lobby. Great people watching as crowds make their way to Nokia Theater for Los Angeles Food & Wine, and planners have a full calendar of these L.A. Live events to weave into MICE agendas. We dive into sushi pizza and brick oven roasted organic chicken. Splitting his 1,350 guests between the sister hotels, Guerin was wowed by 100,000 sf of shared indoor meeting space, individual pool decks and ION Bar for outdoor gatherings. The big rooms are the 25,000-sf Diamond, 20,700-sf Platinum and 17,000-sf Gold ballrooms. “We used every square inch of space with our group,” says Guerin. “L.A. Live has done a great job of creating a Times Square vibe. There’s such great self-contained energy so you can stay right in the area.” discoverlosangeles.com; lalive.com; ritzcarlton.com; marriott.com/jw L.A. LIVE 34 | prevue magazine http://www.discoverlosangeles.com http://www.lalive.com http://www.ritzcarlton.com http://www.marriott.com/jw

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Prevue January/February 2012

Fiesta Americana Hotels
Bermuda
Fort Worth/San Diego/Montreal
Corporate Responsibility
Royal Caribbean International
The Value of Collaboration
Leathership Summit, Panama
The Ritz-Carlton/JW Marriott L.A.
Florida Means Business
W Austin
No Wallet, No Worries
Intercontinental Argentina
Site/MGM Resorts Las Vegas
Philadelphia
River Terrace Inn, Napa

Prevue January/February 2012