Destinations - July/August 2008

Scheduled to open in 2009, CityCenter will include the 4,004-room Aria Resort & Casino with 300,000 square feet of meeting space. Photo ccourtesy of MGM Mirage

By Diana Rowe

When it’s time to crunch numbers, W. Douglas Hitt, CMP, president of  local, full-service planning company Event Management Solutions said, “It’s a great time to make a deal in Las Vegas.”

A 30-year resident with a career including stints at area resorts, Hitt was the first Las Vegas independent CMP. “Planners not looking at Las Vegas are missing the best value-oriented convention destination in the world,” Hitt continued. “With more than $30 billion in planned developments and facing a strained economy, Las Vegas is aggressively marketing its inventory to the meetings industry. This presents a great opportunity to savvy planners.”

The inventory itself is changing, too. Hitt said, “Las Vegas used to be known as the world’s largest casinos with hotels attached, but in the past few years and looking to the future, the ‘new’ Las Vegas is better known as a convention city offering the world’s largest hotels with the occasional casino attached.”

New Casino-less Hotels
Las Vegas is stepping up to the plate to offer personalized service and values for smaller groups, too. With a citywide inventory increasing to more than 170,000 by the end of 2010 with nearly 40,000 new rooms, many of these additions include a series of new boutique hotels missing the Las Vegas icon — the casino.

Properties, such as THEhotel, located steps away from the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino as a stand-alone 1,117-suite resort with a separate entrance, check-in and spa, are becoming part of an apparent new trend in Las Vegas that is a critical component in the city’s battle for meetings, according to Hitt.

“If you haven’t visited Las Vegas within the past few years, you should really take a second look. The city is continuously changing to fit the needs of the meetings industry,” said Hitt. “Removing the gaming component from the property simply makes it an easier sell to fit within a company’s meeting objective, without sacrificing the other benefits that the city offers, such as accessibility, affordability and plentiful meeting space.”

For small meetings, Hitt suggested planners consider the Palms Place Hotel and Spa at The Palms Las Vegas, a hip and edgy property that has unique specialty venues offering intimate meeting space for groups of under 200 attendees. But when the need arises, its nearly 60,000 square feet of meeting space accommodates up to 5,000 attendees.

Located just off The Strip, the newly opened Palms Place Hotel and Spa at the Palms Las Vegas is a separate hotel/condo mix within a 47-story tower, boasting 599 suites but no casino. Attendees can unwind

An aerial view of Mandalay Bay Beach, an 11-acre tropical pool environment with sand, a wave pool and the only climate-controlled, poolside gaming in Las Vegas. The beach area can be reserved for private corporate events. Photo courtesy of Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino

with a drink in the exquisite lobby bar, Rojo, or enjoy exceptional fare at Kerry Simon’s new signature restaurant, Simon at Palms Place, or a metropolitan hammam (Turkish bath) and spa. Though there is no gaming onsite, a quick 90-second ride on the SkyTube moving walkway will connect attendees to all the action at Palms Casino Resort.

Another new property missing a casino by design is the 64-story Trump International Hotel & Tower Las Vegas, with 1,232 guest rooms and 50 penthouse suites. This property is the perfect setting for smaller staff meetings, offering 2,460 square feet of function space including two meeting rooms and the Trump Board Room. The personalized service approach extends to The Spa at Trump, which offers 11,000 square feet of serenity — a real “trumping” of Las Vegas’ 24/7 action.

The much-anticipated 2009 opening of CityCenter — the new $8 billion joint venture between MGM Mirage and Dubai World located in the heart of The Strip — will also feature three luxurious non-gaming hotels: the 400-room Mandarin Oriental; the 400-room Harmon Hotel, Spa & Residences; and the 1,543-room Vdara at CityCenter. Vdara, which features a 10,000-square-foot, non-smoking meeting space, is currently booking corporate and incentive groups for 2010 and beyond. Vdara’s meeting and event options include a 4,000-square-foot ballroom for up to 400 attendees; a 3,500-square-foot prefunction area; pool and lounge area for up to 1,500 attendees; plus three 800-square-foot meeting spaces and an executive boardroom. A transit system will connect CityCenter to Bellagio and Monte Carlo.

Glitz, Glamor And Gaming Still Reign
The CityCenter centerpiece is the gaming resort Aria Resort & Casino, which will offer 4,004 guest rooms including 568 suites. The resort casino’s meeting experience encompasses three levels, delivering 300,000 square feet of technologically advanced meeting and convention space with 38 meeting rooms and four ballrooms to accommodate up to 5,000 attendees. Dining experiences range from the casual comfort of bistros and cafés to culinary masterpieces from world-renowned chefs and restaurateurs. Its dynamic collection of lounges, bars and nightclubs will provide planners with an array of unique venues for dine-arounds or private events.

CityCenter and Aria were designed to meet environmental sustainability standards. For example, Aria’s north façade features a spectacular glass curtain to take advantage of natural light, and the interior is highlighted with natural stone and reclaimed wood. CityCenter is pursuing the U.S. Green Building

MGM Grand Hotel and Casino recently debuted the Marquee Ballroom, a 92,000-square-foot pillarless space that accommodates up to 6,000 attendees. Photo courtesy of MGM Mirage

Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification. As planned, the 18-million-square foot, multiuse project will become one of the world’s largest environmentally sustainable urban communities.

While socially responsible corporations appreciate these environmentally friendly efforts, attendees are enthused by all the glitz and glamor Las Vegas is best known for: celebrity chef dining experiences, Cirque du Soleil extravaganzas, dancing fountains, erupting volcanoes, roller coasters, gaming and more.

“Las Vegas is just one mind-bending sensory experience after another,” said Bridget Sypolt, who describes Meeting Professional International’s 2008 World Education Congress (MPI WEC) meeting taking place in Las Vegas in August as “a meeting planner’s dream destination.”

As the director of event strategy and knowledge at MPI, Sypolt is charged with organizing the 2008 WEC, which is posting the largest anticipated meeting turnout in MPI history, with 4,000 attendees registered by June.

Sypolt continued, “Who doesn’t have Las Vegas on their list of destinations? Who doesn’t want to sample the amazing celebrity chef restaurants and world-class shopping, see a new show, gaze at the lights of The Strip, or, yes, even take a chance in the casinos?”

Record attendance is usually the result when Las Vegas is on the agenda, and it’s easily accommodated in the city’s more than 136,000 guest rooms, and 9.7 million square feet of convention and exhibit space.

Stress-Free Planning
When planning other major MPI events, Sypolt said she’s accustomed to the typical meeting planner’s headache: juggling 10 different hotels and their hundreds of employees, 10 different hotel contracts, 10 convention services contacts and transportation nightmares to get everyone to the right place at the right

Mesmerizing music from the soundtrack of Cirque du Soleil’s “Beatles LOVE” extravaganza won two 2008 Grammy Awards. Meeting attendees can experience the show in all its surround-sound glory in a custom-built theatre at The Mirage. Photo by Tomas Muscionico/Cirque du Soleil

time. However, a Las Vegas meeting allows Sypolt to accommodate all attendees, suppliers and vendors under one roof at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino.

The 3,211-room Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino will be the host hotel for MPI’s WEC. The four-level Mandalay Bay Convention Center offers more than 1.5 million square feet of flexible meeting and exhibit space, accommodating up to 75 simultaneous meetings with ballrooms ranging from 10,000 to 100,000 square feet.  The largest ballroom, Mandalay Bay Ballroom, can accommodate a meeting for up to 8,500 attendees or dinner for more than 6,000.

Sypolt and her team even jokingly say with the efficiency of an onsite meeting and the competence of the Mandalay Bay’s staff, they might even get a few extra minutes of sleep.

“This convention hotel does meetings right, offering an astounding quantity of meeting space including tons of airwalls to create any size of meeting room, and huge foyers, nooks, and crannies for planned and impromptu networking,” she explained. “At any one time, I can have 20 breakouts for education, an opening general session, chapter events or receptions, leadership dinners — a constant flow of attendees, yet I won’t even use all the meeting space.”

Sypolt said the closing night reception is a laidback event with casual attire encouraged at Mandalay Bay Beach. This unique venue is an 11-acre tropical pool environment with sand, a wave pool and the only climate-controlled, poolside gaming in the city.

Mandalay Bay is one of 11 properties offered by MGM Mirage and is one of many properties in Las Vegas that continually upgrade their product for the meetings market.

Open-air events have room to breathe with 55,000 square feet of outdoor meeting space at Loews Lake Las Vegas Resort, a Moroccan-inspired 25-acre desert resort. Photo courtesy of Loews Lake Las Vegas Resort

For instance, the MGM Grand Las Vegas expanded its meeting and convention space earlier this year to an impressive 602,000 square feet with the addition of the pillarless 92,000-square-foot Marquee Ballroom, located next to the MGM Grand Conference Center. MGM Grand’s 5,034  diverse accommodations fit the needs of both large and small groups, as well as VIPs: The Grand Tower offers deluxe rooms and suites, Skylofts perched atop the hotel offer elegant two-story units, the West Wing has 700 boutique-style rooms and The Signature at MGM Grand is a separate three-tower property featuring luxury suites and private balconies.

Smaller groups might consider the recently redesigned and expanded 21,000-square-foot meeting and convention space at New York-New York. Also, the Bellagio invested $60 million into redesigning 512

Caesars Palace celebrated the 200th performance of Elton John’s “The Red Piano” in June at the Colosseum theatre. PRNewsFoto/Harrah’s Entertainment, Inc.

suites.

Following a dramatic multiyear transformation with completion scheduled later this year, The Mirage once again will enhance its position with a stunning $110 million room and suite redesign of its 2,763 accommodations. The volcano at The Mirage, one of The Strip’s most iconic structures, is in the process of being transformed and will feature more pyrotechnics and choreography to music, similar to the fountains at the Bellagio.

Sypolt is also taking advantage of one of the hundreds of offsite venues in Las Vegas. MPI’s opening reception will be at Caesars Palace as a formally themed event, planned by Las Vegas Meetings by Harrah’s Entertainment (LVMHE).

LVMHE’s seven distinctive Las Vegas properties operate under a single city-wide operation with one leadership umbrella. They include: Bally’s Las Vegas, Caesars Palace, Flamingo Las Vegas, Harrah’s Las Vegas, Paris Las Vegas, Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino and Imperial Palace. With a single point of contact, planners can access LVMHE’s 1 million square feet of combined meeting space, nearly 20,000 guest rooms and suites, and countless options for dining, entertainment and leisure.

A $1 billion expansion of Caesars Palace is slated for completion in mid-2009. The centerpiece of the expansion is the luxurious new 665-room hotel tower — the Octavius Tower — and an additional 60,000 square feet of meeting space. The new tower will be located adjacent to the 240,000-square-foot Caesars Palace Conference Center. In addition to the new Octavius Tower, the resort’s existing 512-room Forum Tower will also undergo a major refurbishment.

Endless Possibilities For Attendees
Carol Willian is the director, meetings and incentive department, for The Travel Authority (TTA), which  books 120-plus meetings and incentives each year, including meetings for the insurance and financial

The Golden Nugget Hotel & Casino, adjacent to the downtown Fremont Street Experience, recently added The Grand, a divisible multipurpose event center. Photo courtesy of the Golden Nugget Hotel & Casino

industry. 

Willian said her clients tend to select their hotels based on their meeting schedule. For incentive trips, clients head to The Strip; for meeting-intensive events, they head away from it.

“For incentives,” Willian said, “The Las Vegas Strip just offers more opportunity to entertain without all the planning headaches. We don’t have to book or create entertainment because it’s steps away. All our clients do is select a property befitting an incentive, such as the Bellagio, plan an onsite awards dinner, for example, and then let the attendees loose for the evening to enjoy what the city has to offer, from great shows like Cirque du Soleil to nightclubs like PURE at Caesars Palace.”

Meeting Off The Strip
Willian continued, “When the objective is to focus on business, our clients prefer an off-Strip property to keep their attendees less distracted. The JW Marriott Las Vegas Resort & Spa offers plenty of meeting space for small to mid-sized groups, yet it’s still close enough to get to the action of The Strip. It’s a perfect

Artist’s rendering of the new 800-room tower at South Point Hotel, Casino & Spa. The tower offers 10,000 square feet of meeting space, for a property total of 160,000 square feet. Rendering courtesy of South Point Hotel, Casino & Spa

marriage between meetings and entertainment.”

The 548-room JW Marriott Las Vegas Resort & Spa features 35 function rooms with more than 100,000 square feet of flexible indoor and outdoor function space.

Thirty minutes from The Strip in the heart of the Lake Las Vegas resort community, is the 493-room Loews Lake Las Vegas Resort, where the restful lakefront desert location makes it easy for attendees to focus on the business at hand. Nearby is the Reflection Bay Golf Club, a Jack Nicklaus Signature design 18-hole championship golf course, as well as the Falls Golf Club, designed by Tom Weiskopf. Other amenities include the Spa Moulay, two signature pools, a variety of water activities to explore Lake Las Vegas and a Lake Mead Cruise that includes views of Hoover Dam. In addition to its 45,000 square feet of indoor meeting space, Loews Lake Las Vegas Resort takes full advantage of its picturesque location with 55,000 square feet of outdoor function space.

Also off The Strip are four Coast Casinos properties including Suncoast Hotel & Casino, The Orleans Hotel & Casino, Gold Coast Hotel & Casino, and Sam’s Town Hotel & Gambling Hall. All offer free shuttle service to The Strip.

The 426-unit Suncoast Hotel & Casino features a 25,000-square-foot convention, banquet and meeting complex, a 16-screen movie theater and a 64-lane bowling center.

The Orleans Hotel & Casino offers 1,885 guest rooms and 40,000 square feet of meeting and banquet space, plus an 800-seat theater. The Orleans Arena offers an additional 10,000 square feet for concerts and events.

Gold Coast Hotel & Casino has 711 guest rooms, including newly remodeled units, and 30,000 square feet of function space that can be configured for any size function from intimate events to seated dinners for 700.

Sam’s Town Hotel & Gambling Hall has 650 guest rooms and 30,000 square feet of flexible function
space, including a 10,000-square-foot ballroom. Sam’s Town also features a bowling center, 18-screen movie complex and 1,100-seat multi-use event center.

Off-Strip development is also creating more options for planners. 

Planners are taking notice of the 1,900-room Golden Nugget Hotel & Casino, a four-diamond resort adjacent to the downtown Fremont Street Experience, especially after its $60 million expansion 18 months ago. The addition west of its current location at First and Fremont includes The Grand, a large multipurpose, divisible events center. For an exciting after-hours event, planners might consider their new sushi restaurant or nightlife venue.

Minutes from The Strip, the South Point Hotel, Casino & Spa, a Mediterranean-themed resort complex, is a one-stop destination for groups. The hotel just completed its new 800-room tower — with the first group checking in August 1st — bringing the total number of guest rooms to 2,163. The property includes a 4,400-seat arena; 98,000 square feet of exhibit hall and meeting space; new Bay Rooms featuring 6,000 square feet of meeting space; and a 53,000-square-foot conference center. Two new restaurants, Baja Miguels and Primarily Prime Rib, and two new lounges, Silverado Lounge and Miguel’s Tequila Bar, also debuted recently. Other onsite culinary experiences include Don Vito’s, Big Sur Oyster Bar, Silverado Steakhouse and Michael’s Gourmet Room. A spa expansion and high-limit gaming area should be completed by the end of 2008.

More To Come On The Strip
The Las Vegas Sands Megacenter, which consists of The Venetian Resort Hotel Casino, The Palazzo Resort Hotel Casino, and the Sands Expo and Convention Center, and boasts 7,093 suites, more than 30 restaurants with more than 10,000 seats, four theaters and showrooms, and 19 million square feet of total space including 2.2 million square feet of flexible show and meeting space.

The 3,066-suite Palazzo celebrated its grand opening earlier this year offering shopping, dining and entertainment on two levels.

Future projects also include the $2.25 billion Encore, the new luxury resort at Wynn Las Vegas with completion expected in December. The hotel and casino will house approximately 2,000 rooms and 60,000

The M Resort Spa Casino, with 390 rooms and 60,000 square feet of meeting space, will be the largest resort built within the city limits of Henderson when it opens in spring 2009. Photo courtesy of M Resort Spa Casino

square feet of meeting space. According to hotel magnate Steve Wynn, the casino at Encore “...is ringed with glass walls and gardens. Natural light will flood the whole place constantly. That’s never been done before.”

More renovations and expansions are scheduled for completion next year. Among them is a $130 million expansion project at Silverton Casino Lodge that is expected to be completed by early 2009. Also in 2009, the Fontainebleau Las Vegas, located on the northern end of The Strip, is scheduled for a fall debut. The $2.9 billion, 63-story resort and condo-hotel will offer approximately 3,800 rooms. The Hard Rock Hotel & Casino will complete a $760  million expansion in mid-2009 that will add 875 guest rooms inside two new towers, a second spa, and an extra 60,000 square feet of meeting space.

Approximately 10 miles south of The Strip is the $1 billion M Resort Spa Casino slated for a spring 2009 opening. This property will include 390 rooms and suites, as well as a unique, 100,000-square-foot canyon-feature pool area, 60,000 square feet of meeting space and a 20,000-square-foot spa.

Don’t Blink, Or You’ll Miss It
“Las Vegas is an ever-changing canvas,” said Beth J. Duke, director, business development for Baskow & Associates, a provider of event, meeting and destination management services. “We have events that return year after year to Las Vegas, yet we can offer new products to our clients.”

If you blink an eye, Duke said, you might miss a development, from the recent opening of the Palazzo to the new show, “Jersey Boys.” “Las Vegas continually morphs into a new and better version of itself. For example, say a planner visited The Venetian a couple of meetings ago, they might have seen Blue Man Group and “Phantom of the Opera,” but not the new show “Jersey Boys.” They may have stayed at The Venetian, but they haven’t seen the fabulous Palazzo. There’s so much to see and do — and the number of options continues to rise with the skyline.

“Share your budget with us, and we can make Las Vegas work for you,” explained Duke. “We’ve been in Las Vegas for 30 years, and the footprint of the city constantly changes. We continually develop and maintain relationships with properties, resorts, venues and restaurants, and wherever a meeting might need a contact. Since we do so many meetings, we can leverage our buying power to get a better deal, plus we save you time. That benefits groups coming in for the first time or the 10th.”

Charitable Events Add A Cause For Fun
With a large insurance and financial client base, Duke understands the industry and the challenges it faces in the current economy. A planner doesn’t have to forego teambuilding, entertainment or networking to be in compliance with laws such as Sarbanes-Oxley. She suggested incorporating them into a charitable event.

Charitable events drive results, according to Duke. “Sales teams can bond when building bikes for a local girls or boys club. Solid communication builds between departments while hammering a nail for Habitat for Humanity. Relationships are cemented when swinging a club at a charity golf event at any of the dozens of courses. Las Vegas has the backdrop to make all this happen. Corporate social responsibility is a fantastic positive push for your corporate image, and a great way to enjoy Las Vegas.”

Duke added, “At the end of the day, it’s a feel-good event for your company, investors, clients and employees, because you are giving back to the community and inviting your attendees to participate.”    I&FMM