California is a great choice for meetings and events with its variety of venues, diverse landscapes and ideal weather.

When it comes to convention and incentive destinations, can any U.S. state boast a more diverse allure than California?  Sun shines for most of the year and weather extremes are rarely tested.  Small cities and large beckon planners. Pre- and post-conference attractions are many and varied.

Anaheim

Anaheim is one of the nation’s top meeting destinations, anchored by the Disneyland Resort, which is celebrating its 70th anniversary through summer 2026. The resort is entering a new era of growth with DisneylandForward, a long-term, city-approved development framework that allows Disney to thoughtfully evolve and expand its Anaheim footprint over the coming decades.

More than a single project, DisneylandForward provides the flexibility to introduce new attractions, immersive experiences, hotels and entertainment offerings, while also delivering meaningful public benefits. The plan includes major investments in parking, pedestrian connectivity and transportation infrastructure, helping to ease longstanding congestion around the resort area. For meeting planners, DisneylandForward represents sustained confidence in Anaheim’s future, signaling long-term growth in room inventory, experiential venues and off-site options that strengthen the destination’s ability to host large-scale, citywide conventions. Disney estimates a $1.9 billion investment over the next decade, including the addition of at least four new attractions at Disney California Adventure, further reinforcing Anaheim’s global appeal.

Momentum continues beyond the resort district with OCVIBE, a transformative entertainment and lifestyle district rising adjacent to the Honda Center. Designed as a walkable, mixed-use campus, OCVIBE will introduce chef-driven dining, live music venues, curated retail, public gathering spaces and year-round programming, with select components opening as early as 2027. For meeting planners, OCVIBE unlocks new possibilities for hosted receptions, sponsor activations, venue buyouts and post-conference nightlife, all within close proximity to Anaheim’s convention and hotel core.

As part of this broader vision, the Honda Center itself is undergoing a $1 billion renovation and modernization, aligning the arena with the OCVIBE district. Planned upgrades include enhanced premium and hospitality spaces, upgraded technology and expanded food-and-beverage offerings. Once complete, the reimagined venue will serve as a high-impact option for general sessions, opening-night events, concerts and large-scale receptions, seamlessly integrated into a larger district designed for pre- and post-event experiences.

Anaheim’s OCVIBE, currently under construction, is a lifestyle and entertainment district that will be perfect for events.

Looking ahead, Anaheim’s evolution continues east of the Anaheim Convention Center with Katella Gateway, a proposed mixed-use development designed to further densify and energize the city’s meetings corridor. Planned as a vertical, walkable campus, Katella Gateway would introduce a blend of new hotel accommodations, residential towers, dining, retail and public spaces along Katella Avenue, strengthening the connection between the convention center, resort area and surrounding neighborhoods. For planners, the project represents the next phase of Anaheim’s long-term strategy: increasing nearby room supply, expanding off-site venues and creating a more connected urban meetings environment that supports citywide events well into the future.

More recently, the 1,574-room Hilton Anaheim, one of the largest convention hotels on the West Coast, completed a multi-million-dollar, full-property renovation. Enhancements include fully reimagined guestrooms, refreshed meeting and ballroom spaces, new dining concepts and upgraded outdoor amenities. Located steps from the Anaheim Convention Center, the revitalized Hilton offers planners modernized inventory, improved flow and elevated onsite experiences that support both large conventions and high-end meetings seeking proximity and polish.

For its 400-attendee Annual Global Team Meeting last February, Edwards Lifesciences based its group at The Westin Anaheim Resort. Although the company headquarters are located just 12 miles away, employees come in from around this world for the meeting, and Anaheim’s central location allows for easy access from John Wayne Orange County Airport, 13 miles away, and Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), 35 miles north. Katrina Headle, specialist with Edwards Lifesciences, says the company’s event is on the cusp of requiring a convention center type space, but has been able to stay within the hotel environment to this point.

“The Westin Anaheim opened in 2021, so everything was still pristine — from the lobby, to the sleeping rooms, to the meeting space,” says Headle.  “It was simply an amazing property with an even more amazing staff. In addition, there are very few venues in Orange County that can accommodate a group this size with both sleeping rooms and meeting space.” With design hinting at Anaheim’s citrus history, the Westin is equipped with 47,542 sf of indoor/outdoor meeting and event space. Headle also connected with Visit Anaheim to assist with a team-building event, sourcing a local nonprofit that met the company’s criteria of a STEM-based activity.

“Our meeting coordinator was so polished and professional,” says Headle. “She thought of everything and was visible throughout the two-day meeting, from early morning to the evening. And the catering was perfect — the options, taste, presentation and service. We knew that our group of foodies would expect and enjoy all of the offerings. We would love to go back to the Westin for another event,” adds Headle.

Due to the size of the group, Edwards opted to use two of the dining options on the Westin property for large team dinners, including Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar and Puesto. “If you do a restaurant buy-out, be early, very early, to check on things to ensure that your vision is being implemented while you still have time to make changes,” Headle suggests.

San Francisco is known for its unique attractions and venues. Photo courtesy of Mariusz Blach

San Francisco

San Francisco is on the rebound, fueled by an AI boom and the steady return of office workers.

“California, and San Francisco specifically, is a tremendous location for us,” says Thomas Amaral, senior director and head of global event operations for Informa Connect. They pull in almost 30,000 attendees each spring for their game developer’s conference, utilizing more than 50 Bay Area hotels along with venues large and small across the city. “A good portion of our audience base is in California, but for those flying in, three major airports offer a lot of flight options, including direct flights from Europe and Asia.”

The event is centered around San Francisco’s Moscone Convention Center, and Amaral notes that the city’s walkability provides a huge advantage over other urban options. He also suggests leveraging neighboring venues like the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Yerba Buena Gardens and the 31,000-sf rooftop City View at Metreon to create a campus-like experience for a citywide. “This creates a natural intimacy for larger events of 20,000 to 50,000 people,” explains Amaral. “All types of areas can be leveraged — robust lobbies with natural light, below-ground halls, outdoor balconies, a park with cultural monuments, a gazebo and benches — with outdoor walkways connecting everything. A 10-minute journey on foot offers variety and excites the senses, avoiding arduous walks down never-ending foyers from one room to the next.”

For those looking to keep costs down, Amaral suggests reframing the agenda to allow an on-your-own lunch, or offer a single course meal instead of the three-course lunch, or schedule a coffee break rather than having it flowing continuously. “You could be faced with hard decisions,” says Amaral. “It’s important to know and compare costs with similar cities, and between facilities within the city, so you can answer questions about market rates from internal stakeholders, sponsors and others.”

Informa’s GDC Festival of Gaming at the Moscone Center in San Francisco brings in 30,000 attendees each spring.

Although Informa Connect uses a wide variety of hotels, there are new developments across the city worth highlighting. The Westin St. Francis on Union Square introduced two new outdoor event spaces, located on the exterior of the hotel’s historic Landmark Building. The hotel offers more than 56,000 sf of flexible space across more than 35 meeting rooms, blending historic grandeur with modern luxury.

Hyatt Regency San Francisco, located steps from the Embarcadero, continues to elevate meeting and event capabilities through customizable functionalities. The hotel features 72,000 sf of customizable venues, including the 11,125-sf Grand Ballroom, modern technology, picturesque waterfront views and a world-class culinary team, all just steps from the Financial District.

Last fall, the hotel proved an ideal setting for the University of California San Francisco, which hosted a two-day Continuing Medical Education Meeting for 525 attendees, focused on Management of the Hospitalized Patient. “San Francisco is our home,” says Dawn Bohlmann, senior conference manager at UCSF’s Office of Continuing Medical Education. “It only feels natural to bring our attendees from all over the world to us to teach to them in this amazing location.”

Bohlmann calls the Hyatt Regency a perfect fit for the university’s meeting: “We utilize the Grand Ballroom and the second-floor rooms (the Seacliff Level) for our breakout spaces, which provides an easy transition for the attendees from one floor to the next when we need to break out into small groups. The atrium also lends well to our group to use it as a function space for our reception as well, providing beautiful views of the bay.”

“The staff at the Hyatt Regency is exemplary and always provides premium level service for us when we host our meetings here,” adds Bohlmann. “They are, hands-down, my favorite team in San Francisco.”

San Jose McEnery Convention Center offers 520,000 sf of meeting and event space.

San Jose

San Jose is home to Silicon Valley, the hub of global innovation and where more than 2,500 AI companies have blossomed in recent years, including NVIDIA, currently the most valuable company in the world, along with tech giants Alphabet (Google), Apple, and Microsoft, among others.

It’s only natural that San Jose is changing the landscape on how connections and meetings take place, creating San Jose One Connection, a collaborative contract for one group across multiple hotels and the San Jose McEnery Convention Center. Originally a partnership between the convention center and its connecting properties, the San Jose Marriott and Hilton San Jose, the program has expanded citywide. This simplified contract allows meeting planners to sign one document through a single destination contact for ease while sourcing spaces and sleeping rooms for the best available proposal.

Sacramento

California’s capital is an obvious pick for government gatherings, but it’s also an affordable location compared to most other cities in the state, according to Marcia Durst, CMP, owner, Durst Event Strategies, LLC. “It was a great fit even for our international attendees,” suggests Durst, regarding a 1,600-attendee software conference she handled last fall. “Some flew into San Francisco, and extended their stay there. Others flew to Sacramento via San Francisco International Airport.” A $1.3 billion expansion of Sacramento International Airport is slated to debut possibly as early as later this year.

For the software event, Durst based the group at the 505-room Hyatt Regency Sacramento and used the SAFE Credit Union Convention Center, which completed a major renovation and expansion in 2021. “It fit this group perfectly,” says Durst. “Access to the Hyatt ballroom is right across the street from the main entrance so it’s pretty seamless to expand by using both venues. The hotel also has one of the best event services teams I’ve worked with. They really buy into the success of your event by offering suggestions of how other groups have used the space.”

The hotel offers 27,000 sf of meeting space, including a 15,544-sf Regency Ballroom. Durst says part of the hotel’s appeal is the longevity of staff, across all departments. “That really says something to me about how management takes care of their team,” suggests Durst. “It shows in the way they interact with clients and guests. The whole process from booking to planning and execution felt very much like a partnership, rather than a strictly transactional relationship.”

Durst adds: “Having access to the Hyatt planner portal is really helpful for tracking real-time housing data. The event planning team uses Social Tables and you can collaborate on room sets. Sometimes, it’s just easier to make small adjustments yourself rather than writing up detailed directions for the changes you want.”

Just 4 miles from Los Angeles International Airport, Marina del Rey offers waterfront dining and recreation, as well as 100,000 sf of meeting and event space.

Marina del Rey

Although the L.A. Live complex in downtown Los Angeles has redefined meetings and events in the nation’s second largest city since its opening in 2012, the many smaller communities surrounding L.A. have carved out their own identities that provide options for meetings small and large.

Marina del Rey, for instance, sits immediately north of LAX, the region’s largest airport. The scenic waterfront destination offers a quiet luxury setting and relaxed atmosphere, exemplified by 304-room The Ritz-Carlton, Marina del Rey, which holds the distinction of being the closest Ritz-Carlton hotel to the water in the United States.

For Greenfly, developer of an AI-powered sports platform, Marina del Rey made sense for the company’s annual off-site meeting because one-third of its team lives in California. “It is the most cost-effective destination for us,” says Avelene Schodorf, Greenfly’s office manager.  “We had team members flying in from all over the world, including Hong Kong, the UK, Canada, Romania and Australia, and Marina del Rey is only five miles from LAX.”

Schodorf continues: “There are many hotels to choose from in the marina, but the 159-room Courtyard by Marriott Marina del Rey had enough rooms for our group and it was at a decent price point.  We held all our meetings inside the hotel’s conference room, which had a great sound system and a large projector screen that suited all our tech needs.”  The only caveat Schodorf had with the conference room was that it lacked windows.

Long Beach

Jennifer R. Saliba, founder & president of Rhino Consulting, chose the 376-room Marriott Long Beach Downtown for a 200-attendee annual professional educational conference, the Southern California Treasury Summit, held at the end of last year. “Long Beach was clean, easy to navigate and genuinely walkable, which made a big difference for attendees moving between the hotel, sessions and downtown dining,” explains Saliba. “Being located close to the freeway made arrivals and departures seamless, and the waterfront setting and access to outdoor recreation created a relaxed, energizing atmosphere that was perfect for sponsor-hosted events and informal networking. Within just a few blocks, you could find an incredibly diverse mix of restaurants, from casual local favorites to more elevated dining, which really showcased California’s vibrant food scene. It felt like a destination where business and experience naturally blended.”

The city’s strategic location worked well, centralized between the region’s key business hubs, with multiple nearby airports making it convenient for out-of-state attendees. “From a planning perspective, the combination of accessibility, strong hotel amenities and a well-rounded destination helped deliver value without feeling overextended,” adds Saliba. The hotel has 24,505 sf total meeting space, including the 7,480-sf Bixby Ballroom. “Having everything under one roof simplified logistics and created a more cohesive experience for attendees. It allowed for smoother transitions between sessions, networking and breaks, and reduced the need for transportation or complex wayfinding that can sometimes come with larger convention facilities.”

Saliba says the Marriott felt like the right fit right from the beginning. “It had a high-end feel without being stuffy, and the modern design immediately set the tone we wanted for the conference,” notes Saliba. “This is a hotel that genuinely makes a planner’s job easier. The layout is intuitive, the lobby bar and food options are fantastic, and the staff, from sales and AV to catering and onsite operations, is outstanding. Communication is clear, execution is seamless, and the menu options are both creative and reliable. This is a hotel that knows how to support meetings at a high level.”

Twenty-two stories up, City Sights at Altitude Sky Lounge is a rooftop indoor/ outdoor venue that overlooks San Diego.

San Diego

Esri, a global market leader in geographic information system (GIS) software, has held its annual user’s conference at the Hilton San Diego Bayfront since 2009, just after the hotel first opened. “It’s the hotel facility, the people that work the convention center — which we use every square inch of — and the flexibility we have within those spaces, that has made our partnership with the Hilton and San Diego stand out,” explains Michele Cole, Esri’s head of global event and experience marketing.

The citywide draws 20,000 attendees and involved room blocks at a total of 52 hotels for the most recent gathering, last summer. In addition to the 1,190-room Hilton, Esri particularly leans on two other hotels adjoining the San Diego Convention Center: the 1,366-room Marriott Marquis San Diego Marina and the 1,628-room Manchester Grand Hyatt San Diego. “I’ve got three big, solid hotels right there,” explains Cole, who runs 30 conferences and 200 trade shows globally. “In other cities they don’t always function as well. Here, they have this continuous flow.”

Esri partners closely with both the convention center and the San Diego Tourism Authority, and is currently contracted through 2031. “Across the board, between the hotels, the convention center, the tourism and hospitality sector, and the unions, San Diego is the best I see in the country,” says Cole. “I ask for everything, but no ask is too hard — if they can’t do it, we figure it out. I think they’re amazing.”

Cole says meetings are not treated as an afterthought at the Hilton San Diego Bayfront. “It’s not a transient hotel. It was designed for large meetings,” adds Cole. “Each ballroom comes with its own foyers and amazing space, and the hotel pool is available for buyout opportunities. There are amazing branding opportunities throughout the hotel, and you can do six different events simultaneously, which I do. The hotel was designed for flow, but the spaces are separated enough that you can keep them distinct.”

“For me, San Diego really comes together as a unified destination to support their meeting and convention business,” Cole concludes.

With its great weather and endless options, California continues to be a great option for planners, no matter the size of the event. C&IT