Despite the fact that the corporate event industry is tightening its belt in terms of budget and grandeur, Las Vegas - the city of perpetual fun and entertainment - still remains one of the top five destinations for meetings in the nation. This is due in large part to the seemingly limitless amount of meeting space that’s available in addition to the success initiatives of many event facilities to face the current economic climate head-on.

We have found that the longevity of any event industry market rests in the strength of its marquee establishments. That’s why Meetings & Events Las Vegas is once again proud to profile the recognized mainstays in the regional market, those familiar venues that are tried and true and can deliver what a meeting planners wants exactly when its needed.

Part of the success initiative of the city is to give meeting planners something new and inspiring choices so they aren’t put into a situation where they find themselves recycling old ideas. As a result, we have also made it a point to highlight some of the city’s newest event facilities that are giving meeting planners new options and fresh ideas for planning their next function.

We also look at some unique facilities that are not your typical meeting venue, but are open to corporate functions and should be considered by planners looking to turn unusual space into a creative gathering. Event planners with years in the business are always finding something new in Las Vegas, and now that more venues are becoming increasingly accommodating in response to budget cuts, it really is a city where BMPs have strong negotiating leverage.

Reliable Favorites
With no introduction needed, the Las Vegas Convention Center is a 3.2 million-square-foot complex that is continually expanding and renovating its facilities in order to keep Las Vegas at the top of the corporate event industry.

The convention center features 16 large-scale exhibition halls that are divided by moveable walls, allowing for multiple spaces to be used at once and ensuring that planners are left with just the right size needed for their particular event. A total of 144 additional meeting rooms are spread throughout the facility, with capacities ranging from 20 to 7,500.

Planners should keep in mind that the center’s exhibition space rates are among the most competitive in the U.S., running as low as 29 cents per net square foot per show day.

A good resource for non-local event planners is the reservation center’s housing services, which can provide assistance in finding appropriate accommodations for large corporate groups. Other services the facility offers include registration assistance by a team of professional workers, catering by ARAMARK, the facility’s exclusive food and beverage provider; a FedEx business center; and Bags to Go, a unique program that allows passengers on Southwest, United, Delta, U.S. Airways and Frontier to check in their luggage at the convention center’s Grand Concourse.

The University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) has a longstanding reputation with the event industry as a great venue for hosting large-scale events with a more personal backdrop. The university is a great resource for event planners to take advantage of because it has overnight accommodations available year-round. In fact, the university’s residency halls and suite apartments can house a total of 1,200 guests at any given time.

The serene campus setting boasts 21 different meeting rooms that can satisfy a wide range of seating plans. The Student Union offers 135-square-feet of usable meeting space, including a ballroom that can be used for banquet dinners or auditorium-scale business presentations. The largest room for theater-style events can seat a maximum of 750 guests while the largest classroom-style space can accommodate 288.

It is also possible to use UNLV’s outdoor spaces for events, including the Union Courtyard, the Alumni Amphitheater and the North Field, all ideal settings for corporate picnics and nature team-building activities.

Catering is provided exclusively by Sodexo. Planners are also free to incorporate any of the restaurants that are located throughout the campus in their event itineraries.

The University of Nevada, Las Vegas is most effective as an all-in-one facility during the summer months when students have vacated the dormitories and campus activities are at a minimum. Planners looking to schedule an event between the months of June and August should note that reservations fill quickly and, as a result, the campus is currently booking meeting spaces up through the summer of 2014.

The Latest Newcomers
Meetings & Events Las Vegas is excited to feature some of the city’s newest venues for business-related gatherings. Even in a place as ever-changing as Las Vegas, it’s important for planners to add variety to their corporate itineraries. Booking new locations for scheduled events gives the impression of spontaneity, even if the content of the meeting stays the same.

MEET Las Vegas opened last November to unanimous raves across the event industry board. The 30,000-square-foot facility is located downtown right in the middle of the city’s flagship casinos, hotels and convention centers. The building features three floors of usable meeting space in addition to the availability of an outdoor pavilion.

Though the facility’s meeting space is flexible and versatile, the functionality of MEET Las Vegas begins on the outside. Meeting planners can transform the building into their client’s own personal forum for expression, as the state-of-the-art lighting system can be adjusted to alter the mood and coloration of the facility’s exterior. In addition, multiple rigging points on the outer walls allow for banners and multiple branding and advertising opportunities.

The event development potential of MEET Las Vegas is virtually endless. “You can do anything in there,” says Director of Sales and Marketing Melanie Bash. “It’s a meeting planner’s dream.”

The first floor features 5,371-square-feet of open space, which can accommodate a 1,136-person maximum capacity. With a ceiling height of 17 feet, 12 inches, the first floor is a remarkable resource for planners needing a large space with maximum versatility. Other highlights include a connecting outdoor pavilion that can accommodate an additional 400 guests, a full catering kitchen for optimum food and beverage services, plumbing for beautiful indoor waterfalls, grids for interior decoration and customizable lighting design.

The second floor features three premium meeting rooms that are designed with the needs of business presentations and teleconferencing in mind. All three rooms can be used in conjunction with each other for a combined meeting space of 1,622-square feet. In addition, the floor features a hallway and two vestibules suitable for breakout session areas and temporary office space.

The third floor consists of two training labs, each equipped with 26 and 23 computer workstations, respectively, perfect for educational seminars and learning courses. The third floor also features two meeting rooms, the 752-square-foot East Wing and the 1,076-square-foot West Wing. Each room contains 65-inch plasma screens and the former includes teleconferencing and videoconferencing capabilities.

MEET Las Vegas is truly an all-in-one facility, with meeting space that can accommodate a variety of different types of corporate events.

The Hard Rock Hotel & Casino recently added 75,000-square-feet of meeting space to its already impressive facilities. The Joint, Body English, the Pool, the Poker Lounge and Wasted Space are the Hard Rock’s signature event spaces that are infused with the motifs of rock culture, making any corporate function a truly exciting and memorable one.

Muse Hall is one of the largest of the new facilities with maximum capacities of 1,000 for banquet-style events, 1,729 for theater-style seating and 1,559 for cocktail receptions. Its companion meeting space, Artist Hall, has capacities of 700 for banquet-style events, 1,110 for theater-style seating and 1,000 for cocktail receptions, respectively. Both halls can be used in conjunction with one another for even larger groups.

On the Horizon
Like the rest of the corporate events industry, we’re anxiously awaiting the opening of a venue that can only be described as a juggernaut. CityCenter promises to reinforce Las Vegas as the only viable destination for world-class meetings and events in the Western United States. We look forward to reporting on this exciting project in an in-depth profile in our next issue, but for now, here’s some preliminary information on the facility’s meeting spaces.

CityCenter’s ARIA Resort & Casino is now booking meeting facility reservations for 2010. The convention facility at ARIA consists of four impressive ballrooms with maximum capacities of 5,000 guests each. The largest ballroom will include 51-square-feet of open floor plan that can be divided into 10 smaller meeting spaces. Twenty-five-foot ceilings will lend the larger rooms a sense of grandiosity and classical finesse that has become a rare commodity in Las Vegas.

Three of the ballrooms will feature all-purpose stages and the entire facility will have broadband and wireless Internet connectivity available in all areas. The building will be user-friendly, as the ballrooms will feature production rigging and electrical power outlets throughout so that meeting planners can customize the space to their liking.

One of the facility’s major focal points will be glass wall of the north façade that will allow for spectacular views of the pool and surrounding landscape to interact with the elegance and beauty of the building’s interior.

CityCenter is still six months away from opening, and it’s already generating tons of buzz for what promises to be a great contribution to an already exhilarating market. Aside from its marquee spaces, the convention center will also have 38 meeting rooms available on its second and third levels for smaller groups, breakout sessions and satellite events.

CityCenter is shaping up to be another all-purpose facility that can accommodate every sort of corporate meeting imaginable and as any planner knows, a city can never have too many of these state-of-the-art complexes.