What’s with the old shipping container behind the Irvine Marriott?
“People are looking for a space that is more innovative and showcases the outdoors in Southern California,” Irvine Marriott Food and Beverage Director Anthony Hartwell said recently when asked about events trends.
“We want to provide immersive and engaging travel stories” to meetings and convention guests, agreed George Assaf, operations director at the hotel.
Done—and in the increasingly popular “pop-up” format of temporary venues.
The hotel, which overlooks the San Diego (405) Freeway, at just a few minutes from John Wayne Airport, would seem to have its immersive outdoor spaces work cut out for it.
Hartwell and Assaf, their staff and even one or two employees’ relatives have responded to the challenge with Cannery Row, an outdoor space in a former parking lot at the back of the hotel that includes two wooden outbuildings and a larger weather-beaten shack, and is anchored by a cocktail bar set in the old shipping container.
“You could do your event in a ballroom with no windows,” Hartwell said, “but why?”
Logistics
A true pop-up event, is hard to pull off in a hotel meetings world of too many city permits.
“You can’t do real pop-ups often, because events have to be planned and permitted,” said Shannon Gilbert, director of sales and marketing at Ritz-Carlton, Laguna Niguel.
The Ritz has done dinners at nearby beaches—“full meals with everything you’d normally have,” Gilbert said—but the property gets creative even with those. “Servers wouldn’t be in, say, tuxedos. It’s going to be Hawaiian shirts or colorful polos.”
Irvine Marriott overcame planning challenges to some degree with Cannery Row because the hotel already owned the structures, which are on its grounds.
Hartwell said the buildings originally were near the swimming pool and that when a remodel of that area was planned, hotel owner—an affiliate of Los Angeles-based brokerage CBRE Group Inc.—agreed to let them move them to the parking lot spot.
Block Party
An existing space that’s used for an impromptu pop-up experience can capture the vibe of the trend.
A common area between Paséa Hotel & Spa in Huntington Beach and the Pacific City retail and restaurant layout has organically morphed into a “block-party-type atmosphere” for groups at the hotel, said General Manager Scott Blakeslee.
The space is an area between the hotel and mall that guests use to move among both, and get to the beach.
“On New Year’s Eve, we did a digital countdown on the wall,” he said. “People grabbed their drinks and ran out into the area” to watch it, and, “The entire space became a pop-up.”
Paséa wants pop-ups because it’s “an event venue first and a hotel second.”
That runs counter to the industry mantra of heads in beds, meaning that the point of all activities is to sell hotel rooms.
“We sell everything as part of an experience,” Blakeslee said. “If you have a good, strong event (nearby), you will fill the rooms.”
Serendipity
The Grand Plaza in front of Anaheim Convention Center and between Hilton Anaheim and Anaheim Marriott is designed for temporary events, said Charles Harris, senior vice president of marketing at Visit Anaheim.
A combination beer garden, whiskey bar and cigar lounge sprouted in the 36,000-square-foot plaza on the opening night of the Dallas-based International Association of Exhibitions and Events’ convention in December. Anaheim Brewery, Bottle Logic Brewing and Legends Craft Brewery, all in Anaheim, sold the beers.
Hilton Anaheim used its 19,000-square-foot, open-air Lanai Deck to give the same crowd a look at a certain aspect of its operations, according to spokesperson Claudia Schou.
A hive of bees might otherwise be a problem, though for the mixer meant to show how Hilton Anaheim’s food and beverage staff works with “sustainable” vendors, Schou said the bees fit right in.
“It’s something that’s going to include food,” she said, “and it gets people to be social and move around a bit.”
Anaheim Marriott Sales Director Alex Shotwell said simplicity works well for temporary events.
“We bring half a dozen food trucks several times a year” into the Grand Plaza or the hotel’s parking lot, with “the mix a specific group wants.”
Off-Grid
Hotels offering off-property meeting sites is another way to approach the pop-up feel.
Inn at Laguna Beach General Manager Casey Graves works with “experiential team building” provider La Vida Laguna on off-site outdoor activities, often including fitness elements (see related story, page 19).
The hotel also has held events at Laguna Art Museum, and the two have cross-promoted each other’s properties.
“We put up their artists when they’re in town, and they held their 2016 holiday event here,” Graves said.
“People are looking for that nontraditional space,” said Melissa Fromento, managing director of Penton Meetings, a trade group whose members include meetings and events planners. “People are using lobbies and rooftops,” (see related story, page 1), along with attractions that include museums, aquariums and restaurant blocks at retail developments like Pacific City or GardenWalk in Anaheim.
Fromento’s group, for instance, hosted a 1920s-themed party in a bank vault at a recent trade show in Long Beach.
Mashable
Creative pop-up events can also be mash-ups whose elements can also extend to the spaces’ design.
Hartwell and Assaf of Irvine Marriott built Cannery Row in part from items they found lying around, including a 6-foot-diameter wooden spool like those used to wind industrial cable that was spotted on a roadside.
A wooden credenza inside one of the Cannery Row buildings was picked up for $1,000 at an Old Town Orange antique shop, and the shipping container previously served as hotel storage.
The project ended up being a bit of a community affair. Hartwell booked an event because someone at his church heard about Cannery Row; an employee shared the trick of scrubbing wooden surfaces with steel wool pads for a weather-beaten look; a number of local breweries have sold craft beer at Cannery Row; and an employee’s wife sometimes tends bar.
“You have to curate the experience,” Hartwell said.
Cannery Row has been used by parties ranging from Irvine-based Advantage Sales & Marketing, whose office is in the tower next-door to the hotel, to Marriott execs and local businesses who checked out what the Irvine location had done.
An OC apparel company is planning an event this summer. Hartwell said, “They wanted to be outdoors.”
