Jay Burress
President, Chief Executive
Visit Anaheim
Anaheim
We see the city’s growth as a key trend that will help usher in a new phase for our business and leisure destination. After the recession halted development and crippled the economy, the city has bounced back in a big way. You can see it in the number of cranes dotting our skyline and the construction trucks on Katella Avenue. Anaheim is moving forward, hotels are renovating, new and diverse products are coming, and dining and nightlife establishments are making names for themselves.
Six hotels will open in Anaheim and Garden Grove this year to add 1,500 rooms to local inventory. Three new four-diamond-quality hotels plan to call Anaheim home. All this will help grow our meetings and conventions business and help us target industries that would never have considered Anaheim or left because we couldn’t accommodate their needs.
Visitors require choices if Anaheim is to keep its title as home to the largest convention center on the West Coast; the current 200,000-square-foot expansion should be complete next year.
Robert Donahue
Director, Resort, Park Event Sales and Services
Disneyland Resort
Anaheim
We consistently receive requests from planners for unique, creative experiences with engaging content to support their conferences and events. We can provide that turnkey content through Disney’s creative and professional development teams, which provide on-site support at many of our resort locations.
Those teams work with meeting planners to customize as many facets of a program as needed—from preconference messaging to on-site themed events, and the efforts reinforce organizational messages in creative and memorable ways.
The demand for creative effort extends to food and beverage offerings—inventive options and thoughtful menu planning with fresh, seasonal and local food, to infused waters and cocktails. In-person planning sessions and menu tastings reduce stress before a program takes place and ensure we’ve created the right menu for a better, total-conference experience.
All this is in the context of a strengthening market that will require more flexibility by meeting professionals—in lead times and arrival dates, for instance—in the coming year.
John Grossman
President, Classic Hotels & Resorts
The Inn at Laguna Beach and Laguna Beach House
Laguna Beach
We’re seeing casual, more intimate setups for increased social interaction among attendees and to create a hands-on work environment with “all opinions heard” during the event. We’ve seen more unique team-building activities, as well, such as a sand castle building contest on the beach in front of the property.
The shift to closer interaction extends to menus, with planners ordering meals for entire groups based on more common dietary requests, such as gluten-free or for allergies, so no one has to worry about what’s in the food.
Cindy Han-Reta
Destination Sales Executive
Irvine Marriott
Irvine
Groups want curated meetings and events to meet specific needs. The Marriott Meetings Imagined digital suite starts with that purpose and helps create people-inspired experiences. The technology includes wireless connectivity, videoconferencing, docking stations and smart whiteboards.
Guest customization includes menus—farm-to-table, local breweries, craft cocktails—as part of a concept we’re calling modern coastal cuisine.
Nancy Monte-Frye
Senior Director of Events
Hyatt Regency Huntington Beach Resort & Spa
Huntington Beach
The most important trend for 2016 is creative and healthier culinary breaks. Events food will move in 2016 toward fun and thoughtful menus, competition-style, team-building sessions, and the continuing requests for gluten-free, organic or vegan products, as well as food trucks. Groups seek healthy foods, yes, but also sweet-and-salty treats, such as flourless honey-almond cakes.
Group cooking competition mixes foodie trends with team building. Events include making chili, guacamole, salsa, or sushi. The food trucks are also popular, with one twist coming when a group incorporated it into the event’s lunch buffet.
Amanda Reeve
Director of Meetings, Special Events
Resort at Pelican Hill
Newport Coast
Personalization is most important among the groups that hold conferences, incentive trips and executive meetings here.
One example of a customized experience catering and conference services staff recently introduced is that during arrival, when guests check in and form their first impressions, a private lounge is their entry to the resort. The lounge has wine, cheese and chocolate tastings, chair massages, a pop-up market of luxury retail goods and gourmet foods, a florist that can prepare arrangements for their rooms, and staff to book spa appointments, golf or other activities for their stay.
Michael Robby
Director of Hotel Sales
Renaissance ClubSport Aliso Viejo Laguna Beach
Aliso Viejo
We believe the most important trend in meetings involves event technology to help create memorable meetings. In 2016, we’re offering REN Meetings Expert, a smartphone app. REN is short for Renaissance and stands for the RLife live events, experiential sensory meetings, and neighborhood narratives. The parts in REN—private performances by local musicians, performers, artists; the sights, scents and sounds during the event; and local food and drinks—come together in inviting, engaging, memorable meetings, networking, and relaxation. Event planners use the app to coordinate meetings details with event managers, banquets captains, and other staff.
Paul Sanford
General Manager
Avenue of the Arts Hotel
Costa Mesa
There’s been high demand for event customization. Gone are set menus and typical meeting requirements. Now what’s asked for are interesting food and beverage stations and room setups that promote movement and interaction among attendees.
The biggest request is for fresh or farm-to-table cuisine. Planners want something their attendees will enjoy and continue to talk about after the event. Events become more fun and memorable, and the hotel has to think on a much different scale to make them different for every group: flexibility in meeting space, menus, audiovisual—clients are always looking to captivate attendees. This includes natural lighting and more interaction between speaker and audience—such as setup for sessions that allows impromptu and immediate small-group brainstorming within the main meeting room.
Claudia Schou
PR & Marketing Manager
Hilton Anaheim
Anaheim
The “bleisure” traveler—business customers who also seek leisure experiences on their trips—is interested in quick experiences that balance work and relaxation. They want to network, find inspiration or be productive in pleasant settings, and they bring those expectations to their hotel stay. So our job is to identify ways the hotel can enhance experiences and make every moment count.
We’re seeing an increase in travelers adding a personal day to explore Anaheim and Orange County. For those who come with spouses or the kids, we offer seasons activities for families within the hotel.
Alex Shotwell
Director of Sales and Marketing
Anaheim Marriott
Anaheim
A trend we see involves public spaces and food. In January, we finish a $15 million renovation to enhance travelers’ experience. The renovation included the rooms, technology, a new lobby and restaurant and lounge areas. As part of the redesigned restaurant and lounge, we created a great room where vibrant colors and ambient music and lighting appeal to the senses, with different seating choices indoor and outdoor for any size group to work, network, socialize or unwind.
The menu at nFuse Bar and Kitchen includes quick and creative bites for guests on the go, entrees using local and seasonal ingredients, and drink offerings that include 24 regional and seasonal microbrews, 65 whiskeys and bourbons, a large wine list and hand-crafted cocktails.
