Out-of-town groups that book rooms, meeting space, food and beverage, and an interesting evening event or two spend more than 80% of dollars spent on meetings in Orange County.
Venues get creative to set themselves apart in the chase for the other 20%, which comes from local clients.
Operators said they get and keep local meetings business through building ongoing relationships with clients and meetings planners, including making lots of phone calls, and many are thereby able to maintain a large chunk of the business through repeat bookings.
Nontraditional hosts are carving out a slice of the local meetings market.
TechSpace Inc. leases standard office space to new companies or to branches of established firms. It has local offices in Aliso Viejo and Costa Mesa, and its space is available to any company for meetings.
“It’s something we offer, and we’re on some (meetings) booking sites,” said Kim Marchbank, marketing director.
It has nine rooms for six to 10 people each in Aliso Viejo, as well as a larger space for 16 to 40. Costa Mesa has five conference rooms that can hold groups of eight to 25 people.
There’s also food service at the Aliso Viejo location from an on-site Mustard Cafe or from offsite catering companies, such as Restaurants on the Run.
Nontraditional venues—Harborside Restaurant on the Balboa Peninsula, with 7,000 square feet of meeting space is another—can offer a fresh take on events.
Niche Angles
Disneyland Resort, on the larger end of the local meetings continuum, has three hotels—Paradise Pier Hotel, Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel & Spa, and the Disneyland Hotel, with total space from 20,000 square feet to more than 130,000.
“People come for the right environment to get their message across,” said Robert Donahue, director of resort and park event sales and service for the resort. “It’s about a flawless experience.”
He said Disney can contribute content, such as supplying professional speakers, and custom-designed characters to interact with executives and participants.
The St. Regis Monarch Beach Resort in Dana Point hosts about 15 to 20 events a month, said Account Director Christina Mytinger.
Those include everything from jewelry companies displaying wares to law firms that need “a neutral location” to take depositions, to a local company that meets with people coming to town for the day, say for job interviews.
Meanwhile, Hyatt Regency Huntington Beach Resort & Spa General Manager Peter Rice reports a niche business in corporate annual meetings and charity events.
That’s also a common source of business for the Newport Beach Marriott Hotel & Spa, said Director of Sales Chad Ceretto.
“We have a lot of nonprofits holding annual galas” and charity auctions, he said. The area’s affluent demographics make that “a natural,” and the hotel’s layout—including two ballrooms—makes it work.
“You can have the dinner in one and the auction items in the other.”
Island Hotel General Manager Gerard Widder also cites demographics—the corporate kind—as his focus. The hotel is in an area that’s home to finance companies, such as Pacific Investment Management Co. and Pacific Life Insurance Co., both in Newport Beach.
“The board meeting, the investment companies—this is our area of expertise,” he said.
Getting Creative
The Island Hotel’s sister property, the Hotel Irvine—both are owned by the Irvine Company—cited innovation as a way to capture local meetings business.
“Meetings planners are seeking creativity,” said General Manager J.D. Shafer. “They want a lasting impression.”
Widder said the hotel is doing more in the area of food. It uses “action stations” that adapt to meetings the “build-your-own” trend in fast-casual dining, down to the drinks guests order.
Hilton Anaheim General Manager Shaun Robinson said food is also key for clients.
“Local meetings are relationship-driven and usually include food and beverage. Clients meet not only with a sales manager but the hotel’s executive chef to map out what’s for lunch.”
Giuseppe Lama, managing director of the Resort at Pelican Hill, said he “asks the pertinent questions” to produce a “gracious and personal” meetings experience.
“We have more intimate and smaller settings, and we have to do something specific,” he said.
To do more than the “local, health-oriented” focus for a Southern California meeting, the resort might add cooking classes or tequila tastings, for instance.
Rooms With Views
Balboa Bay Resort General Manager Sam El-Rabaa agreed that local meetings held at area venues for part or all of a day still want a unique experience.
“They want it to be as creative.”
He has 20,000 square feet for meetings—space that’s slated for renovation this year—divided between those overlooking the water, and rooms on the street-side of the property that have a courtyard view. All the rooms have patios, giving clients multiple choices to create the atmosphere they’re looking for.
The Inn at Laguna Beach also has waterfront views, a feature that’s proven especially popular with local firms coming from inland areas such as Lake Forest and Mission Viejo.
“It’s a company that says, ‘We need to go off-site,’ ” said General Manager Peggy Trott.
Sometimes that leads to more business later.
“Oakley booked a lot of day meetings here, and now they come overnight,” she said.
Local business also comes from nontraditional markets and can turn into recurring income: A wellness retreat now comes in one Sunday a month.
The extra effort can also work in reverse—namely, when a venue doesn’t get the booking at first.
John Philipp, sales director at DoubleTree by Hilton Irvine Spectrum, said that if the hotel can’t fit a client in for a meeting—it has just 5,000 square feet of meeting space—he calls back after the date they requested.
“If it’s a local company, we’ll follow up with this company, see how the meeting went, and ask, ‘Is there something we can help you with next time?’ ”
