Venue Comparison & Recommendation, Research Paper Example

Convention-Venue Comparisons and Recommendations

Thank you for allowing us to help you make an informed decision on the location of your upcoming annual convention. I am confident that you will find our recommendations to be in line with your needs.

Procedures

We were not given budgetary specifics, so we didn’t address price considerations. Instead, we started with the basic instructions you supplied us: to compare at least three venues, and then make recommendations. To do this, we stayed within with the following parameters:

• Season
• Location
• Size

Since we are currently in the dead of winter, our assumption was that the location should be where the weather is most predictable and least likely to be subject to delays and obstructions caused by storms (while realizing that attendees living potentially storm-affected areas may face their own departure delays). Also, attendees who live in parts of the southwest may not have readily available winter clothes, and we assumed that they would prefer not to have to purchase them on a contingency basis for one trip. With that in mind, we arbitrarily limited out geographic choices to Florida, Nevada, and California.

Next, we wanted to give you a choice as to size, so we have selected cities which offer a sufficient number of small-, medium-, and large-sized venues.

Finally, our assumption is that the convention may be taking place over several days, so we have included various location-specific factors in our evaluations, such as nearby restaurants, transportation, and the general ambience of each location.

Our first choice for a large-sized venue is the Los Angeles Convention Center. Located in that city’s downtown, it’s within safe and easy walking distance to both the Staples Center and L.A. Live, the region’s newest and most compact hotel/restaurant/entertainment district. There is convenient public transportation via subway or light rail to Hollywood and Union Station, the latter offering Amtrak and Metrolink trains to points all over Southern California. Downtown Los Angeles can accommodate a convention of any size, and Southern California in general has much to offer any number of conventioneers with a world-wide range of interests. Visitors from the north, the Midwest, or the east coast may also appreciate L.A.’s flight-time proximity to Las Vegas, of which see below.

Our first choice for a medium-sized venue is representative of what is generally available in Las Vegas, Nevada: the Mirage Hotel and Casino. Our reasoning is that, although Las Vegas could easily accommodate a host of large-scale conventions, a medium-sized one is more likely to be held in a hotel rather than a large-scale special-purpose venue. Las Vegas’s hotels are geared for such functions, other examples being Caesars Palace, Mandalay Bay Convention Center, and the Wynn Las Vegas. An abundance of such facilities helps ensure competitive pricing. Also, logistical factors alone dictates that medium-sized events are often shorter than large-sized ones. Where this is the case, then Las Vegas’s gambling- and show-based social environment is likely to be more tolerable for visitors who simply don’t or can’t enjoy it for more than a day or two. In other words, the shorter the stay, the less chance the novelty of being in Las Vegas will wear off

Our first choice for a small-sized venue is Sawgrass Marriott Golf Resort & Spa, St. Augustine, Florida. Scheduling a small-sized convention is an especial challenge. Although almost any sized city or town could host such an event, ideally you should avoid large venues because they will tend to overshadow your organization completely and distract its attendees. On the other hand, you want to select a location that has a sufficient number of convention rooms to facilitate ease of scheduling. (The Sawgrass Marriott has 32 such rooms.) Intimate, low key, and relaxed are adjectives commonly used to describe this city. St. Augustine will provide a perfect background setting for small-sized conventions.

Sources

• Large Venue: Los Angeles Convention Center, 1201 S. Figueroa St., Los Angeles, CA 90015, 213-741-1151, http://www.lacclink.com
• Medium Venue: Mirage Hotel and Casino, 3400 Las Vegas Boulevard South, Las Vegas, Nevada 89109, 702-791-7111, http://www.mirage.com/hotel/
• Small Venue: Sawgrass Marriott Golf Resort & Spa, St. Augustine, Fl., 200 Ponte Vedra Blvd., Ponte Vedra Beach, FL 32082, 904-285-1111, 800-234-7842. http://www.sawgrassmarriott.com

 Conclusions

The selection process described above is frankly arbitrary. Any number of other cities in the selected states, and indeed other states (particularly Texas) could host your upcoming convention using the same bottom-line parameter of the weather. Therefore the above recommendations can either be followed literally, or serve as a general guide for making your own plans and reservations.

We thank you for this opportunity to help plan your upcoming convention. Please let us know how we can assist you further with this project or related matters.