Downtown LA: IHG helps the city meet their goal of 8,000 convention center guest rooms by 2020

LA is getting serious about citywides. And one of the coolest cities wants to attract even more opportunities.

Planning a citywide convention starts with analyzing a group’s objectives and specific requirements to find the right destination to fulfill them. First and foremost the planner starts by finding cities that have enough guestrooms within a convenient distance of the city's convention center. And that means that the more rooms that are available then the more citywides that become possible .

Organizations know their groups, their patterns, and their interests ...planners of citywides have to select cities that not only will pique the interest of attendees but a city that is able to accommodate them as well .

For a city-wide, everything is on a big scale. It is typically defined as a convention that holds major exhibitions and programs at a convention center and blocks rooms at multiple hotels. But a lot of various components have to play well together to make that city a viable option for planners: rooms, distance of rooms to the center, convention centers, marketing, climate considerations—the list goes on. Smart planners partner with the host city’s CVB to make the planning process as strategic and efficient as possible .

In LA, city officials , hotel sales teams and the convention and visitors bureau team routinely compete with cities such as San Diego , Seattle and San Francisco (to name a few) for selection as host city for organizations planning a citywide. The competition is pretty fierce. So it makes sense that those same LA city officials have set the goal of having 8,000 hotel rooms within walking distance of the convention center by the year 2020. As of September, there were 3,172 such rooms, and another 2,000 were under construction. Los Angeles County is one of the top hotel markets in the country yet has fewer rooms comparatively speaking to other large cities. That creates a challenge for some planners of larger groups wanting to put citywides there. So if there were more rooms, then there will be more citywide opportunities.

Bud Ovrom, the dynamic executive director of the Los Angeles Convention and Tourism Development Department, must be thrilled as he knows quite correctly that the convention center will flourish all the more with adequate hotel support . And that means building more hotel rooms downtown. Mayor Eric Garcetti hired Robert “Bud” Ovrom as the complex’s executive director in 2013.

The Convention Center has seen phenomenal change during Ovrom’s tenure. He led the city in inking a deal with Anschutz Entertainment Group, which owns L.A. Live, to operate and maintain the complex, leading to record profits ($8.1 million last year) not to mention a budget surplus. Yea ! Ovrom also has overseen the development of a plan to expand and modernize the Convention Center.

So how is the process on meeting that aggressive room goal by 2020 going ? Well, IHG is doing its part .The Downtown Los Angeles megaproject Metropolis is one of the foundations of downtown's expansion. And it is much more than luxurious condos. It is home to the amazing new 18-story Hotel Indigo Los Angeles Downtown .

This uber cool new hotel is a 350-room beauty. It is truly a jewel box of a hotel. It even boasts a top-floor cocktail lounge and a ground-floor restaurant . The new Indigo is in the heart of it all . It is 1,000 feet from L.A. Live, the Microsoft Theater is 1,300 feet from Hotel Indigo - Los Angeles Downtown, and the Staples Center is only 1,650 feet away. Location, location, location. And....Bruce Curry (the dynamic hospitality industry Sales and Marketing professional with experience selling and marketing nine global brands: Hilton, Sheraton, Fairmont, Four Seasons, Regent, Conrad, Renaissance, Crowne Plaza (IHG) and DoubleTree by Hilton.) is the Director of Sales and Marketing at Hotel Indigo Los Angeles Downtown who is leading the sales team to victory as he did at the LA Hotel Downtown and the Hilton Seattle.

The clever folks building the hotel brought in the creative gurus at Hirsch Bedner Associates to do the interior design work . And the style ?

They decided to weave together elements from Los Angeles’s history, starting with the late 1800s through the 1920s. They have also included fascinating references to the early days of the movie industry, vaudeville, and Prohibition-era speakeasies and tunnels. A lot of folks are abuzz about the décor including floral accents that recall La Fiesta de las Flores, an event that has showcased the city’s international melting pot since 1894. Then there are these neon lights that reflect the world-famous L.A. nightlife, 18 Social features sweeping views of the dazzling lights that illuminate Los Angeles every night. In the guest rooms, cityscapes fill the walls, and the spa-style bathrooms were inspired by pre-Hollywood glamour and the jewelry that accessorized Golden Age cinema

Word around the water cooler is that the guestrooms are inspired by classic film stars.There is an emphasis on Anna May Wong, the first Chinese-American movie star.

Her long and varied career spanned silent film, sound film, television, stage and radio. Born in Los Angeles to second-generation Chinese-American parents, Wong became infatuated with the movies and began acting in films at an early age.

What about the meeting space , you ask ? Meeting planners are doing the happy dance. With the hotel's eleven (11) meeting rooms that total up to about 21,483 SQ FT of meeting space planners have quite a few elastic options for both small and larger meetings.

The beautiful Orpheum Ballroom is the largest of the lot and one planner said "its going to be my favorite room of the size in the city." Nice to hear for a new hotel! Iconic hotel exec Raymond Vermolen has been appointed General Manager at the new Indigo.

He was previously GM of the Intercontinental  Los Angeles Century City hotel, the Intercontinental Houston property and most recently the Intercontinental Chicago Magnificent Mile hotel

Hotel Indigo is the boutique arm of the hospitality giant InterContinental Hotels Group (with 726,876 rooms in more than 4,900 hotels in nearly 100 countries around the world) which is also locked in to operate the hotel in the under-construction Wilshire Grand. The West Coast's tallest tower, the Wilshire Grand will be the game changing -incredible- soon- to- be- open InterContinental Los Angeles Downtown . From ballrooms to boardrooms, the stunning new InterContinental Los Angeles Downtown has a venue—and 66,540 square feet of event space—for any occasion. There are 33 (yes 33!) meeting rooms to choose from. Meeting planners are doing cartwheels over this one.

The InterContinental Hotel is landing atop the upcoming Wilshire Grand project in Downtown, making it the one of the highest hotel properties anywhere around. As stated, the building itself will be the tallest in the Western U.S. — no small feat consider the US Bank Tower nearby

A dazzling 900-room hotel in the Financial District's , it will be the tallest building in the west. Another fun tidbit is that it will be the 8th tallest building in the entire US and occupies the entire block from Wilshire Blvd to 7th and from S. Figueroa to Francisco St.

The hotel will have a sky-lobby on the seventieth floor, a super-high rooftop pool, and a design that "will reflect the four ecological typologies of Los Angeles while also embracing the laid-back sophistication of the city". They have been very specific on the design style (it is LA, right ?!) ...we hear that its all about natural woods and warm colors. The interior design of the hotel will reflect the city's beach culture while the hotel's sky lobby will incorporate Los Angeles' car culture into the design through abstract representations of car lines into the internal paneling and decor. Most of southern California is giddy over the Sky Deck Bar & Lounge, an open-air outdoor skybar that rests on the 73rd floor of the massive building. We hear that there will be tall glass panels protecting guests from the wind, but otherwise this little slice of heaven serving bespoke cocktails is open to the stars and the dazzling evening LA sky. And LA's one and only Tommy Chow has been tapped as the hotel's Head of Commercial Sales. I was lucky enough to work for Hilton when Tommy was at the Beverly Hilton...so I know the hotel is in great hands !

So , kudos to the many teams in LA who are working together to expand the capacity of downtown's citywide potential. And best of luck to all those who are opening new rooms...Tommy Chow, Raymond Vermolen, Bruce Curry at the new IHG properties, and to all our other IHG friends who will be supporting these awesome new hotels...including Nathan Park and the whole global sales team, and Swati Ettrick, and all those hard working folks in the corporate IHG office . Best of luck to everyone ...from all of us here at Knowland .

Is your hotel ready to face the battle for group meetings in 2017 ? Feeling the competition with all the new hotels opening in town? Looking for a competitive edge as group demand slows a bit? Knowland helps hotels target better group business opportunities that match the profile of meetings and events you need to drive revenue. We want to hear about your hotel's group challenges. We want to know how your comp set may be changing. Does your sales team have too many inbound leads that take up your limited time that rarely book and become forever "lost" leads never to hear from again ?Inbound leads that rarely match your group need parameters? Insight is a powerful meetings search tool and historical meetings and events database that enables your sales team to proactively find new groups based on the  specific and unique meeting criteria that actually matters to you. As your hotel’s parameters evolve, Insight’s flexible design can grow and adapt with shifts in your group sales focus and is elastic enough to grow with a changing competitive set. We would love to chat and learn more about the type of meetings and events that you would like to find more of in 2017. Click here to read a bit more....