It is basic Meeting Planning 101 to make sure that an event space is the right size for the group and type of gathering. Too large a venue can make the event seem empty, or worse, that many were invited who didn’t show up. Too much space allows people to drift apart, making it more difficult to carry on personal conversations. Even worse is a space too small for the number of attendees; a cramped space is uncomfortable and makes it difficult to carry on personal conversations.
A professional planner makes sure that the event venue provides the perfect fit for the number of people attending. The venue size must be intimate and comfortable, allowing folks to connect and carry on personal conversations with the people around them.
In the same way a good planner chooses the right size meeting space, it can be equally important to choose the right size destination city. Many cities have super-sized convention centers with millions of square feet of exhibition and meeting space, a perfect fit for the largest conventions and trade shows that bring in tens of thousands of attendees. But these giant venues are not ideal for smaller corporate and association meetings, some with 10,000 or fewer attendees. Smaller groups can drown in a vast sea of space or end up sharing the convention center with several other groups at the same time.
Long Beach, CA, actively markets itself to “right-sized” groups. The city’s Convention & Entertainment Center has 400,000 square feet of meeting and exhibit space, including four ballrooms, a 13,000-seat arena, a 3,000-seat formal theater, and an 800-seat thrust stage theater. The Convention Center is located in the middle of the city’s bustling downtown waterfront with panoramic Pacific Ocean vistas.
The Long Beach Convention & Entertainment Center has recently undergone a $40 million renovation to ensure that the Center provides an enticing atmosphere for people to network comfortably. Throughout the facility, special seating areas and intimate conversation pods allow attendees to get together before, after, and between meetings to chat, network, or connect electronically with their offices.
In the eight blocks surrounding the Long Beach Convention & Entertainment Center, the city has developed a campus-style complex to provide meeting attendees with the perfect atmosphere to connect with their conference peers. This campus is an extension of the intimate connectivity provided by the Center. Just steps away, guests will discover first-class accommodations, shopping, entertainment/nightlife, and more than 120 restaurants serving cuisines from around the world. All of these spaces are connected by open-air, well-lit, palm-lined pedestrian promenades. Long Beach Transit also provides free “Passport” shuttle buses throughout the downtown area.
Long Beach provides the eclectic excitement of a big urban city combined with the relaxed, welcoming atmosphere of a small beach town. With 11 miles of beachfront, inland waterways, canals, and bays, Long Beach offers visitors the best of the Pacific Ocean.
For the right size group, Long Beach can be the perfect fit. With one group filling the Long Beach Convention & Entertainment Center, visitors are treated like honored houseguests by the entire community. Both in the Center and in the surrounding downtown campus, attendees can get together to connect and collaborate.
