Business Travel News - February 11, 2008 - (Page 36)

DESTINATIONS BTNonline.com Palazzo Joins Las Vegas Sands’ Meeting Trifecta BY JENNIFER MERRITT Last month’s official opening of The Palazzo completed the Las Vegas Sands MegaCenter, with 2.25 million square feet of meeting space spread across The Palazzo, The Venetian hotel and the Sands Expo and Convention Center, all owned and operated by the Las Vegas Sands. Dubbing these facilities the “MegaCenter” is a relatively new branding concept for the three buildings, created to correct the misconception that all the meeting space is located under one roof. Instead, the MegaCenter utilizes what it calls its “One Campus Concept”: meeting facilities in one consolidated area, with the farthest from The Palazzo, the Sands Expo Center, roughly an eight-minute walk. In addition to its 3,000 guest rooms, The Palazzo provides 272 meeting rooms, the smallest of which is 60 square feet. The largest is an 85,000-sq.-ft. pillar-free ballroom, capable of housing anywhere from 10 to 55,000 people. Corporate meetings represent between 60 percent and 65 percent of The Palazzo’s business, said Chandra Allison, executive director of MEGACENTER OF ATTENTION The Palazzo’s opening completes Las Vegas Sands’ three-facility meetings concept. sales for The Venetian and The Palazzo. During the past year, the sales staff has increased by seven in order to start selling The Palazzo’s meeting space in advance of its opening. “Our meeting space is pretty flexible and we have a lot of resources,” Allison said of The Palazzo’s plans to differentiate itself from Las Vegas’ plethora of meeting space, adding that themed events and food and beverage service are hot-button demands among planners. Technology also is a means through which The Palazzo hopes to compete. “Technology demands have become so intense, and it puts a lot of pressure on a building like Continued on page 38 Las Vegas Convention Center Bets On $890 Million Upgrade BY FRANK ROSCI it will build an enclosed connector to and from the Las After 11 previous renovations, thousands of events Vegas Monorail and a police and fire station. and millions of meeting attendees in the 49 years since “We are not adding exhibit space during this conits establishment, the Las Vegas Convention Center will struction project,” Handel said, “as the major focus is to undergo another major renovation beginning in the mid- enhance the facility to ensure we continue to offer the dle of this year. greatest possible experience to our building’s clients.” The $890 million project—the largest investment in However, the renovation does include an upgrade of the center’s history—will include the conall of the center’s 144 meeting rooms, said struction of a new grand lobby that will Access the 2007 Business LVCVA spokesperson Erika Pope. When Travel Buyer’s Handbook connect all of the center’s three halls, and the renovation project is complete in 2012, see btnonline.com/handbook the development of a meeting room conshe said, the Las Vegas Convention Cencourse, adjacent to the South Hall, that will provide ter will be comprised of 3.8 million square feet overall, 87,000 square feet of new meeting space, for a total of including 1.9 million square feet of exhibit space. “With nearly 2 million square feet of space to fill, our 321,000 square feet, said Jeremy Handel, spokesperson for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Author- sales staff focuses on getting major conventions to come to Las Vegas,” Pope said, “but we also serve the corpoity, which owns and operates the center The LVCVA also will upgrade building’s infrastruc- rate market and incentive groups by working to attract ture and pedestrian and vehicle traffic flow and meetings, and as an extension of the sales forces of the ingress/egress to and from the property. 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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Business Travel News - February 11, 2008

Business Travel News - February 11, 2008
Contents
Sabre, Travelport Embrace Air Delay Data
CWT Claims Sales Surpass Amex
Inside Track: Airlines Resurrect Saturday-Night Stays
Profiles In Travel Management: Royal Bank of Canada
RBC Banks On Alternative Carrier Balance
The 25 Most Influential Executives, 2007
Hong Kong - Asian Aspirations
Executive Dashboard: Carriers Apply Surcharges
Aviation: U.S. Airlines Limit Domestic Capacity
Carriers Plan Further U.S. Capacity Cuts
Hilton Eliminates Reward Blackout Dates
Lodging: Hilton Frequency Program Ends Blackout
Corporate Travel World: Blakey to Keynote
Car & Ground Transportation: EuroStar Growth
Destinations: Las Vegas, Asia/Pacific
Washington Wire: Border Crossings Tighten

Business Travel News - February 11, 2008