thewest.travel Where meetings come with blue skies and green venues
Pasadena
Charismatic conventions Between five area hotels and the 130,000-square- foot campus of the Pasadena Convention Center, meeting planners have more than 230,000 square feet of meeting space to work with for their events.
AT A GLANCE Convention facilities • The Pasadena Convention Center offers 130,000 square feet of space.
Citywide hotel rooms • 2,500
Committable hotel rooms: • 1,200
Attractions • The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens; 22-block Old Pasadena; Playhouse District; Paseo Colorado; Rose Bowl Stadium; South Lake Avenue Shopping District; and more
Just 10 miles from downtown Los Angeles, Pasadena offers an alluring, New World– style enclave filled with charm as warm as its weather. The expanded Pasadena Conven- tion Center is LEED Gold certified, making it one of the greenest convention centers in North America. The facility features a 55,000-square-foot exhibit hall (expandable to 80,000 square feet), a 25,000-square-foot ballroom, 29 meeting rooms, the 3,000-seat Civic Auditorium, and a 22,000-square-foot outdoor plaza. Planners looking for unique off-site ven-
ues will find plenty to choose from in Pasa- dena. The Rose Bowl Stadium’s field and press box can be used for events, and the Califor- nia Institute of Technology and Pasadena Museum of History also offer meeting and
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event spaces. And with Pasadena’s temperate climate, the authentic Chinese courtyard at the Pacific Asia Museum offers another entic- ing option. Pasadena’s pedestrian-friendly design also makes it easy for attendees to get around. The city offers 2,500 hotel rooms, 1,200 of which are within walking distance of the center. Convention attendees can also easily walk to the 60-plus shops and alfresco wine bars and eateries of Paseo Colorado. As the birthplace of Julia Child, Pasadena’s
legendary culinary history rivals that of much larger cities. Today, Pasadena is home to 500 restaurants and one of only 16 Le Cordon Bleu–afiliated culinary schools in the nation. Not to be outdone, the city’s cultural institu- tions are recognized as some of the finest in the country. The Norton Simon Museum
features masterpieces by artists from Rem- brandt to Rodin, and the 207-acre Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gar- dens has more than 9 million items and 16 gardens to explore. The Pasadena Convention & Visitors
Bureau offers an array of services to meeting planners, most of which are complimentary, including no-cost site-selection assistance, an online housing service, information on transportation and spousal tours, promo- tional materials, and more.