ART CREDIT
special section
Austin High-tech facilities and new hotels
The buzz about Austin has been constant over the past several years, and that extends to meetings as well. So much so that new non- stop flights and hotels are being added to the city that is already known as The Live Music Capital of the World and a place where visitors enjoy great entertainment, food, and culture. Austin boasts more than 30,000 guest
rooms citywide, with 6,500 of them con- veniently located downtown. That number will increase to more than 9,500 with new hotels set to open. The JW Marriott Austin, a 1,012-room, convention-style hotel, will offer more than 110,500 square feet of flex- ible meeting, banquet, and event space and easy access to the Austin Convention Center. Additionally, The Manchester Texas Financial Group recently announced plans to open a
$350-million city-center hotel in 2016, which will include more than 70,000 square feet of meeting space and 1,035 rooms. Both new hotels will be close to hundreds of restaurants and multiple areas of entertainment, such as Sixth Street, SoCo, and Red River districts. Not only is Austin a great place to do
business — the Texas capital has been named among CNN
Money.com’s best new cities for business — but meeting attend- ees will also appreciate its afinity for tech. The LEED Gold–certified Austin Convention Center is considered one of the most techni- cally advanced convention facilities in the United States, offering free Wi-Fi through- out the center, with a proven track record of accommodating some 7,000 simultaneous Internet connections.
Music to their ears Planners and attendees alike will appreciate the LEED Gold–certified Austin Convention Center’s free Wi-Fi.
For more information:
austintexas.org/meet
Boston New neighborhood and new wheels enhance a great city
Boston has long been at the forefront of hold- ing wicked successful meetings. As the city and the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority prepare for PCMA’s Convening Leaders gathering this January, two significant changes are enhancing the city’s look and feel. Known as the South Boston Waterfront,
the neighborhood around the Boston Con- vention & Exhibition Center was once a mix of industrial buildings and rail yards that served Boston’s worldwide trade in wool. Cut off from the city by an ancient, elevated highway, it was desolate and largely ignored, frequented by more longshoremen than businesspeople. But with several historic changes, the area
has blossomed. With the massive cleanup of Boston Harbor (Boston’s “Dirty Water” was once a famous presidential-election issue) and the opening of Boston’s Big Dig
98 PCMA CONVENE AUGUST 2013
underground highway system, the South Boston Waterfront suddenly opened up. As a direct result of the access provided by the new highways and public transportation, the area is now booming, with restaurants seeing heavy trafic amid rapid construction of both ofice and residential space. Another change is happening very qui-
etly in Boston. Once rated as the least bike- friendly city in America, Boston is fast falling in love with two wheels. Thanks in large part to a long-term effort by Mayor Thomas M. Menino to make Boston a premier bike city, bike lanes have sprouted up everywhere, while Hubway (
thehubway.com), one of the nation’s first bike-sharing programs, has become wildly popular and a model that other cities are following. Though the Hubway system will be shut down and disassembled during the winter,
Renewal The Boston Convention & Exhibition Center has spearheaded redevelopment in the South Boston Waterfront neighborhood.
the program’s popularity — with more than 100 stations and 1,000 bikes in Boston, Brook- line, Cambridge, and Somerville — is changing the way Bostonians and others get around.
For more information:
massconvention.com
PCMA.ORG
P
C
N
M
T
A
E
P
A
R
R
S
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112