City focus
A welcoming climate for events
ANTONY REEVE-CROOK REPORTS ON A NEW GREENING OF THE BIG APPLE
hen the Empire State
Building, One World
Trade Center, Madison
Square Garden and the
Javits Center lit up in green alongside
other New York buildings to welcome
Climate Week NYC 2018, they also
inadvertently projected one of the
world’s most diverse destinations for
global meeting planners.
This particular event, attended by
10,000 people, including global political
leaders, took place in 149 venues across
the five boroughs of NYC alongside the
UN Climate Change Summit, and
demonstrated a broad range of choices
for planners.
In the words of Jerry Cito, NYC &
Company’s Senior VP of Convention
Development: “In highlighting New
York City’s sustainability efforts, the
event served to draw attention to the
city’s event venues and capabilities,
infrastructure developments, and
perhaps a defining point for the city –
its diversity of neighbourhoods and
correspondingly, its unique meeting
spaces and incentive activities.”
Since 2014, the shimmering One
World Trade Center has been a soaring
testament to the resilience of the New
York mindset. As a meeting destination,
Aspire at One World Observatory,
offers three levels of event space 541m
above Fulton and Vesey Streets and
includes expansive floor-to-ceiling
views in all directions.
The World Trade Center
Transportation Hub nearby offers the
Oculus, which serves as the hub’s
centerpiece, incorporating 7,246sqm of
multi-level state-of-the-art retail and
dining.
Manhattan’s far west side has seen
Collective Governors Island opened in
July, offering incentives and meetings or
teambuilding activities such as
zip-lining, biking, maze navigating and
rock climbing for 200 day guests. It can
also accommodate up to 46 overnight
guests in in modular tents and
containers.
enormous growth since the High Line
was renovated in 2009. Hudson Yards,
which extends from 30th to 34th
Streets between Tenth and Twelfth
Avenues, is currently undergoing
redevelopment that will see it become,
in the words of its developer, ‘New
York’s Front Room’ – including:
More centrally, new space includes
the National Geographic Encounter, an
immersive entertainment experience
that uses top-flight AV technology to
give guests a simulated underwater
journey.
Out into the New York harbour,
Top: One World
Trade Center: photo:
Joe Wool.
Above: New York:
photo courtesy of
NYC & Partners and
Julienne Schaer
ISSUE 99
Conventional but united
All of this can be reached with relative
ease from the known brand hotels
scattered around Manhattan. The city’s
hotels are well equipped for large
crowds. These include the Hilton New
York, New York Hilton Midtown, New
York Marriott Marquis, the Sheraton
and the Grand Hyatt – massive
properties that can handle a meeting for
10, or 3,000.
When an event exceeds a certain size,
but can’t get into Javits because of how
busy it is, some of those properties
partner with each other to accommodate
them. The Hilton New York and the
Sheraton New York do a combo up to
create what they term New York 5,000.
Ballrooms are separated only by a
street. The Sheraton and the Marriott
Marquis do something called Times
Square, which take advantage of their
meeting space but also of all the venues
between them.
“The traditional meetings space will
always be here, but customers want
more. A meeting planner wants to be
able to expose their delegates to what
the city has to offer,” says Cito.
New York welcomed 6.2m delegates
in 2017 during its Make It NYC
campaign, but it is city-wide events such
as Climate Change Week that
demonstrate the Big Apple’s ability to
deal with scale.
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CONFERENCE & MEETINGS WORLD
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