Experience Newport!
Experience Newport! Newport Harbor was the scene of bustling activity mid-May as 12 electric boats took to the sparkling waters on ACCESS Destination Service’s “Experience Newport” Team Challenge produced for Marriott Corporation and the Newport Beach Marriott at Marriott’s I&FS Forum.
Approximately 30 meeting professionals and their guests, hosted by Marriott, enjoyed three days of Southern California hospitality while experiencing the beautifully remodeled Newport Beach Marriott. As the Forum’s DMC partner to Marriott, ACCESS Destination Services supported the program by showcasing the exciting things to do and see in and around Newport Beach. In addition to the Team Challenge, which featured zany point-accumulating tasks such as “finding your own name” on any one of the myriad of docked vessels along the way, ACCESS’s involvement included airport transfers from nearby John Wayne Airport and coordination of several activities including kayaking, golf, and a Laguna Beach shopping shuttle. Night-time saw ACCESS partnering with Marriott’s catering, co-producing an elegant evening at Orange County’s historic Mission San Juan Capistrano (photo above). Highlights of the evening included a lively reception in the front courtyard and a “surprise” procession through the historic ruins culminating at the dining site where long tables were elegantly appointed with specialty linens, wrought iron candelabra and cascading floral and fruit arrangements. Artful decorative lighting (designed and set by ACCESS) provided the finishing touch to a wonderful evening.
ACCESS President, Candace Bisconte, DMCP, commented “It is important to showcase the many types of events and activities that can be created for groups coming to Newport Beach and I thank our partners at Marriott for inviting us to be a part of this. Some of these guests have worked with ACCESS in the past and know how a local Destination Management Company can enhance their meetings. I hope the others saw the great team effort between ACCESS and Marriott and will be inspired to come back for a meeting of their own!”
Los Angeles
Hollywood Highlights! The ACCESS Los Angeles team is proud to present three new restaurant/special event offerings for your next LA-bound group!
Social Hollywood/Boulevard 3: Just opened, the 40,000 square foot nightlife megaplex Social Hollywood was created as an all-in-one nightlife experience! The brainchild of the “power pair” Jeffrey Chodorow and Peter Famulari, Social Hollywood occupies the old Hollywood Athletic Club and features a North African-themed restaurant, an adjoining eclectic bar and screening room, a large hard wood floored and balcony surrounded ballroom and event space. In its halcyon days, the building now housing Social Hollywood was a gymnasium and playground for Hollywood’s golden-era male stars with more than its share of nostalgic “folklore”. John Barrymore allegedly “visited” the bar for one last drink – en route to his own funeral! After sitting dormant for eight years, design work began in earnest including restoration of the club’s original Moroccan-style ceiling. The wooden bar was brought piece by piece from Brooklyn. Chodorow claims to have spent $600,000.00 in furniture and décor alone.
Boulevard 3, next door, is a 15,000 square foot club set to open in July. Features will include a voluminous indoor space with dance floor, a fireplace-outfitted foyer and an outdoor garden.
Republic Restaurant and Lounge:
Opened in March of 2006, the concept of this restaurant is based on providing VIP service and style on the level one would find in Vegas. Republic features eye-catching touches from a towering waterfall entry, a huge fire pit in the dining room, and a wine tower replete with the requisite wine angels. The restaurant and lounge also feature an attached structure that serves as an event venue with retractable roof and state of the art AV capabilities. Cuisine is contemporary with an international twist. Prana Café is an attached casual dining option.
Sunset Beach:
Sunset Beach, scheduled to open in the summer of 2006, promotes the beach lifestyle at its best with its 13,000 square feet of event space and it is certainly one of the most versatile venues to open its doors in quite a while – perfect for any group size up to 800 with its venue-within-a venue logistics. Located on the world famous Sunset Boulevard, the venue includes two restaurants featuring Modern American cuisine, two lounges, a 1,000 square foot outdoor patio and several private dining rooms and beach cabanas. For an upscale event, the second level, called UV with its own private VIP entrance, features 5,000 square feet of “Coast Modern” sophistication with several intimate areas including a main dining room, a private dining room known as “The Cliff” and a unique glass wall with an enviable view of Century City and beyond. Not to be forgotten is Sunset Beach’s dramatic 40’ high and 150’ wide tensile fabric façade, perfect for your branding needs, setting a nautical ambiance like sails billowing in the breeze.
The Los Angeles Office of ACCESS Destination Services has been creating fun and festive beach-themed events for 35 years and we possess a full repertoire of event enhancements from fabulous Beach Boys-style bands, to beach inspired interactive performers, sand sculptors and the like. Let us make your next “Beach Party” your best yet!
Contact the Los Angeles office of ACCESS Destination Services for your next site inspection or to discuss destination management needs for your next Los Angeles program.
Orange County
Dine Around and Dine Together! For your next incentive program, how about experiencing a new trend on the standard dine-around! As a frequent component in multi-night programs, dine-arounds typically feature dining about the town in various area restaurants. While this is a wonderful way to experience the best of culinary delights in a destination, often times meeting professionals are concerned with added expenses due to the need for dedicated transportation vehicles, potential perceived inequitable qualities of restaurants, variation in menus, and scarcity of private rooms for the exactly appropriate size.
On a recent ACCESS program at the Ritz Carlton Laguna Niguel, our Financial Services client, an out-of-the-box thinker, was anxious for a departure from his traditional 375-person, multi-restaurant dine-around. While he supported the need for his individual business units to enjoy the networking benefits of dining as a unit, he was open to exploring whether one single venue, rather than individual restaurants, could fulfill the goals for this evening’s dine-out experience.
The historic Mission San Juan Capistrano, a favorite venue of the ACCESS Orange County team, was the perfect choice to complement the networking possibilities while creating the added benefit to guests of visiting the setting well-known for its annual migration of swallows returning on their 6,000 mile journey from Argentina. Also known as the “jewel of the missions”, the wide spreading adobe of Mission San Juan Capistrano reveals a glorious chapter in early California history.
Following host receptions on-property, a dedicated ACCESS staff member was assigned to escort each business unit to awaiting coaches and, following tours of the Mission, to escort guests to their designated areas on the expansive Mission grounds which included a special VIP area in the barracks. Each group of tables, arranged logistically by group size, featured different colored linens in shades of sage, khaki, tan and terra cotta as well as table signage and carriage lantern centerpieces with beautiful earth tone florals. The ACCESS Orange County program management team created a schematic map outlining each host area. A specialty lighting package was designed and set by ACCESS to highlight key architectural elements of the venue, visible to all while dining. An added benefit, not possible with individual restaurants, was that all guests could enjoy the background music of our quartet positioned within the inner courtyard. Ritz Carlton catering created a sumptuous dinner menu including the Spanish favorite, paella. As guests concluded their dining experience, a convenient shuttle was arranged to return guests to their hotel.
Feedback from a member of our client’s meeting planning team included such attendee comments as “…stellar conference, could not have been better, cannot wait for next year.” She further stated, “You had a huge part in that success.”
Contact the Orange County office of ACCESS Destination Services for your next special event and for all of your corporate event planning needs.
Palm Springs
Start Your Engines! Just another sunny day at La Quinta Resort & Club? Not on your life! The high octane team of ACCESS Palm Springs recently transformed the parking lot of La Quinta into a fully assembled Karting Course for 200 guests of a corporate client who raced in wheel to wheel competition at speeds up to 35 mph. While awaiting their turn on the track, our guests enjoyed spectating features such as hors d’oeuvres, open bar, a big screen TV showing Nascar races and a high energy DJ.
This team-building event is tailor-made to fit your group’s specific needs. Everything is included from race karts and safety equipment to professional instruction and event management. Drivers suit up, participate in a safety course, energize themselves at a rousing pep rally, and then race for 5 minutes per heat. All guests have the opportunity to race throughout the day with a final heat being the “race-off” for the top 3-4 qualifiers competing for the grand prize.
The racing day culminates with the Main Event to determine the top placing teams and then it’s on to the Winner’s Circle to celebrate team victory! This event is the perfect lead-in for a Winner’s Circle Evening Extravaganza complete with black and white racing overlays, sleek black spandex chair-covers, satin flags, food stations topped with “asphalt” highway lines, sports celebrities and much more.
Fasten your seatbelts…the wheels are always turning at ACCESS Destination Services!
For your next recognition event or team-building event, contact the Palm Springs Office of ACCESS Destination Services.Newsletter Sign up
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