Anyone who has ever visited Reno/Lake Tahoe realizes what those who live and work in Northern Nevada already know and appreciate: the remarkable diversity of the region. Reno/Lake Tahoe serves as a gateway to more than 40 golf courses and the largest concentration of ski resorts in North America, all within 90 minutes of the Reno/Tahoe International Airport. Through all four seasons, visitors and locals enjoy easy access to outdoor recreation in the Sierra Nevada mountains. And with world-famous Lake Tahoe right in our backyard, enjoying the crystal blue waters and pristine natural beauty of one of the deepest alpine fresh water lakes in the world is remarkably simple.
So how does Northern Nevada, as a destination, take advantage of these local resources, allowing others to experience what locals already know, while continuing to tap the traditional tourism resource, gaming? The answer is the meeting, convention and tradeshow industry. Meetings bring new visitors to a region and provide them an opportunity to sample what the area has to offer. After a conference or convention, visitors often return with families or friends to experience a personal getaway.
As a destination, Reno/Lake Tahoe is poised to benefit greatly from the meeting and convention industry. The area’s varied roster of world-class gaming, unlimited outdoor recreation and nationally-recognized special events make it very appealing to meeting planners. Additional benefits include unique meeting spaces, committable hotel/motel accommodations and convenient air service with the Reno/Tahoe International Airport. Though not every destination offers the variety, convenience and value of Reno/Lake Tahoe offers, the ongoing challenge is to make prospective visitors aware of the region’s long list of attractions .
A major element necessary to reach the meetings industry is the Reno-Sparks Convention Center expansion and renovation, scheduled to break ground in March 2001. When the Reno-Sparks Convention & Visitors Authority (RSCVA) began the process of expanding and renovating the Convention Center, the goal was to provide the Northern Nevada community with a facility that would meet the needs of 90 percent of the convention business nationwide. At the time, it seemed a lofty goal and one that would require several components to fit into place, including project approval by the RSCVA Board of Directors, city of Reno, Washoe County and the Nevada State Legislature, as well as the selection of a design team. And that was just the beginning.
At present, the Convention Center expansion and renovation is steadily moving forward, with completed construction design documents and construction bids due in another month. When the $105 million project is complete in October 2002, convention and meeting planners will be greeted with a modern, high-tech facility in one of the West Coast’s premier travel destinations. The plan calls for increasing the Convention Center’s current capacity to approximately one half million square feet of rentable exhibit and meeting space. One of the major advantages of the expansion will be the ability to host multiple groups simultaneously.
In a show of confidence, two major groups – Safari Club International and Supercomputing – have already made commitments to hold their conventions in the new Convention Center. Safari Club International is a non-profit organization dedicated to wildlife conservation, education and the advocacy of hunting and hunters’ rights. Safari Club is expected to draw more than 16,000 visitors to Reno/Sparks for an average of five nights, including 1,600 trade show exhibitors selling safari-related products. The nation’s premier supercomputing technology conference has selected Reno/Lake Tahoe for its 2007 annual Supercomputing convention and showcase. The SC2007 (Supercomputing) Conference of high performance networking and computing machinery and software, sponsored by the Association for Computing Machinery and the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers Computer Society (IEEE), will bring in approximately 5,300 attendees requiring 15,000 room nights.
Throughout the next two years, the face of the Convention Center will change from its current form and function to a high-tech, multi-function facility. The expansion and renovation will allow the RSCVA to have a significant impact on the local economy and increase the region’s visibility as a diverse travel destination with repeat visitation.
