Snow business:
Squaw Valley USA
Four cities in North America have hosted Winter
Olympics: Calgary in Alberta, Canada; Lake Placid (twice) in New
York; Salt Lake City in Utah, and Squaw Valley, near Lake Tahoe, in
California. In 2010, one more will be added to the list: Vancouver,
British Columbia (see page 79).
In these picturesque places, the Olympic legacy lives on long after
the Games have gone. What’s left are world-class meeting and
recreational facilities and a pride of place that provides an
instant theme for meetings.
The slopes are a natural antidote for stress. In Vancouver, “a
group can meet all day and then be at the top of the mountain in
minutes, with fresh air and beautiful sunsets,” notes Dave Gazley,
vice president of meeting and convention sales at the Vancouver
Convention & Visitors Bureau.
Here’s a detailed look at what planners will find in the wake of
glorious past Winter Games.
Lake Placid, New York
Olympic years: 1932 and 1980
Overview: Perhaps remembered most fondly for
1980’s “Miracle on Ice,” when the U.S. hockey team defeated Russia,
this upstate New York town in the Adirondack Mountains has “an aura
that says the Olympics have been in town,” says Sandy Caligiore,
director of public affairs for the Olympic Regional Development
Association, the organization responsible for the city’s
winter-sports facilities.
Where to meet: Several facilities built for the
1980 games now are available for meetings and special events,
including the 92,000-square-foot Olympic Center (now being
renovated to include a new purpose-built conference center, which
the destination currently lacks), the 20,000-square-foot 1980 Arena
and the 17,000-square-foot USA Rink.
Group activities include supervised bobsled rides and the
Winter Olympic Challenge, a five-day, four-night mini-Olympics
complete with an opening ceremony and fireworks, followed by events
such as skiing and speed skating and culminating in medal
presentations. (All the other North American Winter Olympic sites
offer a variation on this theme.)
Where to stay: Lake Placid offers 1,700 guest
rooms. The newest hotel is the 85-suite Whiteface Lodge, to open in
January. Amenities include a fireplace in every suite, three
meeting rooms, an indoor-outdoor pool, a 60-seat screening room, a
7,000-square-foot spa and a 10,000-square-foot pavilion. Also in
the area are the 199-room Lake Placid Resort Hotel & Golf Club,
173-room Hilton Lake Placid Resort, 153-room Best Western Golden
Arrow, 127-room Mirror Lake Inn Resort & Spa, 92-room Comfort
Inn and 34-room Lake Placid Lodge.
Contact: Lake Placid/Essex County Convention
& Visitors Bureau, 216 Main St., Lake Placid, N.Y. 12946; (800)
447-5224; fax: (518) 523-2605; www.lakeplacid.com
Squaw Valley, Calif.
Olympic year: 1960
Overview: Measuring two miles in length, with
its only road ending at the Olympic facilities, Squaw Valley is a
perfect place to meet and play in isolation. Squaw Valley USA,
which owns the facilities used during the 1960 games, has added
steadily to the original attractions.
Where to meet: Reached only by cable car, Squaw
Valley USA’s High Camp looms at an elevation of 8,200 feet and
includes several restaurants, a pool, tennis courts and the Olympic
Ice Pavilion, which can be rented in its entirety. Down in the
valley are most of the event facilities, hosting groups of up to
2,000.
Where to stay: Phase II of the Village at Squaw
Valley USA was completed last winter and added 146 guest
condominiums and 19 shops, while its 185-room hotel has 4,300
square feet of meeting space for up to 160 people and the Palisades
Room for 250. The venue’s Trilogy Spa is set to debut early in
2005.
Nearby hotels include the 403-room Resort at Squaw Creek,
200-room Village at Squaw Valley, 90-room Olympic Valley Inn at
Squaw Creek and 61-room PlumpJack Squaw Valley Inn.
At the Resort at Squaw Creek, which has 18 meeting rooms
totaling 23,000 square feet, a $21 million renovation will take
place over the next five years.
Other notable venues in the area include the 160-room
Granlibakken Conference Center & Resort, with 15,500 square
feet of meeting space; the 424-room Hyatt Regency Lake Tahoe
Resort, Spa & Casino, which has a private beach and 50,000
square feet of meeting space; and North Tahoe Conference Center, on
Lake Tahoe, which has meeting space for up to 500 people but no
guest rooms.
Contact: North Lake Tahoe Visitors &
Convention Bureau, 3000 N. Lake Blvd., Suite 10, Tahoe City, Calif.
96145; (800) 462-5196; fax: (530) 581-1686; www.mytahoevacation.com
Preview the 2010 Winter Games
Overview: Plans are under way to make the 2010 Games in Vancouver spectacular. The downhill skiing events will be held at Whistler Mountain, a world-class resort destination 25 miles north of Vancouver.
Where to meet: The Vancouver Convention & Exhibition Centre will triple in size by 2008 to offer 321,900 square feet of exhibit space. BC Place Stadium offers 247,000 square feet of exhibit space and 60,000 arena seats.
New venues include the Richmond Speed Skating Facility, with a large events plaza and seating for 8,000.
Where to stay: Vancouver hotels include the 644-room Hyatt Regency Vancouver, 556-room Fairmont Vancouver, 510-room Westin Bayshore Resort & Marina, 504-room Pan Pacific Vancouver and 489-room Fairmont Waterfront.
In Whistler are the 550-room Fairmont Chateau Whistler, 409-room Westin Resort & Spa and 287-room Whistler Village Resort.
Contact: Greater Vancouver Convention & Visitors Bureau, 200 Burrard St., Suite 210, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada V6C 3L6; (604) 682-2222; fax: (604) 682-1717;
www.tourismvancouver.com Tourism Whistler, 4010 Whistler Way, Whistler, British Columbia, Canada V0N 1B4; (604) 932-3928; fax: (604) 932-7231;
www.mywhistler.com - T.B.
Calgary, Alberta
Olympic year: 1988
Overview: Known for its famous Stampede
festival held for 10 days every July, Calgary is serious about its
winter sports. While many of the 1988 Winter Olympic events took
place in Calgary itself, the downhill skiing competitions were held
on Nakiska Mountain in nearby Kananaskis.
Where to meet: The Calgary Telus Convention
Centre is a meeting jewel, with 65,000 square feet of exhibit space
and able to host up to 4,000. Attractions built for the 1988
Olympics include the Pengrowth Saddledome, home to the Calgary
Stampede and the city’s Calgary Flames hockey franchise, and Canada
Olympic Park, site of the ski-jumping ramp and luge and bobsled
tracks.
Other venues include the Metropolitan Conference Center, with
23,000 square feet of event space; the MacEwan Student Centre
Conference & Event Centre at the University of Calgary, with
40,000 square feet of meeting space, and the Sun Centre, with
20,000 square feet of space for events of up to 2,300 people.
Where to stay: There are approximately 11,000
hotel rooms in the area. Downtown Calgary offers the 525-room
Westin Calgary, 405-room Fairmont Palliser, 384-room Calgary
Marriott, 355-room Hyatt Regency Calgary and 306-room Sheraton
Cavalier. At Kananaskis are the 321-room Delta Lodge at Kananaskis
and 90-room Executive Resort at Kananaskis.
Contact: Tourism Calgary Convention &
Visitors Bureau, 238 11th Ave. S.E., Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2G
0X8; (800) 661-1678; fax: (403) 262-3809; www.tourismcalgary.com
Salt Lake City, Utah
Olympic year: 2002
Overview: Utah’s most populous town, Salt Lake
City hosted the most recent Winter Games. A record crowd of about a
million people came to town for the contests.
Where to meet: The city built several stunning
facilities for the 2002 games, most notably the Olympic Cauldron
Park, which now hosts receptions of up to 6,400 people. Private
events can be held either in a gallery overlooking the park and the
surrounding Wasatch Mountains or outside in Olympic Medals Plaza,
where 1,000 can gather in the shadow of the Hoberman Arch.
Planners who require more room should head to the Salt Palace
Convention Center, offering a full 365,000 square feet of exhibit
space. Facilities include a 45,000-square-foot ballroom and 53
meeting rooms.
Several Olympic events were held some 28 miles east of Salt
Lake City in Park City. There, Utah Olympic Park offers 3,795
square feet of meeting space, as well as covered function space at
the start of the downhill skiing course.
Where to stay: The city has 17,000 guest rooms,
including the 775-room Grand America (with 70,000 square feet of
meeting space), 225-room Hotel Monaco (3,121 square feet) and
359-room Marriott Salt Lake City Center (15,000 square feet). Plans
for a new Marriott with 1,000 guest rooms are in the works.
Contact: Salt Lake Convention & Visitors
Bureau, 90 South West Temple,
Salt Lake City, Utah 84101; (801) 521-2822; fax: (801) 355-9323; www.visitsaltlake.com
Park City Chamber of Commerce Convention & Visitors Bureau,
P.O. Box 1630, Park City, Utah 84060; (435) 658-9607; fax: (435)
649-4132; www.parkcityinfo.com