[ON LOCATION] LISA SIMUNDSON
A walkable city-center, easy to get to and easily navigable on foot, with restaurants, attractions and meeting facilities close at hand—it’s a winning formula repeated across the U.S., but one city adds a little extra sparkle to the formula: the Emerald City of Seattle.
Presided over by breathtaking Mount Rainier and framed by two mountain ranges—the Cascades and the Olympics—Seattle has both altitude and attitude. It’s a young city with a constantly evolving music scene of indie bands playing underground clubs basically every night of the week. You won’t hear smooth jazz in the department stores here; it’s Florence and the Machine and other alt faves interspersed with hip hop, punk, electronica and even some New Wave sprinkled in. But grunge fans, don’t despair—grunge tours are offered all over the city, including at the Museum of Pop Culture.
With its reputation as a musical vanguard firmly entrenched, Seattle has changed exponentially in other ways, going from a city of 600,000 in 2010 to its current status as a major metropolitan tech center, home to Microsoft and Amazon, aerospace giant Boeing, the wholesale company Costco and, of course, Starbucks.
With headquarter companies of that caliber, you’d imagine meeting and convention space would need to grow accordingly—and it has: In January 2023, the Seattle Convention Center (SCC) unveiled Summit, the Center’s $2 billion downtown addition and one of North America’s few vertical convention centers, with unique “hill climbing” stadium seating and 70-ft-high windows offering city views from all four corners.
Just over a block from the SCC’s original building, Arch—with up to 205,700 sf of exhibit space—the LEED platinum-certified Summit addition has nearly doubled the center’s capacity, adding 573,770 sf of event space including 62 meeting rooms, a 58,000-sf column-free ballroom featuring 3,900 planks of reclaimed wood, nearly 250,000 sf of exhibit space, and a 14,000-sf outdoor “green roof” Garden Terrace overlooking the city. Together, the two buildings cover 1.5 million sf, creating a convention hub in the heart of downtown.
“Adding a second convention center building a block and a half away from the Arch building has been a generational gamechanger for Seattle’s ability to host large, concurrent and overlapping meetings,” says Kelly Saling, SVP & chief sales officer at Visit Seattle. “The location of this meetings campus within our compact and walkable downtown allows attendees to access many of our key attractions via a short walk or a 2-minute monorail ride.”
Within a 6-block radius of the SCC campus are 7,000 hotel rooms adding their iconic towers to the skyline. Among them, the Hyatt Regency Seattle—Prevue’s host—is the largest hotel in the Pacific Northwest, with 1,260 guestrooms and 103,000 sf of flexible meeting space including the region’s two largest ballrooms, complemented by a variety of restaurants and bars, including a steakhouse on the second floor, and a 24-hour fitness center. It’s also the city’s first and only LEED gold-certified hotel.
“We’re going for our Green Key Certification now,” says Abby Polasko, CMP, area director of marketing. “Planners are asking for sustainable efforts, which is why we have a dedicated Green Team. We want to walk the walk, not just talk the talk.”
Indeed, sustainability at an environmental and community level is a chord struck repeatedly in the Emerald City. At the nearby Westin, for example, guests are greeted by Vertical Gardens that create a lobby oasis designed to offer a more open, natural and healthful feel.
The 2-tower, 891-room flagship Westin property is “positioned to be an overflow for conventions,” says Jeff Anderson, destination sales executive. “We have a partnership with Sheraton and all the Marriott properties,” he notes, stressing the cooperation—vs. competition—among many of the city’s meeting properties. “We all talk to each other and work together to take care of attendees when there’s a big convention in town.”
Adventurous dining is essential in Seattle, as are fine dining, dining on the go and progressive dining, with venue proximity allowing drinks, appetizers, entrees and dessert in neighboring places.
Groups can gather for opening-night drinks at Deep Dive, an art installation-turned cocktail lounge at The Spheres (an urban office center home to more than 40,000 plants), where private bookings in the lounge’s library feature tailored cocktail and wine selections.
From there, it’s on to the best steak of your life at Bateau, whose heritage cattle breeds are cared for by Pure Country, a Food Alliance-certified ranch in Moses Lake, WA. Specialty cuts appear on a chalk board and are crossed off when sold, so get your order in early.
The night continues at Astra Hotel’s ALTITUDE Sky Lounge, located in the South Lake Union neighborhood steps away from the Amazon campus and the Space Needle.
Above all, Seattle’s dining scene is about individuality, each experience unique from the others. Dine at mbar, and the dining adventure starts with a little cloak-and-dagger, as you’re led from a ground-floor podium through a dimly lit hallway to a private elevator (with no buttons) that opens on approach and takes you to the rooftop. A private room and alfresco rooftop seating allow groups to savor hummus platters and wine before selecting from a savory menu of Lebanese favorites.
Business may come before pleasure but across the street from the SCC, Rider combines the two with buyout options and an experienced team creating a customized menu and wine selections.
No visit to Seattle is complete without a half or full day at Pike Place Market, the quintessential attraction for shopping, dining and entertainment and now officially a 9-acre historic district. The experience can start at Beecher’s Loft, once the home of an architect, but today a small-group venue or incentive stay home base, including a kitchen, living and event space, and small bed/bath that can be closed off.
Steps away in the iconic market itself, start with artisanal food and wine flights at Northwest Tastings before heading to Atrium Kitchen, managed by chef Traci Calderon of Succulent Catering & Events, who can conduct a group cooking class along with a private tour of Pike Place that might (if you’re lucky) include a stop at Hellenika Cultured Creamery, welcoming groups for gelato tastings and back-of-the-house tours.
visitseattle.org/meeting-professionals