Houston Meetings

Mention Houston as a meeting space and the superlatives start to fly. Fourth largest city in the country. World’s eight busiest airport. World’s largest medical center. World’s largest rodeo.

But it’s Houston’s Texas-sized meeting space that makes this destination tops with meeting planners. With nearly 1.2 million square feet of space in one facility alone, the city now handles the largest of meeting groups.

“Houston has some of the newest meeting space in the state,” explains Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau President and CEO Gerard J. “Jordy” Tollett. “We opened six new hotels in the last three years, the largest being the Hilton Americas-Houston, the 1200-room hotel connected by skybridge to the convention center. Downtown has also had a rebirth with over 60 new restaurants, clubs and bars within walking distance of the new hotels.” Since 2001, Houston’s hotel room inventory has doubled with the addition of 6,000 new rooms.

This growing hotel inventory compliments the city’s expanded George R. Brown Convention Center. In 2003, the center completed a $165 million expansion which added the convention hotel, three exhibit halls, and 62 meeting rooms. Today the facility offers 105 meeting rooms as well as 853,500 square feet of exhibit space.

The expanded convention center and new hotel meeting space has also allowed the city to pursue groups that require expansive facilities. “One market we are targeting is the medical meeting that passed us by the last few years because they require such large facilities,” notes Tollett. “We’ve landed the American Medical Association in 2009 and it signals that we’re able to host these large meetings and we’re ready to do business.”

Along with new and expanded meeting space, the CVB’s Tollett believes that three other factors also draw groups to this southeast Texas location. “One of the most significant things is the cost to do business in Houston. It’s a very economical destination and also this is a right to work state so you can work in your own booth. In these days when you are watching every dollar, Houston offers a lot to meeting planners.”

Tollett also notes that the large number of pre- and post-trip opportunities is another draw. “The cruise industry has become very big in Houston and Galveston. Three ships every weekend offer pre- and post-trips to the Caribbean and the Gulf. That’s an option you don’t have at other destinations in Texas.”

Transportation is another draw for many groups. This spring, Houston opened a new international arrivals building at the George Bush Intercontinental Airport designed to meet the needs of the six million international arrivals annually.

“Continental is based in Houston and there’s plenty of air access in and out of the city,” says Tollett. “With 186 flights a day, there’s no worry for meeting planners. Also, there are very good connections to Latin America from Houston.” Houston has also added a 7.5-mile light rail system linking the downtown region with the 1.4 million-square-foot Reliant Park, a mixed-use facility which includes the 71,500-seat Reliant Stadium, Reliant Center, Reliant Arena, and the Reliant Astrodome.

When it comes time for free time activities, fun ranges from cowboy to cultural. The city’s museum district, the fourth largest in the US, houses 15 facilities including the Museum of Fine Arts and the Houston Museum of Natural Sciences.

Although much of the convention activity is centered in the downtown district, the city has a second business district: the Galleria or Uptown region. With 6200 hotel rooms, the district offers meeting facilities ranging from the InterContinental Houston, with over 50,000 square feet of meeting space, to the luxury Houstonian Hotel, Club and Spa, with its private fitness club and spa as well as 32,000 square feet of meeting space.

The former Doubletree Post Oak has now reopened as the Hilton Houston Post Oak, with 30,000 square feet of refurbished meeting space.
On the fringes of Houston, several smaller communities offer an alternative to a big city meeting.

Tucked in the piney woods north of Houston, Lake Conroe is home to the Del Lago Waterfront Conference Center & Resort, a favorite with groups who want to spend free time on the water or on the golf course. The resort has lots of fun options but can get down to business, too, thanks to 60,000 square feet of flexible function space, including three ballrooms, 22 meeting rooms and a 120-seat amphitheater.

Conroe is also home to the Lone Star Convention and Expo Center, located 25 miles north of Bush Intercontinental Airport. The facility, which includes diverse facilities such as an equestrian center, is home to a 56,000-square-foot convention center.

Also north of Houston, the Woodlands offers a scenic backdrop and first-class facilities. The best-known meeting facility here is the 400-room Woodlands Resort and Conference Center, a founding member of the IACC with 60,000 square feet of flexible meeting space.

South of Houston toward Galveston and the Gulf of Mexico, League City makes another good option for groups looking for a quieter atmosphere. The city is home to South Shore Harbour Resort and Conference Center, with over 23,000 square feet of meeting space as well as a Scottish link style 27-hole golf course.

League City is just a short drive from one of the region’s most unique group venues: Space Center Houston. Located adjacent to the Johnson Space Center, the mission control, training, and research facility for the NASA space program, this visitors center was designed to explain space travel in everyday terms. A full-scale mock-up of the space shuttle allows visitors to tour the flight deck while nearby Texas's largest IMAX theater showcases large format films about space travel. Three guided tram tours take visitors for a behind the scenes look at the Johnson Space Center to view Mission Control, the Space Shuttle Training Facility, or an underwater training area.