In August 2024, ASM Global, the operator of more than 80 convention centers, merged with Legends Hospitality, the manager of more than 350 stadiums, arenas and amphitheaters around the world that host sports and entertainment events. The result: a new entity named Legends Global.
Another result: New opportunities for meeting, convention and tradeshow planners to deliver memorable experiences to attendees.
Tapping into the expertise found across this combined entity, Legends Global is evolving the offerings across all its facilities to appeal to the next generation of attendees and patrons.
Meetings Today caught up with Anna Nash, senior vice president of market development for Legends Global, to discuss what’s changing at the firm’s convention facilities that will benefit large-event planners and their attendees.
A former executive at Ohio's Columbus Convention Center, Nash is centrally involved in Legends Global’s initiatives for new features across its convention portfolio. Here’s her take.
Meetings Today: In the past couple of years, several convention-center renovation projects have added or redesigned prefunction and public space. What’s behind this shift in space allotment?
Anna Nash: Basically, it’s what event participants want. Whether we are doing a renovation or a new build, we’re looking at designs that allow people to check in with their office or with home or do whatever else without leaving the facility. Because if they’re going back to their hotel room to do work or take a meeting, they might not return to the center that day.
For instance, we’re looking to create pod areas where you can swipe your credit card to pay for a set amount of time and have your own little breakout room. We’re calling them “hush hubs.” We see what some hotels and airports are doing with this idea and we’re bringing it to our convention facilities.
Meetings Today: Another growing trend is bringing local flavor and atmosphere into the convention center so that attendees get an authentic feel for the destination. How are your centers adapting to this?
Anna Nash: There’s a lot we can do with the food and beverage elements. First, we’re adapting many of our concession areas to be “grab and go” style and having them offer items and brands and decor that are indicative of the destination.
Also, we're adapting our operations to be able to build out food-based activations in the middle of the exhibit hall, like brick-oven pizza. And many of our convention centers have partnerships with food trucks where they can park just outside the hall, maybe in a roundabout or on a plaza, to bring in that local flavor. Sometimes we’ll even have the food trucks inside the hall—in that case, though, the food must be prepared in our kitchen and brought to the trucks to be served. But the trucks are such an eye-catching feature when they are on the show floor.
Another way we deliver the destination’s feel is by using local photography and artwork throughout the facility; it provides some of the destination experience that sticks in people’s minds. That’s what the younger generation wants, especially if they won’t have much time to get out and experience the local community.
Meetings Today: Are you looking to add outdoor spaces to give people a feel for the destination, or at least a break from the show-floor hustle and bustle?
Anna Nash: Absolutely. We're doing transformations and renovations at several of our convention centers right now. If we can create a plaza, let's do that. The Broward County Convention Center has a beautiful plaza that’s right on the water. We just completed one at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver, with mountain and city views. It is perfect for receptions. And we’re building one at the Duke Energy Convention Center in Cincinnati.
We have to reimagine the tradeshow experience from walking up and down linear expo floors, and use all our space to allow creative activations. And activating outdoor space is what people want.
Meetings Today: Legends Global also manages hundreds of arenas and stadiums globally. Is there some synergy there that would help a planner deliver a unique destination experience for their group once business concludes for the day?
Anna Nash: Yes, we can be a resource for planners in many cities when they are looking to do an offsite event at a unique venue, even if we don’t manage the convention center in a city. For instance, we don’t manage the convention center in Minneapolis, but we do manage the Target Center and US Bank Stadium, so we can get business groups into those facilities.
While many planners think that renting an arena or stadium would be outside their budget limits, a group doesn’t have to use the whole facility. We can right-size their presence so it feels right and is priced right.
For instance, you could take your board of directors through the home team’s locker room and then have a gourmet dinner in the Hall of Fame Club with a team historian, and then everyone receives a personalized jersey. There are many different experiences possible, and we have areas for those in each stadium and arena.
