The Greater San Diego region is solidifying itself as one of the hottest meetings destinations in the U.S., with major infrastructure projects and new and renovated venues that are set to propel what was once a seemingly under-utilized meetings destination into a Southern California force to be reckoned with.
From an expansion of the San Diego Convention Center that has persevered through high-profile legislative challenges to a major renovation of the city’s largest property plus marquee openings north and south of San Diego proper, this SoCal standout that was mainly known as a leisure destination has made major meetings moves.
“We’ve worked hard to shift the perception that San Diego is just beaches and sunshine,” said Kavin Schieferdecker, chief sales officer at the San Diego Tourism Authority. “You can come here, have a real meeting and get meaningful work done.
“We’re a great meetings and conventions town,” Schieferdecker added. “We’ve got a great product, we’ve got great weather, we’ve got great people working in our attractions, our venues and our hotels—they really get it. And customers can come to San Diego and know that the meeting will go well and that their attendees will leave happy.”
It’s safe to say that San Diego is happy with the rewards of being in the spotlight, having registered a state-best 74% hotel occupancy rate in mid-2025, according to hotel data collection and analysis firm STR.
[Related: How San Diego Is Becoming a Meetings Powerhouse]
Glad TEDings
Another bright bit of news is the TED organization—of TED Talks fame—announcing the relocation of its annual TED conference back to San Diego, from Vancouver, British Columbia, for three years starting in 2027. The conference will be hosted in and around the waterfront San Diego Convention Center.
In announcing the move, TED spotlighted its symbolic and strategic alignment with a city that “positions us at the literal cultural crossroads of innovation; a city where biotech breakthroughs happen alongside innovations and media, where the Pacific Rim meets Latin America and where some of the world’s most urgent challenges are already being tackled.”
TED’s chief program and strategy officer, meetings industry thought leader Monique Ruff-Bell, said San Diego’s innovative atmosphere made it the perfect fit for the cultural phenomenon that is TED.
“TED has always been about bringing unlikely voices together,” Ruff-Bell said. “San Diego represents where we’re heading next—a community built on collaboration, a city tackling the challenges that matter most and a place where the future is already being imagined. This is where global meets local, where innovation meets impact.”
[Related: How to Leverage San Diego’s Intellectual Capital for Meetings]
Schieferdecker enthusiastically agrees and emphasized his DMO’s marketing initiative dubbing San Diego “America’s Brightest City.”
“Bringing TED to San Diego gives full credibility to the message that this is a city for serious ideas, innovation and global thought leadership,” he said.
Schieferdecker’s optimism is evidenced by the city’s strides in developing the six-block, waterfront RaDD (Research and Development District) life-sciences district, with a jaw-dropping offsite option in Eve, operated by Petco Park Events and featuring an outdoor patio overlooking the water for private gatherings. The stunning Rady Shell at Jacobs Park amphitheater, featured as the closing night venue for PCMA’s 2024 Convening Leaders conference, is another case in point.
Convention Center Expansion
Following the 2020 passage of Measure C and years of back-and-forth in the courts, the much-anticipated expansion of the San Diego Convention Center is moving forward.
“With the convention center expansion approved, we’re entering a new phase of modernization that will significantly strengthen San Diego’s meetings capacity,” Schieferdecker said.
The project is also expected to bring a new 1,200-room Fairmont headquarters hotel.
[Related: San Diego Is Upping Its Foodie Status—How Your Event Can Benefit]
Airport Renovation
San Diego has always been challenged by the location of its airport, which is hemmed in by San Diego Bay. While the close-to-downtown location—less than three miles—is a major selling point, its capacity and lift was not. A major expansion project is deftly working around this obstacle by adding more gates—a total of 30 more by 2028—into the facility while greatly enhancing its user experience via outdoor check-in pavilions, a dedicated arrivals roadway and an outdoor dining terrace with runway views, along with dozens of new F&B outlets.
Manchester Grand Renovation
Boasting more than 1,600 guest rooms and 300,000 square feet of meeting space within walking distance to the convention center and Gaslamp Quarter, the Manchester Grand Hyatt also lays claim to being the largest waterfront hotel in Southern California.
The conventions major player has wrapped the first phase of a two-year renovation project that featured the full redesign of the 33-story Seaport Tower and updates to the Coronado Ballroom Foyer and Terrace and Harbor Ballroom Foyer and Terrace. The first phase also saw the addition of the adults-only Coastline Pool and Lounge, which overlooks San Diego Bay.
The renovation of the 40-story Harbor Tower is targeting a mid-2026 completion.
Other major San Diego hotel happenings include the new 250-room Le Meridien San Diego Downtown, set to open in June between the Gaslamp Quarter and Little Italy.
Sheraton Renovation
The 1,065-room Sheraton San Diego Resort in 2025 welcomed guests to a brand-new experience via a $110 million renovation. Long in the making, as it began in 2019 when the property was bought by Peregrine Hospitality and then delayed by the pandemic, the project upgraded all 604 rooms in its Marina Tower along with the resort’s 130,000 square feet of meeting space, and also added new restaurant concepts, among other improvements.
San Diego North County Happenings
Alternatively a ritzy and laid-back destination, northern San Diego County, including surfy Oceanside and upscale Carlsbad, is also generating some meetings and events buzz.
Carlsbad is home to Omni La Costa Resort & Spa, which unveiled a four-year, $74 million renovation in summer 2024. One of those iconic Spanish Colonial-style properties that epitomize the Southern California post-war aesthetic, La Costa kicked off the project with a $35 million investment in its PGA Tour golf facilities and continued on to its guest rooms, more than 100,000 square feet of meeting space plus the spa and public areas.
Carlsbad is set to debut the 201-key Hotel Solea, a Marriott Bonvoy Autograph Collection hotel, in spring 2026. The property will offer 70,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor event space.
Next door in Oceanside, Mission Pacific Beach Resort and The Seabird Ocean Resort & Spa are sister properties that combine to offer 44,000 square feet of meeting space and new group experiences that celebrate the community’s coastal culture, from candlelit sound baths, IV therapy and apothecary workshops to Baja culinary excursions, boat-building regattas and an Amazing Race–style challenge.
Attendees can also experience some Hollywood glam via special events at the Top Gun House, described as the oldest and last best beachfront cottage in Oceanside.
A Coronado Coronation
This resort island shared some big news of its own via the completion of a $550 million renovation of its iconic Hotel del Coronado, a Victorian-era masterpiece that dates to 1888.
Perhaps better described as a “restoration,” the 930-room property tapped into old blueprints and images from the late 19th century to bring it back to Victorian glory while also adding a 15,000-square-foot, clear-span ballroom and 10,000 square feet of prefunction space in its Southpointe Event Center.
And while “The Del” is what first comes to mind when most people think of Coronado, the island also boasts three other top-flight meeting properties in the 440-room Loews Coronado Bay Resort; 300-room Coronado Island Marriott Resort & Spa; and the historic 100-room Glorietta Bay Inn, which many groups use for VIP and speaker accommodations when meeting at The Del.
Gaylord Pacific Game Changer
A scant 10 miles south of San Diego in Chula Vista, the mid-2025 opening of the mammoth Gaylord Pacific Resort & Convention Center has reset the West Coast large-meetings scene.
Weighing in at 1,600 guest rooms and boasting the largest ballroom in California at 140,000 square feet, the property offers nearly 500,000 square feet of meetings and events space and fills a niche for groups that are too large for San Diego’s big-box hotels but too small for convention centers.
Connections
