Anaheim Unveils a "Golden Decade" for Meetings

With $10 billion in infrastructure investment and new dining, retail and entertainment districts such as OCVIBE, Anaheim, California, has embarked on what it has dubbed the "Golden Decade."

Meetings Today caught up with Ronnie Collins, senior vice president of sales for Visit Anaheim, to learn the details, and also about mega events coming to the destination, a major property renovation project and a meetings incentive program named Meetings Momentum.

Listen:

This episode is sponsored by Visit Anaheim.

Transcript:

Editors note: The following transcription was facilitated by AI program Otter.ai and proofed by our editors. Although it is very accurate, there inevitably will be some mistakes, so please consider that when reading. Thank you.

Tyler Davidson

Hello. I'm Tyler Davidson, vice president and chief content director for Meetings Today. Thank you for joining us for this Meetings Today Podcast, and I'm happy to be joined today by Ronnie Collins, who is the senior vice president of sales at Visit Anaheim. Lots going on there.

Thanks for joining us, Ronnie.

Ronnie Collins

Thanks so much, Tyler. Really appreciate you having me today and we've been looking forward to this for quite some time.

Tyler Davidson

Well, and you have lots to talk about. More importantly, especially what you guys are referring to as the Golden Decade in Anaheim, with $10 billion in developments underway. Why don't you detail some of the highlights of that?

Ronnie Collins

Oh, wow. Yeah, you're all over that, Tyler. I love the fact that you're using the term so comfortably and you're 100% correct. You know the driving force behind the Golden Decade is really OCVIBE.
OCVIBE will be a premier live entertainment district which will be coming to Anaheim starting in late 2026, but really fully open and optimized before the Olympics in 2028.

Honda Center will remain the anchor, but OCVIBE will feature new live entertainment venues, dining and retail offerings, and public amenities.

It'll actually be—for a fun fact—about four times the size of LA Live.

Tyler Davidson

Wow.

Ronnie Collins

So, truly going to be our downtown, and in my opinion, Tyler, is the largest thing to happen to the Anaheim area since Disneyland moved here.

Tyler Davidson 

That's a bold statement there, and I know, just having covered it a bit, I'm really looking forward to it. It's really an ambitious project. And, yeah, I can’t wait till it's unveiled.

Ronnie Collins

No question. And you know, quite frankly, it's going to feature two hotels. Two distinctly different boutique-style hotels, along with concert venues and open parks. 

They're right now in the process of building the parking structures. because you do that first so you can then develop the service lots, and what's going to be neat about OCVIBE is the parking is going to be totally free—no charge whatsoever for parking at OCVIBE at any point, with over 8000 spots in parking facilities where you'll be able to exit directly from the freeway into the parking facilities with tremendously easy ingress and egress. And because there's no charge for parking, naturally, there's not that long line when events end as people try to pay for their parking.

When you come to major events like a Ducks game or a concert or whatnot it’s going to be industry leading for sure.

Tyler Davidson

And you mentioned, of course, Disneyland before, and always a major player in Anaheim. They have an ongoing development named DisneylandForward that is allowing them to expand their theme park attractions on the West side of Disneyland.

Why don’t you explain a little bit more about that?

Ronnie Collins

This is another topic that we're extremely passionate about.

You're absolutely right. It's a 20-year project to grow and expand the park and create new lands. The Toy Story parking lot area, which is right across—it's that large surface lot that's across from our convention center. It used to be a strawberry patch many, many years ago. Folks from Orange County will remember that.

And that land is going to be redeveloped into another portion of the theme park. Think of it like a third gate.

You've got Disneyland resort, you've got Disney's California Adventure and the lot across the street from the convention center, which is the Toy Story Parking Area, will be developed into a third gate with several different new lands to feature, like a Frozen Land, potentially an Avatar Land. You know, we only get so much information from Disney on these topics because they keep this stuff pretty locked down. We've seen some renderings for DisneylandForward and it's going to be spectacular and great.

Tyler Davidson

Of course, yeah.

Ronnie Collins

As Disney continues to grow…you know Walt Disney's famous quote is “Disneyland will never be finished,” and that certainly is the case as they move into the next couple of decades with their theme park offerings.

Tyler Davidson

And, you know, it'll bring in more hotels, too, to Anaheim. And I know just having covered Anaheim for a while, you guys are particularly proud of the more luxe hotels coming in over the last few years and really sort of upgrading your hotel offering in general. That, in particular, appeals to meetings groups coming in.

Ronnie Collins

You know, Tyler, that's another wonderful point. I look at it as we always had, you know, really great hotel product in this market, and what's awesome about Anaheim is there's so many different price tiers and experience tiers available. 

Whether you're looking for budget economy, mid-tier, upscale, upper upscale or even some luxury product, we've always had that capability here, but these new offerings that have joined our portfolio recently, such as the Westin Anaheim, the JW Marriott Anaheim and The Viv Hotel, have really elevated the market both from a product perspective and an average daily rate perspective, because when you have hotels in the market that are that are, you know, driving 4, 4 and 1/2 star, quasi-luxury pricing, that really is kind of the rising water that lifts all boats and helps the rest of the market.

I kind of truly look at it, Tyler, as Anaheim really evolving and maturing and growing into all of the great experiences that it's always offered, and so it's really just leveling up that hotel product.

Tyler Davidson

And talking about experiences, you have a lot of big sports-related experiences coming to town. FIFA World Cup 2026, of course, the Super Bowl in ’27, the Summer Olympics in Southern California in ’28, and then one of the travel industry's biggest events, IPW in 2030.

Ronnie Collins

It really does play into that Golden Decade.

So, it's really that lunar eclipse of having what I like to call mega events, Tyler, rolling through the destination along with marquee industry events, and then you put that together with the $10 billion—like you said, 10 with a B—infrastructure improvement. It's almost an embarrassment of riches. The way that I looked at it when I evaluated this job a couple years ago is most destinations would kill for a couple of these and we have nearly a dozen of them coming our way over the next five to seven years.

So, that really does play into the Golden Decade, and you're absolutely right. We're the trifecta, as I like to call it, of the World Cup in ’26, the Super Bowl at Sofi, which is really only 40 minutes away from, here in ’27, and then the largest media credentialed event in the world, the Summer Olympic Games in 2028.

It really gives us the opportunity to keep the Anaheim brand on the world stage. So, we're looking forward to taking full advantage of that.

Tyler Davidson

And you know, that's sure to spread the word. It's like a big postcard or an advertisement for the destination, whenever these big events happen.

But, in a more interesting sort of marketing strategy, the Anaheim Ducks are going to be promoting the destination during their away games on their jerseys, and I heard that's like the first ever in the NHL, maybe?

What's all that about?

Ronnie Collins

Oh, my gosh, this is one of our favorite topics. So, we're really elevating the way we market, sell and attract visitors to our destination and we're thinking outside the box and partaking in partnerships that really DMOs have never done before, and you hit it right on the head.

So, we did make history as the first-ever away-jersey patch sponsor for the Anaheim Ducks, starting with this season, the 2024-2025 season. Of course, they play in the NHL, so our logo, the Visit Anaheim logo, is featured on the away jerseys that they wear, obviously to all of our out-of-market games, and it's driving so much interest and enthusiasm.

And then we get with that, not only the exposure of the patch, which is super cool, but the marketing components that come along with that on the road and also in Anaheim itself, and really having a powerful partner like National Hockey League team and the Ducks has just really been groundbreaking for us, so this is the first year of the partnership.

We're expected to do it for multiple years to come and we're looking forward to that. And I think we're going to be really trailblazers and trendsetters in that arena.

Tyler Davidson

Well, thanks for joining us. Before we end the podcast today, what's in the pipeline as far as conventions coming up? I mean, I love NAMM. We covered that last year, I think it was, and you really always have some really big marquee meetings and conventions there.

What's coming up that's on the books?

Ronnie Collins

Yeah. Thank you so much for that, Tyler.

We've confirmed 160 conventions, meetings and events for 2025 and those will generate more than $1.4 billion of economic impact for the community. These include 67 conventions, which really we measure as more than 1,000 rooms on peak and use multiple hotels and then 93 in-house meetings and events.

So, you know, the convention center lineup for premier events that you mentioned, like NAMM. NAMM's definitely a headliner, but we've got others like Natural Products Expo West, which we hosted earlier this month and then continued partnerships with WonderCon, VidCon and some of the others as we move forward.

But we've got events at the Anaheim Convention Center confirmed all the way through 2036 at this point, and you know the convention game is always evolving.

It's such a competitive pool, honestly; there's about 250 conventions that rotate between cities, large conventions and those conventions use about 20 total cities, Tyler. So those 20 cities that we go up against are the other 19.

They are fierce competitors. Great friends, but fierce competitors, and we'll continue to work hard to show how this new brand of Anaheim is evolving to continue to attract the convention bookings, because it's such a major part of our landscape here in Anaheim to keep the campus full with convention business, to create compression for the rest of our hotel partners.

Tyler Davidson

I know sustainability is a big priority for you there?
Why don't you tell us about some of those highlights and then maybe we can end it with the Meetings Momentum program and what that offering is?

Ronnie Collins

Yeah, Tyler, love that. I'll just mention a couple of highlights.
Sustainability is always top of mind for us. I mean, obviously being a Southern California destination.

The state focuses extremely heavily on sustainability, which is great, but just to throw out a few [accolades], ACC, the Anaheim Convention Center, was LEED certified in 2016, and on top of that—literally on top of that—we have a green roof and it's a 2,000-square-foot space atop the arena box office, and it's a garden for adaptive plants and herbs.

We also have solar power on the building. There's 300,000 square feet of solar panels spanning the roofs of the exhibit halls.

I'm not an engineer in this area, but it does produce 2.37 megawatts of clean, renewable, sustainable electricity. We've got a very strict HVAC policy of when we will run the units before and after an event to make sure that we're adhering to the guidelines that go with that. 

We have sustainable purchasing, which we encourage as much as possible, required for ongoing consumables such as paper, printer toner cartridges and batteries. 

We have a Green Zone that serves as the ACC’s onsite recycling center, and then at least 50% of our products in the Anaheim Convention Center are Forest. Stewardship Council (FSC) certified.
So, we take it pretty, pretty seriously here, Tyler, and we'll continue to focus on that and find new ways to ensure that we're living that sustainable lifestyle with our convention business.

Tyler Davidson

That's a topic that is always top of mind; still is for planners. It's one of those things that I think everyone is pretty positive that it’s here to stay and is important—both the organizations holding the meetings and the attendees. So, sort of a win-win situation there.

Why don't we end it with the Meetings Momentum program. What is that, and why do you think that'll help drive more groups and meetings to Anaheim and Garden Grove?

Ronnie Collins

Tyler, I love this one, too.

So, you know, I think DMOs that work in cities that have large convention centers, those convention centers can be like beacons, right because you’ve got to keep those buildings full, and so they get a lot of attention and sometimes there's not as much attention paid to the in-house opportunities.

We wanted to make sure that we double down on our in-house opportunities, and so last July, we launched a program that's exclusive to our Tourism Improvement District, paying hotels in Anaheim and Garden Grove. 

And the way we do this, Tyler, is each hotel is given $75,000 in a pot of money that they can have access to: $75,000 for 2024, which is behind us now, 75,000 for 2025.
We actually added another $75,000 per hotel for 2026, and the program is called the Meetings Momentum program. 

The way that it works is if that particular hotel that's in our program has an opportunity to book an in-house piece of business and that opportunity is competing with another city, the hotel can apply for Meetings Momentum funds, which come out of that $75,000 per hotel bucket, and they send us the application and we approve it here right on site, send it back to the hotel and then they essentially put a clause in the contract for that particular group and then we pay the group directly.

We pay the contract signer directly, so the hotel doesn't have to worry about the accounting side of it, and just to put it in the easy terms to understand, it's a 7-to-1 ratio.

So, in other words, when they apply for the benefit, they put the total rooms revenue and the food and beverage revenue as per the contract. Let's say that adds up to, like, $70,000. Well, 7-to-1 ratio, we can give them 10 grand, right?

So, then that $10,000 would come out of that $75,000 bucket, meaning they'd have $65,000 left.
We've had hotels where we've probably had well over 100 applications already to utilize this money, which is great, and you know in some cases the hotels use all $75,000 in one shot for one piece of business, if it's a large piece of business like at the Hilton Anaheim.

Or, they could break it into multiple groups, so it's up to the hotels. It's at the hotel's discretion on how they use the money and when they use the money.

We're just excited to see it utilized, so it's really been an impactful program for us as we look to shift business more to in-house business opportunities in Anaheim and Garden Grove.

Tyler Davidson

Well, you certainly have a lot to talk about to bring him in. So, thanks for joining us today, Ronnie.

Ronnie Collins

Tyler, it's been an absolute honor to join you and we really appreciate our partnership with you folks, and you know, we like to tell people if you haven't been to Anaheim recently, you haven't been to Anaheim.

It's a destination that is evolving and really maturing with more sophisticated experiences and programming. We can't wait to showcase that for you.

Tyler Davidson

For sure. Likewise. 

Thank you, Ronnie. That was Ronnie Collins, senior vice president of sales for Visit Anaheim.

I'm Tyler Davidson, vice president and chief content director for Meetings Today.

Thank you for joining us for this Meetings Today podcast. If you're interested in more of our podcasts, just head on over to Meetingsoday.com and check out our podcast section, which features a variety of podcasts with industry thought leaders.

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