In your company, are you responsible for booking venues, facilities, restaurants and organizing transportation for meetings and events?
| Splendid Event Venues Offer Diverse Choices |
There has never been a better time to meet in Houston! From large-scale, luxury conferences centers to unique museum settings, Houston locales provide the perfect backdrop for meetings and events. This year the city has continued to see increased meeting and convention attendance largely in part to the abundance of quality meeting facilities.
In this chapter you will find several tools that we hope will make planning meetings and events in the Houston region even more enjoyable. The first section of this chapter includes spotlight articles on several key facilities. You will find captivating features on Reliant Park, The House of Blues, The Health Museum, La Torretta Del Lago Resort & SpaTM and Courtyard St. James. We are also pleased to present an interview with Johnnie Ray Scroggins, General Manager of the Humble Civic Center.
Following the editorial pieces are floor plans and contact information for the city’s electrifying entertainment and private event facilities. We have also included detailed profile information on several partners that match our highly-selective criteria.
Wrapping up this chapter are comprehensive listings that offer information on meeting and event facilities across the Greater Houston Region. We have worked hard to ensure that these listings have been checked for errors and feel confident that the information is correct.
Spotlight On: Houston Meeting Facilities with a Commitment to “Go Green”
Going green is much easier than most meeting planners realize. There are several key questions that you can ask to ensure that your meeting or event is as environmentally friendly as possible:
Being kind to the environment is a trend that meeting facilities are taking very seriously. There are several meeting facilities and events venues in the Greater Houston Region that are taking extraordinary steps to minimize the environmental impact on the city and the world.
Toyota Center is committed to improving the quality of its’ facility in an effort to reduce its impact on the environment. This dynamic and highly coveted event space has had recycling measures in place for some time, which have made significant reductions in water-waste and energy emissions. Toyota Center has reduced electrical usage by more than 1.5 million kilowatt-hours over the last two years. Toyota Center has replaced all low-functioning lights with high-efficiency bulbs and made
modifications to the operation of event spaces that have cut down energy-use when spaces are not occupied.
Toyota Center has also announced plans to gain Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Building Certification. The certification recognizes new and existing facilities throughout the nation for being eco-friendly. According to the LEED website, this type of certification measures all aspects of a building, ranging from local access to public transportation, water/gas/electricity reductions, recycling efforts and even cleaning materials used for housekeeping and maintenance.
Another event venue that understands the need to make meeting and event practices more green is the Houston Astros AT&T Conference Center at Minute Maid Park. The Conference Center hosts hundreds of events and more than 1,500 groups and companies during each calendar year. The Conference Center provides meeting planners with menu options that source meats and produce from local Texas farms and ranches. Clients also use post-consumer recyclable or reusable service ware in all meal services. All waste generated in the Conference Center facility is monitored and evaluated.
Numerous other event facilities are taking part in this highly important trend to “go green.” Consider the effects of your meeting or event on the environment and take steps to reduce your environmental impact.
We Want to Hear From You!
We know that business meeting planners across the region are planning original and highly-successful events and we want to hear about them from you! Have you attended or created an event at a meeting facility lately? If so, we invite you to send us a 100-word description and your favorite event photo for possible inclusion in the next issue of Meetings and Events Houston. We want to showcase your talent and allow you to give praise to the meeting facility that helped make your work shine!
In this chapter you will find several tools that we hope will make planning meetings and events in the Houston region even more enjoyable. The first section of this chapter includes spotlight articles on several key facilities. You will find captivating features on Reliant Park, The House of Blues, The Health Museum, La Torretta Del Lago Resort & SpaTM and Courtyard St. James. We are also pleased to present an interview with Johnnie Ray Scroggins, General Manager of the Humble Civic Center.
Following the editorial pieces are floor plans and contact information for the city’s electrifying entertainment and private event facilities. We have also included detailed profile information on several partners that match our highly-selective criteria.
Wrapping up this chapter are comprehensive listings that offer information on meeting and event facilities across the Greater Houston Region. We have worked hard to ensure that these listings have been checked for errors and feel confident that the information is correct.
Spotlight On: Houston Meeting Facilities with a Commitment to “Go Green”
Going green is much easier than most meeting planners realize. There are several key questions that you can ask to ensure that your meeting or event is as environmentally friendly as possible:
- Do you recycle? Recycling of food scraps on a large scale is the new frontier, and the Houston region is leading the way. Organic waste generated at homes and restaurants is turned into compost. Ask the venue manager if they participate in food-scrap recycling– and encourage them to do so.
- Do you offer full-service audio/visual capabilities? Using new media and electronic technology to cut down on paper use is a simple way to make your meeting or event greener. Meeting planners should create a conference website, offer electronic registration and advertise using the web and e-mail, if possible.
- Does the facility offer recycling bins to meeting attendees? If not, offer your own clearly-labeled tubs for both recyclables and compost to ensure that meeting attendees know the appropriate place for paper, plastic and other materials. This is one of the simplest actions meeting planners can take to make a huge impact on the environment.
- Do you use environmentally-friendly cleaning products? Choose meeting facilities and event venues that use environmentally friendly cleaning products and encourage your post-event cleaning company to use biodegradable, non-toxic supplies.
- Are water fountains available at the property? One of the easiest ways to make meetings and conventions environmentally-friendly is to offer guests water in pitchers or water coolers rather than plastic bottles. To put the impact of this effortless idea into perspective, consider that the average convention attendance uses 90,000 bottles of water – that is a lot of trash!
Being kind to the environment is a trend that meeting facilities are taking very seriously. There are several meeting facilities and events venues in the Greater Houston Region that are taking extraordinary steps to minimize the environmental impact on the city and the world.
Toyota Center is committed to improving the quality of its’ facility in an effort to reduce its impact on the environment. This dynamic and highly coveted event space has had recycling measures in place for some time, which have made significant reductions in water-waste and energy emissions. Toyota Center has reduced electrical usage by more than 1.5 million kilowatt-hours over the last two years. Toyota Center has replaced all low-functioning lights with high-efficiency bulbs and made
modifications to the operation of event spaces that have cut down energy-use when spaces are not occupied.
Toyota Center has also announced plans to gain Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Building Certification. The certification recognizes new and existing facilities throughout the nation for being eco-friendly. According to the LEED website, this type of certification measures all aspects of a building, ranging from local access to public transportation, water/gas/electricity reductions, recycling efforts and even cleaning materials used for housekeeping and maintenance.
Another event venue that understands the need to make meeting and event practices more green is the Houston Astros AT&T Conference Center at Minute Maid Park. The Conference Center hosts hundreds of events and more than 1,500 groups and companies during each calendar year. The Conference Center provides meeting planners with menu options that source meats and produce from local Texas farms and ranches. Clients also use post-consumer recyclable or reusable service ware in all meal services. All waste generated in the Conference Center facility is monitored and evaluated.
Numerous other event facilities are taking part in this highly important trend to “go green.” Consider the effects of your meeting or event on the environment and take steps to reduce your environmental impact.
We Want to Hear From You!
We know that business meeting planners across the region are planning original and highly-successful events and we want to hear about them from you! Have you attended or created an event at a meeting facility lately? If so, we invite you to send us a 100-word description and your favorite event photo for possible inclusion in the next issue of Meetings and Events Houston. We want to showcase your talent and allow you to give praise to the meeting facility that helped make your work shine!
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If you have expertise in a particular area relevant to planning meetings and or events, you may submit a 400 to 750 word "how-to" article for possible inclusion in any of our magazines and/or our websites.
If accepted, your submission will be edited for length and clarity. There is no monetary payment if your item is used; instead, you can publicize yourself through a five-line biography with your contact information that will appear at the end of the article.
Send submissions to
editorial@MeetingPlannerResources.org. We will contact you if your submission is chosen.
If accepted, your submission will be edited for length and clarity. There is no monetary payment if your item is used; instead, you can publicize yourself through a five-line biography with your contact information that will appear at the end of the article.
Send submissions to
editorial@MeetingPlannerResources.org. We will contact you if your submission is chosen.