Guide to Meeting & Event Planning in

Los Angeles

Learn why you should host your next meeting, event or conference in Los Angeles, Calif.

by Ann Shepphird
October 9, 2023

Why Los Angeles for Your Next Meeting or Event?

As the long-time home of the entertainment industry, Los Angeles knows how to put on a show. From the glitz of downtown to the glamor of Hollywood, to the sunny shores of its beach cities, the region provides a variety of settings for memorable meetings and events. As it prepares to host the Summer Olympics in 2028, the City of Angels is enhancing its group appeal, with major upgrades to its transportation infrastructure and the addition of more than 5,000 new hotel rooms.

Home to some of the country’s top hospitals, health centers, biomedical, pharmaceutical and health-tech companies, and research and academic institutions, the city provides an ideal environment for medical meetings. In addition to offering connections to some of the world’s brightest minds in medicine, Los Angeles features a meetings infrastructure that includes the West Coast’s largest airport and a downtown core that includes the 5G-equipped Los Angeles Convention Center.

Bryan Churchill, SVP of Hotel and Destination Sales for Los Angeles Tourism & Convention Board, shares the latest about Los Angeles.


Additionally, creativity and innovation here is not just limited to the entertainment industry. It can also be found in the cluster of leading tech companies in the area known as Silicon Beach. Planners bringing tech meetings to the city will not only discover a deep knowledge base for speakers and sponsorship opportunities, but also a variety of full-service meeting facilities that range from beachfront hotels to the downtown convention center.

Work has begun on a $12 billion high-speed passenger-rail line between Las Vegas and the Los Angeles area, with officials projecting millions of ticket-buyers will be boarding trains by 2028. Brightline West, whose sister company already operates a fast train between Miami and Orlando, aims to lay 218 miles of new track between a terminal to be built just south of the Las Vegas Strip and another new facility in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif. 

Only in Los Angeles  

One of the reasons the early film industry chose Los Angeles as its base was the destination’s varied terrain of beaches, mountains and deserts. The city also offers plenty of diverse event spaces, which range from rooftop bars overlooking the beach, to studio sound stages in the valley, to the convention campus downtown. With iconic sites like the Hollywood Sign, Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Warner Bros. Studios and famed Mexican restaurant El Cholo celebrating their centennials this year, and a food scene that includes more than 200 Michelin-rated restaurants and 4,000 food trucks, it’s clear that Los Angeles really does offer something for everyone.

Transportation In & Around the Area

Los Angeles International Airport, 16 miles to the convention campus downtown; transfer by taxis, $46.50, plus $4 airport charge; Uber and Lyft, from $42; airport shuttles, $55 to $70

Travel Essentials

Taxes: Los Angeles County sales tax, 9.5%; occupancy tax, 14%; total tax on hotel rooms, 14%, plus 2% tourism marketing district assessment and California tourism fee, from $1

Convention Center: Los Angeles Convention Center; total space, 867,000; exhibit space, 720,000 square feet; meeting space, 147,000 square feet; meeting rooms, 64
 
CVB: MeetLA

    Los Angeles Regions

    Downtown

    In addition to its ever-expanding convention campus, downtown L.A. features world-class cultural offerings and abundant public transit options that give visitors easy access to other parts of the city.

    Hollywood

    The newly renovated Ovation Hollywood, home to the Academy Awards, is the center of a vibrant neighborhood with a total of 30 hotels and a variety of unique venues.

    The Valley

    Home to many of the top movie studios — including Universal, Warner Bros. and Disney — the expansive San Fernando Valley is home to more than 50 hotels, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Hollywood Burbank Airport.

    Westside

    Featuring some of L.A.'s most luxurious hotels with meeting space, the Westside also provides a variety of off-site options, from the hip arts district in Culver City to the UCLA campus in Westwood to museums such as the Getty Center, which offers 945,000 square feet of event space and spectacular views of the city.

    Beach Cities/LAX

    Waterfront venues from Malibu to Marina del Rey to the South Bay to San Pedro can be found along L.A.'s stunning coastline. The area also features ferry access to Catalina Island and the largest entry point to the region: Los Angeles International Airport.

    Meeting & Event Venues

    New & Coming Soon to Los Angeles

    • The beachfront, 175-room Sandbourne Santa Monica, debuted in the spring of 2024. The property will offer 10,000 square feet of event space and promises visitors “coastal luxury,” with an emphasis on design and artistic details. Amenities include a lounge, upscale pool and cabanas, indoor/outdoor fitness center and, arriving in 2025, an expansive wellness spa.

    • The Ranch at Laguna Beach has been recognized as California’s very first Ocean Friendly Hotel by the Surfrider Foundation. Helping earn it this distinction are the property's eco-friendly practices, including recycling glass bottles into sand for its golf course bunkers, irrigating with reclaimed water and more.

    • Opening February 2025, the 194-room AC Hotel by Marriott Pasadena, located in the Playhouse Village District, includes a rooftop bar and restaurant, with an expansive terrace offering impressive views of downtown Pasadena (ideal for outdoor receptions). It also offers seven event rooms, 11,494 square feet of total event space and high-tech meeting facilities ideal for a wide range of gatherings. 

    • At the end of February 2024, the L.A. City Council voted to pause the modernization of the Los Angeles Convention Center, in order to conduct a more thorough analysis of the financing. As proposed, the project would add the 700,000-square-foot New Hall building, connecting the existing South and West Halls over Pico Boulevard. A total of 193,000 square feet of new exhibit space would be built, along with 60,000 square feet of breakout rooms, an atrium entrance and lobby along Pico Boulevard, a 98,000-square-foot rooftop multipurpose hall, and a 10,000-square-foot outdoor event space with downtown views. In separate news, the convention center recently earned certification as a Certified Green Business under the esteemed California Green Business Network.

    • Holocaust Museum LA, the first survivor-founded and oldest Holocaust Museum in the United States, has announced plans to expand its current facilities in Pan Pacific Park. Slated for completion in 2025, the project includes a new Learning Center Pavilion, which will be located adjacent to the current building and feature 3,000 square feet of special exhibition space and a 200-seat theater. Other additions include a pavilion built on top of the existing museum that will house an authentic boxcar found outside the Majdanek death camp in Poland. The expanded museum will offer groups a more state-of-the-art cultural center and increased opportunities for corporate social responsibility programs.

    • The hotel inventory in Los Angeles is expanding, with more than 5,000 guest rooms added in the past 48 months alone. New hotels downtown include the dual-branded 347-room AC Hotel Downtown Los Angeles and 380-room Moxy Downtown Los Angeles; 241-room Hotel Per La, which offers 10,000 square feet of event space; and 300-room Conrad Los Angeles, which is part of a new Frank Gehry-designed multi-use project and LA Grand Hotel Downtown, near Walt Disney Concert Hall. In Century City, the 400-room Fairmont Century Plaza recently reopened following a $2.5 billion redevelopment project.

    Looking to Plan a Los Angeles Meeting?
    Learn everything you need to know about this beautiful locale at Destination California, Northstar’s premier event for meetings and incentive pros looking to book biz in the area.

    • The stunning Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills, featuring 119 deluxe rooms and 51 suites conceived by interior design legend Pierre-Yves Rochon, opened the new restaurant, Esplette. Featuring coastal Mediterranean flavors from Spain, Italy and Greece, the restaurant also offers a signature cocktail menu and space for groups.

    • Los Angeles Tourism officials have created a comprehensive safety and security plan for citywide conventions. Built on lessons learned from hosting Super Bowl in 2022, the plan maximizes available resources from the city’s tourism, law enforcement, fire, emergency, and transportation departments through the creation of a safety and security task force that is brought in during the event-planning process. A pre-con roll call includes members of the task force, plus security directors from contracted hotels and the convention center. During the event, specialized street patrols and traffic-control officers are deployed to create the safest environment possible for attendees.
     
    • Transportation options in Los Angeles continue to improve, starting at the place where most visitors arrive: Los Angeles International Airport. The airport's $15 billion modernization project includes major renovations to the terminals and a consolidated car-rental facility, which is expected to open this year. In 2024, a new Automated People Mover will connect the terminals to the car-rental facility and to public transportation, which is also expanding. The city's new Purple Line will connect downtown to the Westside areas of Beverly Hills, Century City and UCLA. Sections of the new line are expected to open this year, with a completion date set for 2025.
     
    • L.A.'s importance as a cultural hub has been enhanced by a wealth of new arts offerings, many of them featuring room for events. The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures opened in late 2021 with 50,000 square feet of gallery space, two theaters and indoor-outdoor event space that includes a rooftop with views of the Hollywood Hills. Ovation Hollywood is home to the Dolby Theater and Academy Awards. Later this year, Destination Crenshaw is scheduled to open along Crenshaw Boulevard in South Los Angeles as the largest public-private Black art program in the country, while at the University of Southern California, the George Lucas Museum of Narrative Art is on track for its scheduled opening in 2025.

    More Meeting & Event Venues

    • The area around the 5G-equipped Los Angeles Convention Center has grown into a full convention campus which includes hotels JW Marriott Los Angeles L.A. Live and The Ritz-Carlton, Los Angeles, and a variety of unique meeting venues at LA Live. Large groups can be accommodated at Xbox Plaza and the Microsoft Theater. Smaller events can be held at the Conga Room, The Novo, Lucky Strike, The Terrace and the Grammy Museum.
     
    • Just a few blocks out from the convention center, groups can gather at renovated historic buildings that include Union Station, which opened in 1939 and hosted the Oscars ceremony during the pandemic in 2021; City Market Social House; and Vibiana, which opened in 1876 as the city's first cathedral and has been used as full-service event space since 2006. Also available are many of the restored movie palaces on Broadway, including the theater at the Ace Hotel Downtown Los Angeles.
     
    • Rooftop event space can be found throughout the city, from downtown at the Hoxton Downtown LA and Downtown LA Proper Hotel, to Hollywood, at the new 220-room Godfrey Hotel Hollywood, to Venice Beach, at the Hotel Erwin, with many more available in between.

    Things to Do in Los Angeles

    • 

    • Incentive planners will find a variety of offerings in the Greater Los Angeles area, beginning with its line-up of luxury hotels. Properties range from seaside resorts in Palos Verdes and Marina del Rey to celebrity haunts in Bel Air and Beverly Hills to hip downtown digs. “Only in L.A.” experiences include VIP tickets to high-profile events like the Grammys and the Oscars, behind-the-scenes tours at movie studios, cruising the shops on Rodeo Drive or dining at celebrity chef-owned restaurants. L.A. is also home to Porsche Motors North America and its Porsche Experience Center Los Angeles. The 53-acre site features event space, exhibits and the ability to test drive the latest models or take a high-speed ride with a professional driver.

    • Celebrating 15 years of culture through cuisine, Dine LA Restaurant Week shines a spotlight on the Greater Los Angeles area’s status as one of the world’s leading culinary capitals. While the biannual program features special menus at more than 350 restaurants, groups meeting in Los Angeles can enjoy a wide variety of food-and-beverage experiences anytime. Planners will find everything from James Beard Award-winning restaurants to avant-garde experiences to multicultural street food at sites ranging from beach-side hotels to Hollywood rooftops to the convention campus downtown.

    • Groups can view the iconic Hollywood sign, located on Mount Lee in the Hollywood Hills, from rooftop sites throughout the city or by air via a helicopter tour. Those who want to get up close and personal can hike one of the trails  or take a horseback ride from nearby Griffith Park, home of the equally iconic Griffith Observatory, which opened in 1935.
     
    • On the other side of the hill in the San Fernando Valley, movie studios continue to be popular sites for tours and events. Two that welcome groups — Universal Studios Hollywood and Warner Bros. Studio Tour Hollywood — have added new offerings. Warner Bros. recently unveiled a completely reimagined Welcome Center, while the theme park at Universal Studios opened Super Nintendo World.
     
    • Fitting for a city about to host both the Olympics and the World Cup, Los Angeles is crazy about sports and its 10 professional teams. Groups can take in a game or hold an event at venues that include SoFi Stadium, home to the NFL's Rams and Chargers; Crypto.com Arena (formerly Staples Center), home to the NBA's Lakers and Clippers, WNBA's Sparks and NHL's Kings; and BMO Field, which opened in 2018 and is the home of the Angel City Football Club, the newest team in the National Women's Soccer League.
     
    • Planners looking to add a corporate social responsibility component to their meetings will find a number of opportunities that can be facilitated by Discover Los Angeles. These include L.A. Works, Skid Row Running Club, Feet First Events, Business Connect and LACC Donations.

    Tags