Plan Your Meetings

Watch for:

• A 500-room, $200 million Westin is planned for the Denver International Airport area.
• Travelers flying out of Denver can enroll in the Clear registered traveler program in the lobby of the Grand Hyatt Hotel. The program gives travelers who have had iris and fingerprint scans security cards that allow them to skip security lines in participating airports.
• The Brown Palace Hotel & Spa is undergoing an $8 million renovation of its guest rooms. Upgrades are scheduled for completion by the end of 2008. For the second consecutive year, The Robb Report named property one of the world’s “Ultimate City Escapes,” the only hotel in Colorado, and one of only 28 hotels in the United States and Canada, to receive this distinction.
• Properties that opened in 2007 include the 336-room boutique hotel The Curtis, which has pop culture-themed floors, and a 221-room Hilton Garden Inn.
• The Ritz-Carlton, Denver, opened in early 2008 with 202 rooms and 13,000 square feet of meeting space.
• The Holiday Inn Denver International Airport became a Crowne Plaza in spring 2008, after a $10-million renovation. Amenities include 80,000 square feet of meeting space, accommodating groups of fewer than 4,000 attendees.
• The Four Seasons Hotel Denver will open in winter 2009 with 230 rooms and 16,000 square feet of meeting space.
• In 2007, the Denver Museum of Art nearly doubled its size with the opening of its Daniel Libeskind-designed wing, and the new Museum of Contemporary Art facility opened. The Clyfford Still Museum will open in 2010.
• The Brown Palace Hotel and Spa joined the Associated Luxury Hotels International.

Want outdoor events?

The Denver Botanic Gardens is one of the top-ranked botanical gardens in the United States with a 23-acre downtown campus, a 750-acre wildlife and plant refuge in Littleton, an alpine trail and interpretive site on the Mount Evans Scenic Byway, and a five-acre formal garden downtown (Centennial Gardens). For events that rock, Red Rocks Amphitheatre is a 9,000-seat natural outdoor arena and picnic area carved into the mountainside that hosts major concerts and has a spectacular view of the city. The Denver Museum of Nature & Science has several event facilities including a 5,000-sq. ft. rooftop terrace with a telescope for viewing the night sky.

Want artful venues?

Famous actors, including Douglas Fairbanks, Sarah Bernhardt, Grace Kelly and Vincent Price, have performed at Denver’s oldest theater, the 115-year-old Center for American Theatre at Old Elitch Gardens. Denver has several art districts, including Cherry Creek North Fine Arts District, the Golden Triangle Museum District, Downtown/LoDo, the 37th and Navajo Arts District, the River North Art District, the Tennyson Street Cultural District, the Artdistrict on Santa Fe and the Broadway/S.E. Corridor. Consider creating a progressive event or art tour through several of them. The Denver Performing Arts Center is one of the largest in the world, with facility rentals available in some venues, including the recently opened Ellie Caulkins Opera House. Other new facilities include the Denver Art Museum’s Daniel Libeskind-designed Hamilton Building, and the Museum of Contemporary Art’s David Adjaye-designed building.

Want unusual transportation?

EagleRider Rentals & Tours offers guided Harley-Davidson motorcycle tours, as well as bike, watercraft, dirt bikes and snowmobile rentals. Grand Adventures gives snowmobile tours during winter months. Private groups can reserve train cars and enjoy catered events aboard the Ski Train, which departs Denver’s Union Station year-round, traveling 56 miles through the Flatirons, South Boulder Canyon and alpine wilderness to the Winter Park Resort, which also has conference space.

Want Western-themed programs?

Local guest ranches have conference facilities in addition to guest rodeos, chuckwagon meals and trail rides; the Colorado Dude & Guest Ranch Association holds members to strict standards of cleanliness, hospitality, facility operation and honest representation of services. The Black American West Museum celebrates the story of African-American cowboys. Arrange for a helicopter or shuttle to transport VIPs from downtown Denver to The Fort in Morrison, a replica of the first community west of the Mississippi with Native American music, courtyard function space and tours of 1840s-era Native American and settlers’ artifacts.

Want group dining?

Texas de Brazil Churrascaria is a colorful steakhouse where meats, salad and sushi are served tableside by costumed Brazilian gauchos, or cowboys. The Buckhorn Exchange, Denver’s oldest restaurant, is an eccentric steakhouse serving exotic meats such as elk, quail, alligator tail and rattlesnake; thousands of animal heads line the walls of the main dining room. Private dining is available in a covered and climate-controlled rooftop garden with entertainment provided by cowboy poets and folk singers. Dave & Buster’s has executive meeting rooms hidden among its billiard and arcade rooms as well as multiple bars and a fine-dining restaurant. Wynkoop Brewing Company, Colorado’s oldest brewpub, has banquet facilities for up to 800 people and a comedy theater. Mizuna can create four- and five-course custom menus for private events; Chef Frank Bonanno is considered one of the best in town. Mobil Four-Star winner Restaurant Kevin Taylor is another celebrity chef-run restaurant with private dining facilities. Fine dining also is available at Rioja, one of the city’s most celebrated restaurants.

Want to pamper attendees?

The Spa at Inverness ranks “Tops in Town” with the editors of 5280 magazine; the Inverness Hotel & Conference Center also has golf packages. The 1893 Brown Palace is the granddaddy of Denver’s luxury properties, with elegant banquet and meeting facilities, fine dining and a spa. Create a private breakfast, or serve attendees bedtime milk and cookies in the Magnolia’s Club Room.

Want sporty venues?

Elway’s, named for NFL Hall of Fame Inductee and former Denver Bronco quarterback John Elway, serves hand-cut steaks, fresh seafood and fine wines in Cherry Creek; a second location is in the Ritz-Carlton, Denver. Denver’s high-tech sports arenas were built with meetings and events in mind; use a private suite for a cocktail reception, hold a banquet overlooking the field, or end a tradeshow by treating attendees to VIP stadium seating.

Want to team-build?

The Inverness Golf Club can create golf tournaments followed by receptions or banquets. Impulse Management uses improv comedy skills to create and facilitate customized corporate workshops on such topics as dealing with change, improving communication, reducing stress, building collaborative work teams and spurring creativity. Denver Adventures creates customized trips for groups ranging from skiing, snowboarding and snowshoeing during winter months to warm-weather hiking, biking and packages incorporating outdoor meetings. Adventures Out West offers whitewater rafting, mountain biking, hot air balloon and customized jeep tours.

Want spousal programs?

Tour the Colorado Front Range Wine Trail, or visit the BookCliff Vineyard, which has a tasting room inside the Belvedere Belgian Chocolate shop. Denver History Tours focuses on Denver’s mountain towns, haunted houses, and mining and cowboy past as well as shopping and bar hopping. The Denver Performing Arts Complex offers 90-minute tours of the complex’s public art, behind-the-scenes action and architecture. LoDo Historical Walking Tours explore the city’s evolution from a gold-rush town to “Paris on the Platte.”

Want to meet in a place with history?

The Museo de las Américas focuses on the art, history and culture of Latinos in the Americas from ancient times to present day. The Byers-Evans House Museum is a landmark home built in 1883 within walking distance of the Colorado Convention Center and Civic Center Park. The Colorado Historical Society rents historic sites such as the Grant-Humphreys Mansion, the Bloom Gardens in Trinidad and the Colorado History Museum to groups for private functions.

Want to create a private party that sizzles?

Nightclubs in the SoCo district, such as The Church, Vinyl and Shelter, are available for private functions. Rise nightclub in LoDo is a South Beach-style nightclub with four dance floors and a 5,000-sq. ft. patio lounge.

Want kids’ programs?

Denver is one of the few cities with a downtown theme park. Elitch Gardens (formerly Six Flags Elitch Gardens) is close to hotels and the convention center; has more than 50 rides, shows and attractions; and is open from mid-May to Labor Day. The Denver Art Museum offers art-making and educational programs. The Denver Firefighters Museum creates private parties where they can try on firefighting gear, slide down poles and climb up on a child-sized fire engine (its historic 1909 Hall is available for adult banquets and receptions, too). The Byers-Evans House has an Afternoon into the Past program combining role-playing, costumes and hands-on activities with tours of the home. The Butterfly Pavilion & Insect Center has 1,600 butterflies, beautiful gardens and hands-on educational exhibits. Tiny Town is a kid-sized Western village with an authentic steam locomotive giving rides to adults and kids.