Irvine, California at a Glance
Location: Southern California on the Pacific coast
Access: John Wayne Airport, Long Beach Municipal Airport and Ontario International Airport; interstates 5 and 405
Hotel rooms: 4,996
Contact Info:
Destination Irvine
949-724-6956
destinationirvine.com
Segerstrom Shelby Event Center
Built: October 2021
Exhibit Space: The Grand Salon (7,000 square feet), outdoor patio (1,360 square feet), Thunderbird Suite (1,059 square feet), Cobra Suite (579 square feet) and conference room (650 square feet)
AV Irvine
Built: May 2017
Exhibit Space: The Showroom (8,500 square feet), The Gallery (8,000 square feet) and The Yard (4,000 square feet)
Meeting Hotels
Atrium Hotel
Guest Rooms: 208
Meeting Space: Seven event spaces; Garden Ballroom accommodates up to 400 guests
Courtyard Irvine Spectrum
Guest Rooms: 210
Meeting Space: Five event rooms, 7,890 square feet total event space
Hilton Irvine
Guest Rooms: 306
Meeting Space: Eight meeting rooms, 22,202 square feet total event space
Hyatt Regency Irvine
Guest Rooms: 516
Meeting Space: 24 event rooms, 56,000 square feet total event space
Irvine Marriott
Guest Rooms: 496
Meeting Space: 20 breakout rooms, 30,375 square feet total event space
Marriott Irvine Spectrum
Guest Rooms: 271
Meeting Space: Seven event rooms, 17,967 square feet total event space
Sonesta Irvine John Wayne Airport
Guest Rooms: 339
Meeting Space: 7,500 square feet total event space
Who’s Meeting in Irvine
California Community Choice Association Annual Conference
Attendees: 870
California Teachers Association Spring Conference
Attendees: 500
With near-perfect weather year-round, easy access to four airports, and close to 190,000 square feet of flexible meeting and event space, Irvine is an ideal hub for business and innovation. The city, which averages more than 280 sunny days a year, sits in the heart of Orange County, 45 miles south of Los Angeles and 90 miles north of San Diego, so bringing in attendees and speakers from various spots is a breeze. For delegates wanting to extend their trip, Irvine is within 30 minutes of family-friendly attractions like Disneyland, Laguna Beach and Newport Beach.
Destination Highlights
Misty Bond, executive director for Destination Irvine, notes that the city is headquarters to many Fortune 500 companies, making it an ideal choice for planners.
“It’s a MedTech and EV hub — like a mini Silicon Valley — which brings in a lot of corporate travelers,” she said. “When planners choose Irvine, there’s a great balance between business and leisure. It’s easy for them to get their attendees to us, and when meetings aren’t happening, there’s so much to do all around us — more than one-third of our 67 square miles is protected land, so it will always be a beautiful balance of nature and development.”
In addition to the four airports within an hour of the city, Irvine has various regional options including Amtrak and Pacific Surfliner stations for off-site day trips.
“It’s a great way to see all of Southern California,” Bond said. “From our station, you can take the train all the way down to San Diego for the day. You’re along the coastline the whole way, and it’s the most scenic, relaxing ride. We were just rated the second-best park system in the country, and for 19 years, we’ve been FBI-rated as one of the safest cities in America.”
Major Meeting Spaces
Irvine has 23 hotels and 4,996 rooms at various price points to meet any planner’s budget. And while it doesn’t have a dedicated convention center, many hotel properties offer plenty of flexible conference space, Bond noted.
“Our largest hotel, the 516-room Hyatt Regency Irvine, recently completed a $60 million renovation and has 56,000 square feet of space, so it can accommodate about 2,000 people,” she said.
The 485-room Irvine Marriott has 35 event rooms totaling just over 45,000 square feet of space with a capacity of 2,000 people in its grand ballroom.
“Also, the Irvine Marriott and Hyatt Regency are only about a mile from each other and are open to citywide buyouts,” Bond said. “And, as the DMO, Destination Irvine could assist with the cost of transporting groups between the two hotels.”
Some of the other Irvine hotels with meeting space include the 306-room Hilton Irvine, which has 25,274 square feet throughout nine rooms; the 208-room Atrium Hotel, which offers seven event spaces totaling 13,000 square feet, including a 400-guest ballroom; the 339-room Sonesta Irvine John Wayne Airport, with 7,500 square feet of meeting space in nine rooms; and the 210-room Courtyard Irvine Spectrum, which has 7,890 square feet of event space.
Distinctive Venues
Dotted throughout the city are many unique event spaces perfect for memorable off-site programs, dine-arounds or after-hours receptions.
The Segerstrom Shelby Event Center, which is also a museum, houses one of the finest collections of classic Mustangs in the world, plus décor that includes vintage gas pumps and neon signs. There’s more than 8,000 square feet of event space, an on-site kitchen and full A/V capabilities, as well as private suites for VIP events.
“It’s really a beautiful venue, and so you can have your event alongside and amongst all these amazing cars,” Bond said.
For sports-related events, groups can rent space at the University of California, Irvine, while wellness events can be hosted at the new 15-acre Bommer Canyon Preserve Cattle Camp facility.
“We just had an event there, which included a nature hike in the open space and a meditative healer who did a sound bath underneath the trees followed by a healthy lunch,” Bond said.
For small corporate gatherings of 12 to 120 people, Bond steers planners to one of her favorite restaurants, Solstice Seasonal Kitchen & Bar.
“They serve American fare and change their menu with the seasons,” she said. “Everything’s chosen according to what’s fresh and in season. They do buyouts for groups, and they have a private patio.”
After the Meeting
Irvine’s parks offer a wealth of options for team building and off-site programs.
“Our Great Park, located in the southern part of our city, is a huge sports complex that also has open space for picnics,” Bond said. “There’s a helium balloon participants can ride that goes up about 400 feet in the air for a gorgeous view of Orange County. On a clear day, you can see all the way out to the ocean from that balloon.”
Great Park is also home to Wild Rivers Waterpark, which is open from May through October. Great Park Live, an amphitheater, hosts weekend concerts and free family activities and is currently undergoing a huge expansion.
“Once it’s all done, we’re going to have the largest municipal park in the country,” Bond said. “They’re saying it’ll be bigger than Central Park in New York. The park will then be complete with museums, a new amphitheater and a gondola ride within the next couple of years.”
For thrill-seeking groups, K1 Speed Irvine provides an indoor go-kart track plus private meeting rooms with A/V hookups for corporate events. The space can accommodate groups ranging in size from eight to several hundred, and planners can choose from among several team-building programs, such as a pit crew challenge, indoor racing and relay events.
