Showcase Destinations Washington, D.C.: Capital Events

It has the pomp of a British monarch’s coronation in London and the gravity of a papal address in Rome. It combines the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City with the May Day Parade in Moscow’s Red Square. Add some Parisian haute couture, Hollywood Oscar-night festivities and a dose of Tehran-like slogan-shouting crowds. These ingredients make up a U.S. presidential inauguration, such as the one Washington, D.C., saw this January. In a city that is the world’s stage, this quadrennial event is the one time the city itself becomes the cultural center of the universe.
That points to Washington’s unique status among the world’s capitals. Whereas other capitals are social and commercial icons of their respective lands, in its own country Washington has always played third or fourth fiddle to, at varying times, New York, Philadelphia, Chicago and Los Angeles. This seems strange for a city with landmarks that appear on televisions around the world every day. The city’s tourism industry thrives on those landmarks and monuments, but otherwise the city’s identity has been defined by the times: from the consternation of the 1960s through to the partisan bickering of today.

“I have felt that Washington can sometimes get a bad rep because of what is happening on Capitol Hill,” said Jennifer Collins, CMP, president of The Event Planning Group in Laurel, Md. Collins came to Washington from Boston 15 years ago to attend American University and become a lawyer. The city waylaid her in two ways: looking around her she saw she didn’t want to become a lawyer, but she did want to stay in Washington. “It stole my heart. When I came to Washington, I fell in love with the culture.”

Culture? In Washington? This from a Boston native? But she’s right; the District of Columbia has culture aplenty, and you don’t have to wait for every fourth January to experience it.

THE MALL
The National Mall—anchored on either end by the U.S. Capitol and the Washington Monument—is the centerpiece of Washington tourism and has no fewer than 15 museums, galleries and gardens. Where else can you see, in one day and all at no cost, the actual Star-Spangled Banner and Julia Child’s kitchen, the Hope Diamond and an 87-foot-long Diplodocus longus dinosaur, the Declaration of Independence and the Magna Carta, works of art by Michelangelo and Andy Warhol, and the aircrafts that lifted the Wright Brothers off the ground for the first time and set Neil Armstrong on the moon?

You cannot over-hype the city’s hist-orical treasures. When the Washington Monument reopens this year, it will again offer one of the world’s most famous views: the White House, the Lincoln Memorial, the Jefferson Memorial, the Smithsonian Castle and the Capitol. (In the meantime, you can get a similar view while eating dinner on the roof of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.) The many monuments here—such as the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, the National World War II Memorial, the Korean War Veterans Memorial, the Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial Wall and the Titanic Memorial—will touch, sadden, inspire and intrigue you.

For first-timers and jaded residents alike, these places still stir passion.

“Just traveling around the Tidal Basin, I get a rush,” Collins said. “This is what people aspire to see and I’m blessed to be able to experience it, to walk in it, live in it, work in it and be a part of it. I don’t have to just see it on TV; I can go to it and actually hold an event in it.”

Many of the city’s museums and galleries are available for groups, provid-ing unique environments such as schools of exotic fish at the National Aquarium, fleets of historic planes in the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, the grand transepts of the National Cathedral and cases of real and fantastical espionage gadgetry in the International Spy Museum. Even the Capitol and its ancillary buildings are available for group meetings, meals and receptions.
“The only caveat is you have to have a member of Congress sponsor you,” Collins said. But that is not too hard to do, as long as the event has a topical connection to the senator or representative, she says.

DUES TOWN
“You’re in the epicenter of power when you come to Washington,” Collins said. “This is where change happens.”
Being a world power center, Washington has a palpable aura. History happened anywhere you go in this town. You can stand on the exact spot where Martin Luther King Jr. uttered the most famous speech of the 20th century. You might have a reception in a venue where President Abraham Lincoln awaited his inauguration in secret (Willard InterContinental), a conference where President Ronald Reagan was shot (the Hilton Washington) or a dinner where President Richard Nixon’s downfall began (the Watergate Hotel). Yes, scandals are part of history and integral to Washington, and tours are available to show people the more sordid national landmarks.

Being an issues town, Washington has established a cottage industry for special interests. The District of Columbia and the surrounding Maryland and Virginia suburbs have been called “dues town” because of the many association, guild and society headquarters residing here.  Not only do these organizations host meetings of their own constituencies, their premises can provide uniquely topical meeting venues for other groups. One of the city’s newest additions is the Marian Koshland Science Museum of the National Academy of Sciences, which opened last year. Not only is the academy a prestigious institution known the world over, but it also has a great hall, conference rooms and views opposite the U.S. State Department.

Speaking of the State Department, Washington draws another kind of power-seeking people: diplomats. A drive through some of the neighborhoods along Massachusetts Avenue is akin to taking a drive around the world in 80 minutes. This is Embassy Row, where many of the world’s ambassadors either work or live. Tours of some of these embassies and ambassador residences are available, and some provide meeting and reception spaces to the general public. Furthermore, any ambassadorial property may serve as a venue for groups or topics with some connection to that ambassador’s homeland.    

Embassy Row borders on historic Georgetown, a town that predates Washington and used to be a community of African-Americans and abolitionists facilitating the Underground Railroad when slavery was still legal in the District. Today, Georgetown is that rare comb-ination of upper-crust social center, shopping mecca and vibrant college town with townhouse mansions, boutique and antique retailers and hip nightlife. This is where America’s Hollywood royalty, media and political stars and their famous children come to play.

Except for Georgetown, Washington
is an artificial city in the sense that it did not grow naturally out of the ebb and flow of geography or transportation lanes but was deliberately placed at the center of the original 13 states. The local African-American community is most responsible for any homegrown culture, including U Street, which in the days of segregation was known as “Black Broadway” for all the great jazz stars associated with the area, such as Duke Ellington, who lived here. Today it is a center for jazz clubs and trendy dining including another of Washington’s internationally known landmarks, Ben’s Chili Bowl.

Otherwise, much of Washington’s culture is imported. Restaurants of every imaginable cuisine obtain any number of stars and diamonds here. Clubs and galleries play live music of every genre. More proof that the District is hip: a Washington radio station was the first in the United States to play a Beatles record, prompting the Fab Four to play their first U.S. concert in the city. Washington’s theater district is equal to Chicago’s, showcasing modern plays and dance as well as U.S. masterpieces and English-language classics. Shakespeare has many theaters in Washington devoted to his works, and the Folger Library—just around the corner from the Library of Congress—is the world center of Shakespearean scholarship. 

Imagine: original copies of William Shakespeare’s First Folio and original drafts of the Gettysburg Address—the most famous speech of the 19th century

—just a block from each other at venues that are free to the public. That’s the nation’s capital, a worldly city.  TMP

ERIC MINTON is a freelance writer based in Alexandria, Va.

Washington, D.C. By the Numbers

Rooms: 27,000
Meeting Facilities: Washington Convention Center (2.3 million square feet); Wardman Park Marriott (173,000 square feet); Hilton Washington (110,000 square feet); Omni Shore-ham Hotel (100,000 square feet); Renaissance Washington, D.C. Hotel (64,000 square feet); Grand Hyatt Washington (40,000 square feet); Hyatt Regency Washington, D.C. (38,000 square feet); JW Marriott Hotel Pennsylvania Avenue (37,000 square feet); Renaissance Mayflower Hotel (35,000 square feet); Capital Hilton (31,000 square feet); Fairmont Washington, D.C. (28,800 square feet); Loews L’Enfant Plaza Hotel (21,000 square feet); The Ritz-Carlton, Washington, D.C. (20,300 square feet); Mandarin Oriental Washington, D.C. (20,000 square feet); Willard Inter-Continental Washington (19,900 square feet); Capitol View Conference Center (19,000 square feet); Park Hyatt Washington (18,700 square feet); Washington Court Hotel (18,000 square feet); Hotel Washington (17,500 square feet); Gallaudet University Kellogg Conference Center (17,000 square feet); Wyndham Washington, D.C. (16,750 square
feet); Wyndham City Center (14,000 square feet); Georgetown University Conference Hotel (13,000 square
feet); Four Seasons Hotel Washington, D.C. (12,500 square feet); St. Regis, Washington, D.C. (12,300 square feet); Washington Marriott (12,000 square feet); Washington Plaza (12,000 square feet); Marriott At Metro Center (10,400 square feet); Holiday Inn Capitol (10,000 square feet); The Watergate Hotel (10,000 square feet); Holiday Inn On The Hill (10,000 square feet); Four Points Sheraton Washing-ton, D.C. (9,400 square feet); The Madison (9,000 square feet); Jurys Washington Hotel (7,600 square feet); Hotel Monaco Washington, D.C. (7,000 square feet); Radisson Hotel Washington, D.C. (7,000 square
feet); The Hamilton Crowne Plaza Washington, D.C. (6,750 square feet); Washington Terrace Hotel (6,700 square feet); Hilton Washington Embassy Row (6,650 square feet); Hay-Adams Hotel (6,000 square feet)

Getting Started

Washington, D.C., Convention and Tourism Corp.
www.washington.org

Your MPI Connection in
Washington, D.C.

MPI Potomac Chapter
Melissa R. Benowitz, CMP
(301) 948-4600
www.pmpi.org

What’s New in Washington, D.C.

• Gaylord Hotels will open the largest hotel and convention center
complex in Washington, D.C., in March 2008. The Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center on the Potomac will feature 400,000 square feet of exhibition and meeting space and 1,500 guest rooms.
• The Hyatt Regency Washington on Capitol Hill completed a $13
million renovation in late 2004.
• A guest room renovation was recently completed at the Landsdowne Resort as part of a $45 million propertywide enhancement program that also includes a multipool water complex with an 8,000-square-foot event patio, completed this month. A Greg Norman-designed golf course will open this summer along with a 4,200-square-foot ballroom.
A 12,000-square-foot spa addition is scheduled to open in 2006.
• The Residence Inn Pentagon City completed a $2 million renovation last year.
• The 20,000 square feet of meeting space at the Willard InterCon-
tinental received a $1.2 million renovation last year.

Out With the Old, In With the New

An explosion in December brought down the old Washington Convention Center, representing, as it did, the city’s coming of age in the 21st century. The center opened in 1983 with 800,000 square feet of total meeting space.

Before razing the old center, the city opened the new Washington Convention Center in 2003. The largest edifice in the District, the new building has 2.3 million square feet of total space, including a 52,000-square-foot ballroom that is one of the largest on the United States’ East Coast and the only one with views of the Washington skyline. Being a new Washington institution, the center also has the latest in audiovisual technology and a $4 million art collection.

The new center—combined with the city’s underground metro rail system (the convention center has its own station), a wide variety of restaurants and available offsite venues—lifts Washington into a top-tier meetings destination. The only thing lacking is a major hotel attached to the center itself, and that’s something the Washington Convention Center Auth-ority’s board of directors is now pursuing. The headquarters hotel will have at least 1,200 rooms and another 100,000 square feet of meeting and ballroom space. A site next to the convention center has been targeted, but no construction timetable has been set.