Palazzo Joins Las Vegas Sands' Meeting Trifecta

Last month's official opening of The Palazzo completed the Las Vegas Sands MegaCenter, with 2.25 million square feet of meeting space spread across The Palazzo, The Venetian hotel and the Sands Expo and Convention Center, all owned and operated by the Las Vegas Sands.

Dubbing these facilities the "MegaCenter" is a relatively new branding concept for the three buildings, created to correct the misconception that all the meeting space is located under one roof. Instead, the MegaCenter utilizes what it calls its "One Campus Concept": meeting facilities in one consolidated area, with the farthest from The Palazzo, the Sands Expo Center, roughly an eight-minute walk.

In addition to its 3,000 guest rooms, The Palazzo provides 272 meeting rooms, the smallest of which is 60 square feet. The largest is an 85,000-sq.-ft. pillar-free ballroom, capable of housing anywhere from 10 to 55,000 people.

Corporate meetings represent between 60 percent and 65 percent of The Palazzo's business, said Chandra Allison, executive director of sales for The Venetian and The Palazzo. During the past year, the sales staff has increased by seven in order to start selling The Palazzo's meeting space in advance of its opening.

"Our meeting space is pretty flexible and we have a lot of resources," Allison said of The Palazzo's plans to differentiate itself from Las Vegas' plethora of meeting space, adding that themed events and food and beverage service are hot-button demands among planners.

Technology also is a means through which The Palazzo hopes to compete. "Technology demands have become so intense, and it puts a lot of pressure on a building like ours," Allison said. "People already are asking what we're doing to upgrade our technology."

The MegaCenter's business center provides such amenities as fax services, computer workstations and office equipment rentals. Specialized event services include set up of audiovisual, electrical, Internet, custodial, telecommunications, rigging and light equipment.

Though the typical advance-booking window is 120 days, Allison said The Palazzo has the ability to book meetings in as short a timeframe as seven days. "We do a lot of short-term business," she said.

As such, negotiations are handled case by case, though it's advisable to avoid booking when large, annual Las Vegas trade shows like the Consumer Electronics Show are in town.

"For a long time, Vegas has had a reputation of not being flexible [with meetings]," according to Allison. "We may have the availability, but it just becomes a matter of supply and demand."