Known for being the headquarters to Silicon Valley giants like Intel, Santa Clara event venues have adapted themselves to demanding meetings. A complement of quality hotels surround a convention center that is equipped with the latest technological capabilities and an attentive staff; and soon, the area will boast a brand-new NFL facility.
Mineta San Jose International Airport (SJC) is three miles from Santa Clara. The airport offers nonstop service to Atlanta, Austin, Boise, Boston, Burbank, Cabo San Lucas, Guadalajara, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Honolulu, Kona, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Ontario, Orange County, Maui, Minneapolis, New York, Palm Springs, Phoenix, Portland, Reno, Sacramento, Salt Lake City, San Diego and Seattle. New nonstop service to Tokyo, Japan will begin in early 2014.
Chief among convention venues is Santa Clara Convention Center, which has 302,000 square feet of space consisting of 31 breakout rooms, a 507-seat theater, 5,150 square feet of pre-function space, exhibit halls that include a 100,000-square-foot column-free room and three ballrooms - including the three-year-old 22,400-square-foot Mission City Ballroom, which can handle 2,700 for a meeting and a banquet for 1,250. Full-service catering is provided by ARAMARK. In addition, the city's North of Bayshore (north of Highway 101) area near the convention center is undergoing a transformation: in August 2014, a 68,500-seat stadium that will open as home to National Football League's San Francisco 49ers. The new facility will also host events such as college football, professional soccer and concerts. NFL Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Montana and his associates have exclusive “negotiating rights” to land in the area and hope to build a 4 or 5 Star hotel property.
Among hotel venues in Santa Clara are two with substantial guest room and meeting space numbers: The 501-room Hyatt Regency, which has 60,000 square feet of meeting space and the 759-room Marriott, Santa Clara, with 23,000 square feet of function space.
Santa Clara event venues with very different styles for off-site events include California's Great America theme park, which features the 12,000-square-foot Pavilion meeting facility and a number of indoor theaters and an outside amphitheater. Groups who use Triton Museum of Art are allowed to gather among its works of art or outside in a sculpture garden. And a group of up to 1,500 can hold an event on the grounds of the famously beautiful and bizarre Winchester Mystery House mansion.
Santa Clara's dining scene includes upscale restaurants like Parcel 104, where 95% of the produce served is local, and La Fontana, which serves California and Mediterranean Riviera-inspired dishes; medium prices eateries such as The Fish Market, a popular lunch spot with Silicon Valley businesspeople, and cheap and tasty fare like California favorite In & Out Burgers.
Other attractions in the Santa Clara area include from the free Intel Museum, where visitors learn how computer chips are designed. The city is also one of only 21 in the state to be home to a California mission, which is free to visit.
Photo by Wikimedia Commons Author : Coolcaesar
