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New York City, NY Event Planning

Key Highlights

Hotels 502
Total Sleeping Rooms 121,200
Committable Sleeping Rooms* 1,965
Committable Meeting Rooms* 100
Convention Center Space 864,000 Sq. Ft.
Largest Exhibit Space 1,000,000 Sq. Ft.
Largest Ballroom 158,000 Sq. Ft.
Average Hotel Room Rate USD $293
Average Daily Meal Cost USD $74
Average Weekly Car Rental USD $280
*Maximum for a single hotel
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New York City, NY Meeting Planning Overview

Welcome to Cvent's Meeting and Event Planning Guide to New York City - a city guide for meeting professionals. New York City—the name alone is enough to attract visitors from all over the world. In fact, more than 60 million people from the US and abroad traveled to New York City in 2016, many of them making the trip to attend the hundreds of major events the city hosts annually. With its extensive transportation network, plentiful hotel inventory and top-notch meeting hotels, along with its wealth of other meeting venues both traditional and nontraditional, New York City offers meeting planners a world-class destination with a robust infrastructure that can accommodate events of all sizes. The city's event resources have been growing in number in recent years, and they've been growing more and more diverse. That's fitting, as diversity has always been the key to NYC's allure for visitors—and its stature on the world stage.

Getting to New York City is easy: A hub for both domestic and international travel, the city is served by three airports—John F. Kennedy International, LaGuardia, and Newark Liberty International. Together, they offer competitively priced flights to around 130 million passengers a year. Within the city, there's always a way to get around. Public transit, which includes buses, ferries and one of the most extensive subway systems in the world, offers around-the-clock travel to just about every corner of the city's five boroughs—the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens and Staten Island.

There are more places to stay in New York City than ever before. The hotel inventory has surpassed 113,500 rooms and keeps growing, with a mix of new construction, state-of-the art renovation of historic spaces, large-scale meeting hotels and hip boutique hotels.

New York City possesses endless opportunities for attendees to get together outside the confines of a typical meeting room. Organizers can infuse conferences with authentic NYC flavor by hosting an event at the Bronx Zoo or the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, just two of the city's natural jewels; impress clients with views of the Manhattan skyline from the famous Rainbow Room atop 30 Rockefeller Center—the perfect backdrop for receptions of up to 300; transport guests back to the gateway of America with an event for up to 1,200 people at the historic Great Hall of the Ellis Island Immigration Museum; or celebrate a favorite local pastime by inviting a group to one of the plush suites at Yankee Stadium.

New York City knows how to do things big—and events are no exception. There are plenty of large-scale New York City venues, along with plenty of smaller options to complement them. Headlining the conventions scene is the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. Spanning six city blocks, the Javits Center ranks among the nation's 20 largest convention centers, boasting 840,000 gross square feet of exhibition space and 160,000 gross square feet of meeting space, with 102 meeting rooms in all. Equally impressive are the amenities, which include kitchens with a capacity to provide as many as 10,000 meals at once, Wi-Fi Internet access and plasma television screens for exhibitors. The city's new 7-train subway extension stops right at the Javits Center's doorstep, making it even more convenient for exhibitors and attendees alike. Adding to that, The New York Hilton Midtown, Sheraton New York Times Square Hotel, and NYC & Company have joined together to market a Midtown convention complex comprising these two properties. Called NY5000, it offers nearly 5,000 guest rooms, 100 meeting rooms, and a total of 225,000 square feet of meeting space. It also offers three outstanding restaurants and two complete fitness centers.

Other suitable spaces for large events include the famed Madison Square Garden, home of the New York Knicks and host to top musical acts, sporting events and family shows throughout the year. From its 20,000-square-foot arena to its 9,500-square-foot Garden Terrace to its assortment of smaller spaces, the Garden can accommodate just about any kind of event, whether it's a black-tie gala or an intimate awards dinner. Large organizations can also invite guests to the majestic Radio City Music Hall. Its city-block-long marquee, grand art-deco auditorium and shimmering gold curtain—the largest in the world—will set the stage for a night of luxury for up to 5,900 guests.

The finance, insurance, real estate and media industries form the very heart of the city's own economy. Over 50 Fortune 500 companies are headquartered in NYC, along with the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq. These companies draw from the city's network of prestigious post-secondary institutions, including the public City University of New York and such private schools as Columbia University, Cooper Union and New York University.

View the other pages in this guide for more information about event and meeting planning in New York City.

New York City, NY Awards

New York City, NY Area Destinations

Brooklyn, NY Brooklyn, NY Staten Island, NY Staten Island, NY LaGuardia Airport, NY LaGuardia Airport, NY

About New York City, NY / Additional Info

It's been more than 400 years since Henry Hudson first explored the area's waterways and islands for the Dutch, who proceeded to set up a small settlement on the tip of the island of Manhattan in the 1620s. The Dutch began to trade furs with the Lenape tribe, who had inhabited the region for thousands of years. Over time, the settlement grew, control fell to the British (spurring a change of name from New Amsterdam to New York), and new towns sprang up in what are now the boroughs of Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and Staten Island. The development of the Erie Canal in the 1820s, connecting the Midwest to the East Coast and the world beyond, transformed New York into the nation's preeminent city for commerce and trade. In the first decades of the 20th century, the city prospered, as millions of immigrants settled in the five boroughs of "greater New York," and its iconic skyline of granite and steel rose from the bedrock.

More recently, New York City has undergone a renaissance, fueled by a new influx of immigrants, particularly from Asia and Latin America, and by the high-tech revolution that consolidated the city's role as a center for international finance and digital industries. That postindustrial revival can be seen in Brooklyn's emergence as a world-famous cultural touchstone; in Queens' emergence as the most diverse county in the nation; and in the renewal of downtown Manhattan, where a once-forlorn stretch of waterfront warehouses has become the booming High Line district, anchored by the new Whitney Museum of American Art, and where the One World Observatory and National September 11 Memorial & Museum fulfill the city's promise to rebuild the World Trade Center site.

Thanks to New York City's long-standing role as an entry point for immigrants, the city is a living embodiment of America's "melting pot" culture. Of New York's 8.4 million residents, more than 3 million (roughly 37 percent) are foreign-born. And they've come from nearly every country on the map. Exploring this rich cultural mosaic is as easy as stepping right outside the door. Over 200 languages are spoken on the streets of New York City, and each of its five boroughs boasts its own distinctive history and culture, along with its own network of neighborhoods and ethnic and national enclaves.

A visit to the Museum of Chinese in America sets the stage for a visit to any (or all) of the city's three major Chinatowns: Flushing in Queens, Sunset Park in Brooklyn and Lower Manhattan's original and ever-expanding Chinatown. Also, visitors can sample authentic Italian fare in Manhattan's Little Italy along Mulberry Street, along Arthur Avenue in the Bronx or all throughout Staten Island, which has the highest percentage of Italian Americans of any county in the US. Brooklyn's large Caribbean community, centered in Flatbush, throws an annual Labor Day carnival with a parade that draws millions of spectators to Eastern Parkway, while the Polish enclave of Greenpoint has become a go-to spot for pierogi, kielbasa, and old-country comfort foods.

The cityscape of NYC is as diverse as its people. From the Gothic Revival Woolworth Building to the art deco Chrysler Building to the high modernist Seagram Building to the postmodern confections along the High Line, New York City serves up a melange of architectural styles, not to mention a living history of the skyscraper. A recent super-high-rise building boom has raised the city's count of 1,000-plus-foot skyscrapers to seven (with at least 20 more either under construction or proposed), more than any other city in the U.S.

Back down on the ground, the city has abundant parkland—with nearly 30,000 acres under the Parks Department—and 14 miles of public beaches, which adds up to plenty of room for outdoor enthusiasts to explore (14% of the City’s land). No trip to New York City would be complete without a stroll through Central Park; visitors can ride the historic carousel or take a gondola ride on the lake. In winter, there's outdoor ice-skating in Brooklyn's Prospect Park at LeFrak Center at Lakeside. At The New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx, the largest such garden in any city in the United States, visitors can enjoy the orchids in the Victorian-era greenhouse, the tulips and daffodils and seasonal delights of the sprawling outdoor gardens, and the 50-acre old-growth forest, a taste of the vast woodlands that once covered the city. Also in the Bronx, Wave Hill is a more intimate garden set on the grounds of a historic estate overlooking the Hudson River and the Palisades.

And then there are New York City's attractions—the city's storied museums, famed entertainment, multiple sports teams and expansive nightlife. On any given evening, groups could see the finest in ballet, opera, and classical music at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts; or a show on Broadway (or Off-Broadway). During the day, they could explore 2 million works of art, from Egyptian to European, at The Metropolitan Museum of Art; the world-class modern art at MoMA; or the Brooklyn Children's Museum's kid-friendly exhibits, which have been delighting families for over 100 years. One World Observatory has recently claimed honors as the city's highest viewing spot, but the Empire State Building and Top of the Rock observatories remain iconic must-see experiences. New York City's attractions and cultural life are like New Yorkers themselves—dizzyingly diverse, always welcoming of visitors, and without a doubt, beyond compare.

 
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