Why use a bureau?

WE’LL DO A LOT OF YOUR WORK – FOR FREE

VISIT DENVER has 60 full time professionals to help you find the perfect hotels, meeting facilities, restaurants and convention service firms – and all our services are free!

• VISIT DENVER ranks as one of the Most Helpful Convention Bureau in the United States in the 2010 Metropoll study of meeting planners.
• VISIT DENVER won all four major convention industry service awards for the past 18 years.
• VISIT DENVER can provide you with brochures, maps, videos, photos, b-roll video, web banners, email newsletters and more to help boost attendance.

Central location

Denver is just 340 miles from the exact center of the Continental United States – closer to the center of the nation than any other city our size. In addition to easy air access, Denver is at the intersection of two major Interstate highways, has four AMTRAK passenger trains daily and is a major hub for interstate motorcoach travel.

Denver International Airport

• Fifth busiest airport in the nation
• 10th busiest airport in the world
• Non-stop service to more than 160 worldwide destinations, including 19 international cities
• Nearly 1,700 daily flights
• Denver’s 2010 average fare of $294 is $47 less than the national average and the 82nd least expensive average airfare in the nation
• DIA is a hub for three airlines – United, Southwest and Frontier.
• More Info: www.flydenver.com

TRANSPORTATION TO AND FROM DIA

Location: 23 miles from Downtown Denver
Travel Time: Typically 30-40 minutes

Colorado Convention Center

• 584,000 square feet of contiguous exhibit space
• Mile High Ballroom – 50,000 square feet
• Four Seasons Ballroom – 35,000 square feet
• 63 meeting rooms
• Bellco Theatre – auditorium-style fixed seating for 5,000 people
• Located in the heart of Downtown Denver

Convention Services

At VISIT DENVER, we pride ourselves on the level of service that we provide. Our Bureau has won all of the convention industry’s top service awards for the past 18 years, including Successful Meeting’s Pinnacle Award; Meeting & Convention Magazine’s Gold Service Award; Corporate & Incentive Travel Magazine’s Award of Excellence and Facilities Magazine’s Top Destination Award.

Pre and Post

A Little Business, A Little Pleasure: One out of three meeting attendees in Denver take a pre- or post convention vacation – one reason why the city routinely breaks attendance records. Denver is the gateway to pre- and post-meeting adventure in the Colorado Rocky Mountains. In a little more than an hour, you can hike or fly fish in Rocky Mountain National Park; climb the world’s highest railroad to the top of Pikes Peak; play poker, Black Jack and roulette in Old West mountain mining towns; go river rafting down spectacular Clear Creek Canyon or just relax in luxury at a variety of international ski and summer resorts like Vail, Breckenridge, Winter Park, Copper Mountain, Beaver Creek, Keystone and the Broadmoor.

Learn more about Pre/Post opportunities

Cost

Upscale and Affordable: Denver is the 21st largest city in the U.S. in terms of metro area population and ranks about the same in national cost studies. The city has more than 2,000 restaurants (300 within walking distance of the Colorado Convention Center). According to the 2010 Corporate Travel Index, Denver is a bargain, ranking 69th out of the top 100 cities in food costs, less expensive than all major cities.

Safety

Feel at Ease: Denver’s downtown is a European-like center city that is filled with a mile-long pedestrian promenade, tree-lined streets, flower gardens, parks and outdoor cafes. More than 60,000 people live downtown in a 1.5 mile circle, mostly in lofts that are located above restaurants and shops or in nearby neighborhoods like Uptown, LoDo, RiNo, Riverfront and Highlands. The residents give downtown Denver a 24-hour atmosphere; there are always people on the streets in the areas between the convention center, restaurants and downtown hotels.

Mile High Shopping & Dining

Shop ’til you Drop: Denver is the largest shopping center in a thousand kilometer radius with everything from Nordstrom’s and Neiman Marcus to one of the nation’s largest independent bookstores – the Tattered Cover. The Cherry Creek Shopping District, just three miles from downtown, has nearly 500 department stores, art galleries, shops and boutiques, all in a deluxe ultra upscale mall or on quiet tree-lined streets. The 16th Street Mall is a pedestrian promenade lined with 50,000 flowers that runs for more than a mile through the heart of downtown Denver. Shopping, dining and entertainment can be found everywhere you turn. If you’re planning outdoor adventures, you’ll find a vast array of sporting goods stores here, including an REI Flagship Store complete with its own river running chute to test drive a kayak.

Denver Dining: Denver has 2,000 restaurants (300 downtown within walking distance of the Colorado Convention Center) serving all varieties of cuisine. Area specialties include Southwestern dishes, buffalo, Colorado beef and lamb and fresh produce such as succulent Palisade peaches and Rocky Ford cantaloupes. The city is gaining a reputation for its innovative collection of farm-to-table, chef-owned restaurants.

Enjoy a Tall, Frosty One: Denver brews more beer than any other city with 100 different beers brewed in town daily and at the Coors Brewing Company – the largest single brewing site on earth. The world’s largest beer festival is held every September, the Great American Beer Festival, with a Guinness World Record 2,400 different beers available for tasting in 2010.

Arts & Culture

Cultural Delights: The Denver Performing Arts Complex is the second largest in the nation with 10 venues seating 10,000 for opera, theatre, symphony and ballet.

In Denver, You Are Never Far from Nature: Denver has the nation’s largest city park system and the fourth largest museum – the massive Denver Museum of Nature & Science. The Denver Zoo is building a $130 million Asian Tropics exhibit featuring the world's largest bull elephant habitat, while the Denver Botanic Gardens is regarded as one of the finest in the nation.

Mile High Art: The Denver Art Museum doubled in size with a new building designed by world renowned architect Daniel Libeskind. The amazing titanium structure was complemented in 2007 with the opening of the new Museum of Contemporary Art, designed by David Adjaye and in 2011, Denver will open a third new art museum devoted to the works of American Impressionist Clyfford Still.

Mile High Sports Capital

A Sports Fan’s Dream City: Denver is one of only two cities to offer seven professional sports teams and built six new stadiums in the last decade to house them! The four new stadiums are: the 50,000-seat Coors Field, home of Major League Baseball’s Colorado Rockies; the 20,000-seat Pepsi Center, home of the NBA’s Denver Nuggets, the NHL’s Colorado Avalanche, and the NLL's Colorado Mammoth (indoor lacrosse); the 76,000-seat INVESCO Field, where the NFL’s Denver Broncos and the MLL's Denver Outlaws (outdoor lacrosse) play; and finally, the largest soccer complex in the world, the 20,000-seat Dick’s Sporting Goods Park, home to Major League Soccer’s Colorado Rapids.

Hit the Links: Denver has 90 golf courses that remain open all-year long and have been played as often as 30 days in January.

A Two-Wheel Town: Denver boasts 850 miles of bike trails, all part of the largest city park system in the nation. In 2010, Denver launched the nation’s first major bicycle sharing program, B-cycle, with 500 shiny red bikes available for sharing at 50 stations.

Denver Day Trips

Wide Open Spaces: Half of Colorado is public land open to all forms of recreation in more than two dozen national parks, monuments and forests.

The Incomparable Rocky Mountain National Park: 412 square miles of waterfalls, lakes and high mountain valleys lie just 70 miles from Denver.

Test Your Luck: The old gold mining towns of Central City and Black Hawk, located just 34 mile west of Denver, have come alive in recent years thanks to casino gambling and Wild West charm. In 2009, betting limits were raised to $100, roulette and craps were introduced, and casinos were permitted to remain open 24 hours.

The Best Skiing in the World: Denver owns its own ski area – Winter Park Resort, boasting 350 inches of annual snowfall. Many of Colorado’s top ski resorts including Vail, Keystone, Breckenridge, Beaver Creek, Copper Mountain and Winter Park, are just a little more than an hour from Denver.

Natural and Manmade Wonders: Garden of the Gods is an unusual geologic formation of brilliant red rocks, located at the base of Pikes Peak an hour from Denver. Royal Gorge, the world’s highest suspension bridge, is two hours from the city. You can walk or drive cross the bridge, descend to the bottom of the canyon on the world’s steepest incline railroad, take a train through the canyon, or ride down the rapids in a rubber raft.

Road Trip Through the Clouds: Mountain goats are a common sight on the Mount Evans Highway, which climbs to 14,260 feet above sea level, making it the highest paved road in North America.

Weather

Mild, Sunny and Mile High: While the Rocky Mountains are still snowcapped, Denver enjoys an early spring with delightfully warm, sunny days. More than 50,000 flowers are planted on the 16th Street Mall each spring. Dress in layers so that as the sun warms up, you can remove layers and stay comfortable. In summer, Denver offers natural air conditioning – a perfect combination of warm, sunny days followed by cool evenings where a light jacket or sweater is often welcome. Autumn can arrive early in the high country and the colorful turning of the aspen trees occurs in the mountains from mid-September to mid-October. Denver receives more hours of annual sunshine than San Diego or Miami Beach, so winter days in Denver are bright, sunny and surprisingly mild. In February, average daily highs are 45 degrees – warmer than New York, Chicago, Philadelphia or St. Louis.

Downtown Hotel Package

Easy Access: Downtown Denver is home to 8,400 rooms within short walking distance of the Colorado Convention Center, including an adjacent 1,100-room Hyatt Regency, the 1,200-room Sheraton Denver Downtown Hotel, the 615-room Marriott City Center, the 511-room Grand Hyatt and the 430-room Westin Tabor Center.

Unique Boutiques: Downtown also boasts upscale boutique hotels like the Five Diamond Ritz-Carlton Denver, Four Seasons Denver, Brown Palace Hotel & Spa, Hotel Teatro, Hotel Monaco, The Curtis Hotel, The Oxford Hotel and the Warwick Denver Hotel.

Low-Cost Convenience: There are a number of convenient and affordable downtown chain hotels such as the Comfort Inn, Courtyard by Marriott, Embassy Suites Denver-Colorado Convention Center, Hampton Inn & Suites, Hilton Garden Inn, Magnolia and Residence Inn.

Metro Hotel Package

Plenty of Rooms: Metro Denver has 42,000 first class hotel rooms in the area, conveniently linked to downtown by efficient highways and light rail – just one reason why Denver beat out 26 other cities to host the 2008 Democratic National Convention. There are more than a dozen hotels in the Denver Tech Center led by the 628-room Denver Marriott Tech Center, all with easy-to-use light rail service to downtown.

Luxurious Resorts: Conveniently located just 15 minutes from Boulder and Denver, the Westin Westminster offers 369 luxury rooms with mountain or park views. The Omni Interlocken Resort has 390 rooms, a spa and 4-star golf course, while the Inverness Hotel and Conference Center has 302 rooms and a championship golf course.