Smart Meetings

Its lovingly preserved Native American, Old West and Hispanic architecture adds to an allure that’s almost tangible.  Yet it has a growing arts and entertainment scene that gives the state a dynamic, contemporary edge. This intriguing contrast is part of New Mexico’s appeal for visitors, and also for meeting professionals who want to give their attendees a taste of the old West along with the new.

A LITTLE HISTORY
Approximately 1,000 years ago, Pueblo Indians built one of America’s first great metropolises at what is now Chaco Culture National Historic Park in northern New Mexico. New Mexico later became a Spanish territory, then a Mexican one, before coming under U.S. control in 1846—at which point the native New Mexicans promptly staged an abortive uprising and killed the first civil governor. Surprisingly, it was also a Civil War battleground and later became infamous as the place where Pat Garrett shot Billy the Kid, an event immortalized in popular culture.
The state’s colorful present matches this colorful past. It’s where nearly 800,000 people crowd Albuquerque to watch the launch of more than 1,000 resplendent hot-air balloons each summer. A state where devotees from all over the globe come for the Santa Fe Opera, which performs in summer at a breathtakingly open-to-the-elements adobe amphitheater. And a state where today’s tribes have electrified nightlife with casino gaming and top-notch entertainers in Albuquerque, Ruidoso, Santa Fe and Taos.
New Mexico became a state in 1912, and since that time it has become one of the nation’s best-known arts destinations, including the 52-mile Turquoise Trail Scenic Byway, connecting Santa Fe with Albuquerque and Santa Fe’s hilly Canyon Road, an area that resonates with more than 100 galleries, studios, shops and restaurants set amid or inside the city's old adobe buildings.

ALBUQUERQUE
Albuquerque, with its population of 505,000, is not only New Mexico’s largest city but also one of the fastest-growing. It has both a Western funkiness and a cosmopolitan sophistication. The former comes from the fact that fabled Historic Route 66 rolled right through the center of town, on Central Avenue. Today, the 18-mile corridor still is home to surviving motels and diners that attract nostalgia buffs, but it’s also a vibrant street with cutting-edge boutiques, lodging and dining in the Nob Hill shopping district.
The city is renowned, as well, for its art museums and galleries—not to mention its 310 days of sunshine and brilliant turquoise-blue skies. Each August, it’s the scene of an annual hot-air balloon festival, a colorful extravaganza that’s the largest of its kind in  the world.
Established in 1706, Albuquerque maintains connections to its Native American and Hispanic heritages through such museums as the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center and the National Hispanic Cultural Center, the only museum of its kind in the country. Its historic Old Town, with abode buildings and colonial-era houses, is its spiritual heart, anchored by the twin-spired San Felipe de Neri church. Today galleries, artists’ studios and shops fill the nearby 300-year-old buildings, inviting strollers and shoppers.
Albuquerque is also a major meetings hub. Of particular interest to planners is the city’s reputation as a destination with an affordable per-diem expense, as well as 16,000 hotel rooms—many of which have been recently renovated—in all prices and categories.
“One of the positive things about Albu-querque is that meetings here many times break attendance records,” says Linda Brown, vice president of convention sales and services for the Albuquerque Convention & Visitors Bureau. “People have heard about us and New Mexico, and want to come and experience what we have.”

MEETING VENUES
Conveniently located downtown, the Albuquerque Convention Center is easily accessible to numerous group hotels, many within walking distance. It offers 162,562 total sq. ft. of exhibition space, plus two 350-seat theaters and a 31,000-square-foot ballroom. The center recently completed a multimillion-dollar renovation that provided 17 new meeting rooms and infrastructure upgrades.    
Also, the newly renovated University of New Mexico Student Union has space for groups up to 1,000, including 20 meeting rooms and a grand ballroom, plus it has a full-service A/V department to help with group needs.    

UNIQUE VENUES
If you’re looking for something different, Albuquerque has a terrific array of options. The Albuquerque Museum of Art and History in Old Town recently added 8,000 sq. ft. of gallery space plus a large multi-use space to accommodate receptions and other functions. And the Anderson-Abruzzo Albuquerque International Ballooning Museum, north of town at Balloon Fiesta Park, has 9,850 sq. ft. of meeting space, plus catering. It can host 500 people indoors or up to 1,000 outside.
Downtown’s historic KiMo Theatre, a 650-seat Pueblo Deco architectural gem of a movie palace—built in 1927 and restored in 2000—can be rented for private events, including screenings.    
The city’s visionary Biological Park, which combines a zoo, botanical gardens and aquarium in a beautiful indoor/outdoor setting, has numerous spaces, including an area near the aquarium’s shark tank, available for group use.    
A new nonprofit downtown arts space, 516 Arts, has 5,500 sq. ft. of space on two stories where you’ll be surrounded by striking contemporary art.

SANTA FE
Santa Fe is a legendary American city because of its age (it was founded in 1610) and its status as an artist colony richly protective of its Native American, Hispanic and Western influences. The state capital, Santa Fe, is a thriving, wealthy, architecturally preserved city of 66,000 and America’s first UNESCO-designated Creative City, so designated for its folk art and design.
Santa Fe’s arts scene encompasses 250 galleries, the third largest of its type in the U.S., according to Keith Toler, executive director of the Santa Fe Convention & Visitors Bureau. Museums abound as well. Downtown’s New Mexico Museum of Art hosts major exhibits and collects important regional artists. On Museum Hill, reachable by a special “M” shuttle bus are the Museum of Spanish Colonial Art, Museum of Indian Arts & Culture, Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian and Museum of International Folk Art. While tradition is honored here, contemporary art has also become a factor in Santa Fe life, thanks to the challenging shows at Site Santa Fe, a contemporary art center located in a minimalist-designed converted warehouse.
You’ll want to spend time outdoors here. Nestled against the Sangre de Cristo Mountains—and at an elevation of 7,000 feet—it gets plenty of sunlight and cool, comfortable summer nights. “A lot of meeting planners, and people in general, think of us as being strictly a desert town. They don’t realize we’re at 7,000 feet and the climate is different,” Toler says. In fact, he says, Outdoor magazine rated Santa Fe the No. 1 place to live for people who enjoy outdoor recreation.
Santa Fe’s Hispanic-influenced religious heritage can be witnessed at numerous churches, but the 1878 Loretto Chapel is especially notable for the Miraculous Staircase connecting chapel and choir loft. The awe-inspiring story is one of an unknown carpenter who built it after the Sisters of the Chapel prayed to St. Joseph, the patron saint of carpenters, for help.

MEETINGS VENUES
The city is preparing for great changes when the new Santa Fe Convention Center opens in October. A $50-million project offering 72,500 sq. ft. of total space, it has more than four times the exhibition space of the building it replaces.
“We give planners an opportunity to meet in a small, walkable city with a convention center that’s state of the art, with new facilities and equipment,” Toler says.
Opening this August is the Hilton Santa Fe Resort & Spa at Buffalo Thunder, with 390 guest rooms and 66,000 sq. ft. of meeting and function space. The hotel, which is located on tribal land, is a unique heritage resort that will offer a 16,000-square-foot spa, a golf course and Las Vegas-style gaming.
“The size, the scope and completeness of the resort is compelling,” says Richard A. Ross, director of sales and marketing. “We bring to the Santa Fe market a size of property that doesn’t exist now. [Before] if you wanted to bring a large group, you would be forced to go to Albuquerque or another destination.”

UNIQUE VENUES
Built in classic adobe style, the 11-year-old Georgia O’Keeffe Museum has a renowned collection of her paintings of desert skulls, flowers and cityscapes; it can host receptions for up to 200 people, including its galleries and courtyard. Docent-led group tours are also available.
The Lensic Performing Arts Center, in the heart of downtown, is an 820-seat, 1931 Moorish/Spanish Renaissance-style theater restored by a nonprofit organization in 2001 and available for groups when not used for events.
The Gerald Peters Gallery at the edge of downtown is devoted to New Mexico and Western artists from the 19th century to the present and is available after hours for receptions and dinners.
For relaxation, the idyllic Ten Thousand Waves Japanese Health Spa, on a hillside four miles outside downtown, offers a series of private and communal chlorine-free hot tubs that can be reserved by groups. Massages and facials can also be arranged.

LAS CRUCES
New Mexico’s second-largest city, with 82,000 residents, is immensely attractive to meeting planners due to its convenient location and myriad attractions. Promoted as the “Cultural Crossroads of the Southwest” by the Las Cruces Convention and Visitors Bureau, it sits in the pleasant Mesilla Valley, by the Rio Grande River and near the Organ Mountains, just about an hour from El Paso, Texas (whose international airport it uses). It’s also where north-south Interstate 25 meets east-west Interstate 10. The valley benefits from 300 days of sunshine annually and is an ideal site to grow chile peppers, the essential ingredient in New Mexican cuisine. Of note to planners are the 2,400 guest rooms and numerous meeting spaces at venues in or near town.

MEETINGS VENUES
New Mexico State University’s Corbett Center is the largest conference center in the southern portion of the state, with 13 meeting rooms, an auditorium with fixed seating for 280 and a ballroom with a capacity of 1,200. In summer, an additional 15,000 sq. ft. of campus space is available.
Another option is Dickerson’s Event Center, a large special-purpose building that can accommodate banquets of up to 1,500 people. It has a total of 45,000 sq. ft. of flexible space.

 UNIQUE VENUES
New Mexico Farm & Ranch Heritage Museum has several areas available for groups, including the main gallery and an outdoor courtyard, overlooking the Organ Mountains, that holds up to 600. While the interactive museum’s primary purpose is to show New Mexico’s 3,000-year-old legacy of farming and ranching, it also hosts exhibits international in scope.
In the nearby historic town of Old Mesilla, where Billy the Kid once stood trial, La Posta de Mesilla Restaurant, Cantina and Chile Shop (), in the 1840-era Old Butterfield Stage Building, serves Mexican food, margaritas and tequila to devoted crowds. Private rooms accommodating 20–70 people are available, and the entire 200-capacity building can be rented on Monday evenings.

TAOS
Taos’ spiritual demeanor is set by the presence of Taos Pueblo on tribal land just north of town. This adobe “apartment-like” building has been continuously inhabited for more than 1,000 years and is both a National Historic Landmark and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
In the last century, artists flocked to Taos for the appealing light and mix of cultures that mingled freely around downtown’s Taos Plaza. The Mabel Dodge Luhan House, owned by an influential arts patron who moved here in 1919, is now a historic inn near downtown. Luhan invited D.H. Lawrence (author of Women in Love) to visit, and he left behind his erotic “forbidden paintings” that can be glimpsed for a nominal admission at the recently renovated La Fonda de Taos Hotel on the plaza.
Another great artist in Taos’ history was the minimalist painter Agnes Martin, who, in her later years, would occasionally go to the beautiful, octagon-shaped Agnes Martin Gallery at the Harwood Museum and admire her lovely seven paintings on permanent display. The museum can host 400 for outdoor events.

MEETINGS VENUES
There’s one main meeting space here: The Taos Civic Plaza & Convention Center, which offers 23,655 sq. ft. of space, including the Rio Grande Hall, which can handle banquets for up to 450 people.

UNIQUE VENUES
Located west of city limits, the Earthship Community, featuring passive solar homes constructed of natural and organic materials, has a visitor center, plus guided and unguided tours. Seminars about biotecture can be arranged.
The Museum Association of Taos maintains a website with information about visiting the Blumenschein Home & Museum, Taos Art Museum, La Hacienda de los Martinez, Harwood Museum of Art and the Millicent Rogers Museum. Some of these locations are available for group meetings, including the Martinez Hacienda, an adobe “great house” dating back to 1804, which has a courtyard that can be tented.

RUIDOSO
The largest community in southeastern New Mexico’s Lincoln County, with 9,000 residents, Ruidoso has a majestic setting in a valley by the Sacramento Mountains, which includes the towering Sierra Blanca peak. The town’s location is a lure for outdoor enthusiasts, art lovers and resort and spa visitors. (A different kind of sports enthusiast flocks to Ruidoso Downs Race Track and Casino; ruidosodownsracing.com). You’ll also find the Smithsonian-affiliated Hubbard Museum of the American West in Ruidoso Downs.

MEETING VENUES
The area’s major meeting space, the Ruidoso Convention Center, has 33,000 sq. ft. of floor space and can seat 2,000 people theater-style or 1,416 banquet-style. It’s near the Sierra Blanca Championship Golf Course.

UNIQUE VENUES
Among the city’s unique venues is Mountain Annie’s Dinner Theater; located downtown, it hosts such famous performers as New Christy Minstrels, who recently recorded an album there.  Another option is La Junta Guest Ranch, a secluded ranch set on six mountaintop acres overlooking the Lincoln National Forest near Ruidoso that’s ideal for retreats and corporate conferences requiring a getaway destination.

Getting There

Flying: Albuquerque International Sunport (ABQ), about five miles from downtown Albuquerque, is New Mexico’s largest airport and is served by nine major commercial airlines: American, Continental, Delta, ExpressJet, Frontier, Northwest, Southwest, United and US Air. Three commuter airlines also fly there—Mesa, Rio Grande Air and New Mexico Airlines. While Santa Fe is only 60 miles north along Interstate 25, travel time can vary due to traffic and weather. Great Lakes and New Mexico Airlines currently fly between Sunport and Santa Fe Municipal Airport, which is awaiting FAA approval to begin expanded nonstop service to Western cities (see News).

Driving: Albuquerque is served by two major interstate highways—the east-west Interstate 40 (which roughly follows Historic Route 66 route through New Mexico) and north-south Interstate 25, which also goes through Santa Fe and Las Cruces.

Not To Be Missed

Albuquerque Museum of Art and History
Anderson-Abruzzo Albuquerque International Balloon Museum
Historic Old Town
National Hispanic Cultural Center
Indian Pueblo Cultural Center
Maxwell Museum of Anthropology
International Rattlesnake Museum
New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science
Sandia Peak Aerial Tramway
Nob Hill along Historic Route 66
Albuquerque Biological Park
Petroglyph National Monument

SANTA FE
The Plaza
Museum Hill
Georgia O’Keeffe Museum
Site Santa Fe
Loretto Chapel
Canyon Road
New Mexico Museum of Art
Santa Fe Opera

LAS CRUCES
New Mexico Farm & Ranch Heritage Museum
Veteran’s Park and the Heroes of Bataan Monument
Fort Seldon State Monument
Historic Old Mesilla
White Sands National Monument (nearby)

TAOS
Taos Plaza
Harwood Museum of Art
Millicent Rogers Museum
Taos Pueblo
Ojo Caliente hot springs (nearby)

RUIDOSO
Hubbard Museum of the American West
Ruidoso Downs Racetrack & Casino
Lincoln National Forest

ELSEWHERE IN NEW MEXICO
Four Corners National Monument
Acoma Sky City Pueblo
Carlsbad Caverns
Chaco Culture National Historic Park