Keys to Successfully Hosting Campus-Style Austin Events

With redevelopment work in full swing at the Austin Convention Center, meeting planners are thinking outside the box when it comes to organizing events and conferences in Austin. One innovative solution is hosting campus-style events, in which hotels and venues are brought together to create cohesive, unique attendee experiences. 

The rising interest in campus-style events, also known as mini-wides, is especially timely for Austin. Temporarily losing the Austin Convention Center as a venue option during its expansion — with construction continuing into early 2029 — means planners are now booking large-scale events at more than one hotel or venue. They’re also relying on local businesses to offer extra needed services.

Collaboration among hotels, venues, vendors and suppliers has proven to be an especially successful concept in Austin. The city’s walkability streamlines logistics, allowing attendees to move effortlessly between their sessions, accommodations and off-site experiences. Plus, the Visit Austin team offers support in coordinating local partnerships and identifying compatible clusters of hotels and venues.

Although the four-year closure is altering the way conventions take place in Austin, the project will ultimately allow the city to attract larger events. It’s likely, however, that the trend of hosting campus-style events will continue to be popular, even after the center’s $1.6 billion expansion significantly increases the rentable square footage of the facility to 620,000 square feet.

In fact, South by Southwest Conference & Festivals, which attracts over 500,000 people to Austin each year, will be the first event to open the new convention center in 2029. Until then, SXSW and Austin are going back to their roots, offering programming in campus-style events.

CD Forum. Courtesy Fifth Street DMC.

Planning Tactics for Now and the Future

Event planners started early to plan and source for this time, said Alyssa May Hart, global sales manager at Fifth Street DMC, Austin's first Destination Management Company. Hart noted that downtown hotels and venues recognize that it’s paramount to work together for the next four years.

“It’s all about seeing where these opportunities are to bring people together,” she said.

The extra attention on music venues, recording studios, restaurants and shops is welcome either as unconventional event space or for visitors to experience exploring Austin between sessions.

“Austin is one of the few cities that can effectively deliver a ‘mini-wide’ experience for groups. Our city is compact enough to allow easy, walkable access to hotels and venues,” Visit Austin Executive Vice President Steve Genovesi said.

For planners, engaging multiple hotels allows attendees to choose their preferred brand and price point. Planners are also excited about developing meeting agendas with different locations that are easily accessible to each other. And groups create a prominent presence in the city, with attendees visiting businesses around town that showcase the best of Austin.

Hart added that campus-style events can also offer brands unique and visible marketing opportunities to a broader audience in Austin.

Creative ways to engage locally include attendees wearing branded apparel or strategically placed messages on pedicabs that travel throughout Austin. Custom city maps themed especially for a conference can guide attendees to meeting sites and recommended restaurants nearby. Attendees can also hear some of Austin’s outstanding local musicians perform at venues around the city.

The University of Texas at Austin Speakers Bureau features hundreds of scholars and professionals who can address audiences on a range of topics, from global affairs to STEM subjects, corporate training, entrepreneurship and more.

Campus-Style Models in Action

Multiple areas of town are home to "collections" of hotels and venues, whose collective meeting spaces can help create intimate, accessible and unique events. Just a few of the many examples throughout the city include The University of Texas at Austin-area hotels in the University Hotel Collection, such as AT&T Hotel & Conference Center, The Otis/AC Hotels, Hilton Garden Inn University Capitol District, Hampton Inn & Suites at the University/Capitol.

Discover Lady Bird Lake properties near the Palmer Events Center and Long Center for the Performing Arts such as Hyatt Regency, Embassy Suites, the Loren and more.

Consider connecting your meeting or conference with the Red River Collection or AustinPlace Hotel Collection. Pair the The Congress Collection and Austin Live (An Unconventional Conference).

Well-known, large-scale Austin events like SXSW, SailPoint Technologies’ recent Navigate Austin cybersecurity event and AfroTech are already embracing the campus-style approach.

“Many groups and events have already been incorporating this style of conference — most notably SXSW — which has embraced a ‘mini-wide’ conference style since its inception, with overwhelming success,” Genovesi said. “There’s just a vibe to getting out and exploring Austin that can’t be beat.”

Convenient preferred Downtown hotels for attendees include the Hilton Austin, Fairmont Austin, Austin Marriott Downtown, JW Marriott Austin and Hyatt Place Austin Downtown. The SailPoint Technologies event used two Downtown hotel venues. Fairmont Austin served as the Navigate East headquarters for mainstage keynotes and the expo hall. While the Austin Marriott Downtown, just a short walk away, hosted Navigate West breakout sessions and hands-on learning events.

The Hilton Austin and Fairmont Austin hotels served as preferred hotels in 2023 for AfroTech, the leading Black tech conference, which also used the Austin Convention Center, Republic Square Park and ACL Live at The Moody Theater as venues for its five-day event.

Making room for more guests, ACL Live’s recent expansion created the PNC Hall at ACL Live venue, enclosing an open pavilion as extra multi-use space for smaller events and breakouts, Hart said. In addition, the attached W Hotel recently underwent a complete renovation, which has paved the way for even more campus-style events.

“It’s all about how we position Austin as a full experience,” Hart noted.