The 550,000-square-foot CAESARS FORUM will open in Las Vegas in March. It is as much a channel for learning, experiencing and connecting as it is an architectural marvel. Built from the ground up in less than two years with a US$375 million price tag, it is the newest addition to the Caesars Entertainment portfolio and the freshest expression of Caesars Entertainment’s style and reputation.
Building Connections
Caesars Entertainment leadership took many aspects into consideration when developing the plans for CAESARS FORUM. They wanted to offer more conference space connected to the three of their hotels on the east side of the Las Vegas Strip and address the demand for meeting space from existing and prospective customers.
“The hotels were built in an era when there was more focus on leisure travel and therefore didn’t need much meeting space in hotels of this size,” says Michael Massari (MPI Sacramento/Sierra Nevada Chapter), chief sales officer for Caesars Entertainment. “Building CAESARS FORUM is a real opportunity for us to expand the market.”
To add meeting space without retrofitting existing hotel properties required a different approach. The development team decided on a campus concept connecting the dedicated meeting space of CAESARS FORUM to existing hotel properties, as well as restaurants, shops and entertainment. The result is a flexible, self-contained environment on which meeting planners can layer event components and a connected, easy-to-navigate platform for attendees.
“It’s about access to all the different elements that you need without sacrificing anything by not leaving the campus,” Massari explains.
The CAESARS FORUM campus also consists of 8,500 guest rooms located at Harrah’s Las Vegas, Flamingo Las Vegas and The LINQ Hotel + Experience. The properties are connected via the FORUM Sky Bridge or LINQ Promenade, and guests share a single wireless network throughout the complex.
Connectivity extends throughout the Caesars Entertainment portfolio, says John Aveiro, vice present of hotel operations at Caesars Entertainment. Planners can book conference space at CAESARS FORUM and guest rooms at the eight Caesars Entertainment hotels in Las Vegas through one central booking platform. Guests can charge purchases from any Caesars Entertainment restaurant, bar or shop throughout the city back to their rooms.
Designing a building from the ground up affords any developer the luxury of creating something unusual and unencumbered by legacy. Apart from the single-floor footprint, pillarless ballrooms and oversized glass doors that provide a seamless transition from indoor to outdoor space, the design of CAESARS FORUM aligns with a specific aesthetic—the connection of man to other living species, which biologist E.O. Wilson refers to as “biophilia.”
“We wanted to add something to Las Vegas that we do not currently have and something that others do not have—a very clear connection to the outside world,” says Karyn Steenkamp, vice president of design and construction at Caesars Entertainment.
Ensuring Workplace Safety
To create twin pillarless ballrooms of 110,000 square feet each requires painstaking attention to safety. Ten steel trusses, 315 feet in length and weighing 650,000 pounds, were set 32 feet in the air with three cranes.
“We hadn’t done anything like this before, so we took every precaution to ensure worker safety,” says Dara Lesmeister, CSHM, SHP, safety manager at Caesars Entertainment.
Measures included fall protection, safety supervision at all times and rerouting the public carefully and intentionally around the construction site.
A project like CAESARS FORUM is both labor and safety intensive. Even in the final months of construction, a labor force averaging 750 construction workers is working 24 hours per day, seven days a week. It conforms to both national and state Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) standards, as well as those required for an Owner Controlled Insurance Program (OCIP) in the state of Nevada. Plus, workers have to demonstrate their competencies on the job.
“Even forklift drivers have to carry their forklift cards on them at all times,” Lesmeister says.
Attention to the wellbeing of the workforce and the public reflects a level of detail that is characteristic of Caesars Entertainment’s “get it right the first time” ethos.
“I think the more meticulous you are about safety, the more meticulous you are about everything else that’s done in the building,” Lesmeister says. “There are advantages to not having to go back and redo things.”
The property will open on time, and management and marketers can confidently say “this building was built safely,” she adds.
Assembling a Team
Building a team for any hospitality property is challenging. When you’re Caesars Entertainment, the pressure to get it right is intense.
Don Ross, vice president of meeting operations in the Las Vegas region for Caesars Entertainment, is the person in charge of building out the team for CAESARS FORUM. His first order of business was to bring on 30-year company veteran Bill Dosch as executive director of catering and convention services for CASARS FORUM and a team of directors to oversee meetings, banquets and culinary operations.
Once Dosch and Ross selected the assistant directors, senior managers and managers, Caesars Entertainment held a job fair with 1,000 prospective CAESARS FORUM team members.
“We wanted to make sure [candidates] used guests’ names, have good eye contact and understand what it is to deliver great customer service,” Ross says of the interview process.
At the end of four days, 430 potential servers and bartenders made the cut and entered a second round of review focusing on technical skills. Members of the CAESARS FORUM catering and convention services team and banquet managers from other Caesars Entertainment properties helped select the team, who will begin training later this month.
The team working closely with planners will undergo even more training. For example, the catering and convention services team will be trained to build strong relationships and understand the planner’s needs.
“The convention services team has been going through Event Design Collective training, which changes the dialogue we have with customers as well as the process,” Ross says. “Ultimately, we’ll be designing more unique events that align with the customer’s vision.”
What will set the CAESARS FORUM convention services team members apart, he explains, “is going above and beyond the norm by anticipating needs and partnering with customers” by building bridges and relationships with all departments, properties and the city “to make anything a planner needs happen.”
Besides building an incredible convention services team, Caesars Entertainment rolled out a digital concierge service to save planners time and get faster responses. Planners will be able to text “Ivy,” the text-message concierge, at any time, and it will welcome all planners when they check into their hotels.
“Every banquet team member, audiovisual manager, even the convention parcel room—everyone—is on Ivy,” Ross says.
Preserving Caesars Entertainment’s Reputation
Food and beverage is ingrained in the Caesars Entertainment culture. As consummate restaurateurs, Caesars Entertainment provides restaurant-quality food and beverage to CAESARS FORUM conference attendees.
“We take pride every day in providing high-end dining experiences with a flair in all our restaurants,” Ross says. “But we’ve also approached the CAESARS FORUM experience with the idea that our customers can provide their attendees with an amazing food and beverage experience event when there are 10,000 attendees.”
Providing conference attendees with unique and creative food and beverage experiences is imperative. This was top of mind during the design of CAESARS FORUM kitchens and the hiring of staff.
“Besides hiring a team that is used to working in high-volume venues, we also have hired chefs and servers from fine-dining restaurants to work in banquets,” Ross says.
“Instead of just having a typical carving station, we’ll provide a full experience with a salad, Tomahawk steak, root vegetables and potatoes.”
Vegan and vegetarian options have gone mainstream, so a lot of time has been spent on developing unique menus to go along with the more traditional items. Breads and baked goods are another feature. The CAESARS FORUM pastry team will bake everything on premises, including their own macaroons. The bartenders have been hand-picked and will be trained mixologists.
To prepare for its opening in March, CAESARS FORUM will host pre-opening “play days” during which wait staff and chefs will serve the team. This will assure that the kitchen equipment has been tested. The servers will learn the menus and the chefs will be tested by preparing a progressively higher number of meals of the same quality in the same amount of time. This is a way for managers to test drive the staff and ensure readiness.
Creating Unique Experiences
Lisa Messina (MPI Southern California Chapter), vice president of sales at Caesars Entertainment, is quick to point out how CAESARS FORUM is unique.
“CAESARS FORUM is built on one level and connected to three Caesars Entertainment hotels and The LINQ Promenade,” she says. “Customer reception has been incredible. We have created a ‘campus’ feel.
“The conference center is all one level, making it easier and faster to load in and load out for production or exhibit companies,” she says, adding that there is also no hotel above the conference center so customers aren’t competing for load-in times or dock space.
With fully carpeted, pillarless ballrooms and high-quality interior finishes (mahogany-trimmed doors and ballroom-style lighting), conferences with an exhibit component won’t have the added expense of “dressing” a concrete exhibit space.
Anchored by the world-famous High Roller observation wheel, Forum Plaza is a 100,000-square-foot, dedicated outdoor space that allows planners to take indoor activities outside—from exhibits to banquets to general sessions.
“That dedicated event canvas is unique to CAESARS FORUM,” Messina says.
While CAESARS FORUM “creates all sorts of possibilities and opportunities,” Messina says, it’s very well suited for corporate, association and trade shows.
“Our customers have commented that CAESARS FORUM is perfect for them, as it offers flexible space they can activate in so many different ways,” she says.
Delivering Social Impact and Sustainability
The CAESARS FORUM management team takes giving back to the community very seriously. Caesars Entertainment has built relationships with many nonprofits and is committed to making a difference.
One of the partners, Three Square, a food bank that provides food assistance to residents in Southern Nevada, will become integral to the food recovery program. Members of the culinary team will be responsible for recovering, chilling (on premises) and repackaging untouched, leftover banquet food so the food bank can reheat and reuse it in different increments. On premises chilling is at the forefront for this important initiative.
“We’re hoping to provide thousands of pounds of recovered food,” Ross says. “Our customers are asking for this. We certainly want that and a lot of needy people in our community want that.”
CAESARS FORUM has its own sustainability initiatives, such as offering a variety of compostable service ware and plates and sorting all trash by hand to separate food waste from recyclable materials. Caesars Entertainment also participates in the Teacher Exchange program, donating used event materials—poster boards, lanyards or pens—that teachers can acquire for their classrooms using points.
“We ask our customers how we can support them and their sustainability goals,” Dosch says. “We try to address their needs on a case-by-case basis in addition to what we provide as a company.”
Most planners are attuned to sustainability issues.
“More and more are looking to green meetings as the norm rather than the exception,” says Eric Dominguez, vice president, facilities, engineering and sustainable operations at Caesars Entertainment. “[We have] a ‘meetings for good’ initiative that looks at not only how the meeting can be sustainable but also how people attending can engage in local philanthropy while they’re here.”
It requires a tremendous amount of effort, innovation and experience to design and build a complex like CAESARS FORUM. And, while it may be unique in many ways, one singular feature of the project stands out, Massari says. While you could find companies as good as Caesars Entertainment at designing event space; marketing a facility; selling events; or launching a hotel, restaurant, conference and entertainment business, “I would be surprised to find a team as dedicated as we have at Caesars Entertainment.”
CAESARS FORUM Timeline
Dec. 4, 2O17: Caesars Entertainment announces plans to develop CAESARS FORUM.
July 16, 2018: Caesars Entertainment breaks ground on CAESARS FORUM.
Jan. 29, 2019: Caesars Entertainment announces the setting of the first steel truss for CAESARS FORUM.
June 13, 2019: Caesars Entertainment celebrates topping off milestone for CAESARS FORUM.
Sept. 9, 2019: Caesars Entertainment signs more than US$300 million in business for CAESARS FORUM, seven months before opening.
March 2020: CAESARS FORUM debuts.
