It’s been a long year and a half since the Covid-19 pandemic shut down the world, and as we round the corner on the virus here in California, Sacramento is excited to welcome you back.

And we’ve been busy getting ready for you.

We held the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the newly renovated SAFE Credit Union Convention Center June 3, bringing 240,000 square feet of programmable space with 167,000 square feet of contiguous exhibit space, 37 breakouts and a whole new look to the exterior and outdoor space.

The SAFE Credit Union Performing Arts Center is ready to bring back the Broadway Sacramento Series into its newly renovated space, and some of you have already experienced the updated Memorial Auditorium, so you’ve gotten a little preview of what Sacramento has to offer in the way of meeting space.

But that’s not all that’s been going on. On May 13, Visit Sacramento announced the return of the popular Farm-to-Fork community events this September. That means it’s time to let loose a little and celebrate the fresh food and drink from America’s Farm-to-Fork Capital with the Legends of Wine tasting evening (Sept. 9), the Tower Bridge Dinner (Sept. 12), and the free Farm-to-Fork Festival (Sept. 17-18) with food, drinks, chef demonstrations and, of course, a full lineup of live music.

With so much going on, it’s a good thing Sacramento has new hotels to help accommodate the increase in visitors and meeting delegates over the next few years. The Fort Sutter Hotel is located across the street from the historic Sutter’s Fort in Sacramento’s trendy Midtown district. The hotel reflects the unique culture and character of Midtown with its 105 brand-new guest rooms, and it's home not only to the Four Palms lobby bar, but also Cafe Bernardo, a Sacramento institution founded by legendary restaurateur Randy Paragary.

Around the world, we all got used to eating outside in the past year and a half, and while outdoor dining has always been popular in Sacramento under the California sun, frankly, we took it to extremes, shutting down lanes of traffic to put more tables outside and opening up an al fresco dining experience outside the Golden 1 Center arena – home to the NBA’s Sacramento Kings. And while it may be too early to tell – we think having a lot of outdoor dining space will be the new normal here in the city as we take advantage of the warm summer nights and sip a cocktail or sample craft beers and enjoy ourselves.

Sacramento has always been a resilient town, harnessing a pioneer spirit and pairing it with a taste for the finer things in life, and as we forge ahead into the coming months and years, we’re embracing good food, live music, and really taking the time to sit and savor some of the things we missed over the course of the pandemic – in a word, togetherness.

Sure, we could get a fair-trade latte made with locally roasted beans and organic milk sourced from a farm on the edge of town, but as delicious as taking that coffee to-go was, it just wasn’t the same as sitting down and connecting with old friends or making new ones, and enjoying the Delta breeze wafting off the Sacramento River through the patio seating area.

Now, we’re looking forward to meeting with you, raising a glass of craft beer or Sacramento wine, and getting back to what we’ve all loved the most, especially now that we know what it’s like to miss it.

But, of course, we want to do so responsibly and safely. And that has been and will continue to be our top priority. The SAFE Credit Union Convention Center is GBAC-certified, and Sacramento’s hospitality industry is taking the S.A.F.E. pledge – meaning that we are all committing to a higher degree of cleanliness and safety than is suggested even by health department guidelines. We’re also committed to making your hybrid meetings a success, and the technology at the convention center provided by Smart City will ensure that those meetings go off without a hitch.

So, as you plan your next meeting or event, just know that Sacramento hasn’t spent the pandemic loafing around and watching bad TV. We’ve been hard at work to keep California’s capital your ideal meeting destination and partner.

So come say hello. We’ve missed you.

Return to Summer 2021 Connects Issue