That’s A Wrap: ALSD Premium Experiences Confab Concludes

NAME IN LIGHTS: The Association of Luxury Suite Directors Premium Experiences Conference and Trade Show featured a visit to SoFi Stadium, one of six venue tours offered to attendees. (VN Staff)

Next Stop: Philadelphia

The Association of Luxury Suite Directors this week wrapped its 34th annual trade show, which was held July 14-16 at the JW Marriott Hotel at LA Live in downtown Los Angeles.

The program featured a host of speakers from within and outside the premium venue space, covering diverse topics from using AI to mine valuable data to the impact marketing has on the bottom line.

Attendee and exhibitor numbers were comparable to last year’s confab in Indianapolis, said ALSD President Amanda Verhoff.

The convention featured site visits to six venues: BMO Stadium and the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on night one, SoFi Stadium and COSM on night two and Crypto.com Arena and the Peacock Theater as the gala finale of the event.

The site visits also gave the venues’ concessionaires — Legends at BMO, the Coliseum and SoFi, and Levy at Crypto and the Peacock — to show off its finer offerings.

“That was the most we’ve ever had, and they were all close,” said Jeff Morander, ALSD CEO.

Verhoff said next year’s convention in Philadelphia is in keeping with the ALSD’s practice of holding the convention in sites on or near the coasts and in the Midwest while also following venue construction trends by locating in cities where there is plenty of action on that front.

Some of the exhibitors were situated in the main assembly room, an intentional move aimed at integrating the trade show and convention more closely, she said.

Among the breakout sessions was one that included charettes led by moderators from Perkins & Will and AEG, during which attendees split into groups to design and name new premium spaces in different venue categories with defined budget and available spaces. One attendee’s suggestion that an intimate suite be called the “Love Box,” instead of Loge Box, drew chuckles from the participants.

Janet Marie Smith, executive vice president, planning and development with the Los Angeles Dodgers, was presented with the ALSD’s  Visionary Award.

Morander and Verhoff said the mission of ALSD has expanded far beyond what its name suggests as the trend toward premium experiences, sometimes offered as additional perks for a price to even low-end guests, continues to gain momentum.

He said the ALSD’s first conference in 1988 had 13 people. It now draws about 1,300.

Looking beyond Philadelphia in 2025, the choices for 2026 have been narrowed to three cities, he said.

Morander said he is also excited about the growth of ALSD’s convention across the pond, the sixth annual version of which takes Sept. 29-Oct. 1 at indigo at The O2 in London. The convention drew 450 in Manchester last year and is expected to reach that number again this year, he said.