Caesars Entertainment had a truly groundbreaking year in 2018.

We announced a 15-year founding partnership with the Raiders as the National Football League team makes its move to Las Vegas. We were recognized with five Loyalty360 Awards from the Association for Customer Loyalty, including “Best in Class” honors for Partnership and Employee Focus and a Bronze Award in the Customer-Centric Culture category. We sent a team of employees to Zambia where, in partnership with nonprofit Clean the World, we distributed 2,500 pounds of soap to 14,000 children and their families to help reduce the spread of disease and illness. And we were privileged to host a record 1.9 million attendees at 17,300 meetings and events across our 40 U.S. properties.

It was also a year of literal groundbreakings.

Summer marked the start of construction of CAESARS FORUM, a state-of-the-art, US$375 million conference center located in the heart of Las Vegas that will debut in 2020. With 550,000 total square feet of meeting space able to accommodate more than 10,000 attendees, this LEED Silver-certified facility will feature the two largest pillarless ballrooms in the world (110,000 square feet each), configurable in virtually limitless ways to provide the ultimate in flexibility.

Located entirely on one level, CAESARS FORUM will be connected to the Harrah’s, LINQ and Flamingo hotels, offering direct access to 8,000 hotel rooms, while an additional 20,000 Caesars Entertainment guest rooms are within easy walking distance. The conference center will also be connected via skybridge to the LINQ Promenade, a lively outdoor dining and entertainment district perfect for buyouts and dine-arounds. Redefining meetings in Las Vegas, CAESARS FORUM will also feature the 100,000-square-foot FORUM Plaza, the city’s first dedicated outdoor meeting and event space.

CAESARS FORUM secured its first booking with the American School Counselor Association, taking place in July of 2021 and bringing 3,500 attendees from across the U.S. to Las Vegas. Since celebrating that milestone, Caesars Entertainment has gone on to contract more than $100 million in conference business for CAESARS FORUM.

We also broke ground in June on a new conference center at Harrah’s Cherokee in Cherokee, N.C. This $200 million conference center and hotel tower will feature a sprawling, 83,000-square-foot conference space and 725 hotel rooms, along with exciting new dining and retail outlets.

We also expanded the Caesars brand overseas, with the November opening of the company’s first non-gaming resorts in Dubai. Located in the iconic Jumeirah Beach region, the two properties accompany the Caesars Forum, which includes a 10,000-square-foot ballroom and three individual meeting rooms. The company also announced the development of Caesars Palace Puerto Los Cabos. This luxury, non-gaming beachfront resort in Mexico is scheduled to debut in late 2020 and will feature 500 guest rooms and suites and a 40,000-square-foot convention center.

There are so many exciting things happening across Caesars Entertainment, and as we embark on this new beginning, the start of a new year, we are filled with inspiration and hope. More than anything, we are grateful to be part of this incredible community, accompanied by others as passionate about meetings as we are. To our fellow members of MPI, may the New Year bring you health, joy and prosperity.