feature story
hands-on training of various gas measurement,
regulation and control devices in a controlled
environment,” said John McDill, vice president of
Pipeline Safety.
Another important part of the DFW community is a city unlike any other: Gas City.
Also located at the Vaughan Center, this
outdoor setting simulates a real neighborhood – complete with mini-apartments,
houses, city streets and natural gas and
other utility infrastructure. Gas City is the
only facility in the U.S. with the equipment
and labs to facilitate natural gas training.
Meet Me in North Texas
For businesses looking for their next meeting or
training space, a place for employees to hang their
hats is often a question that comes into play.
The renaissance that the downtown Dallas area is
experiencing is creating additional opportunities
for space that welcomes visitors. As the Dallas
Convention & Visitors Bureau reports, Dallas’s hotel development market is expected to continue its
rapid growth with 16 new projects, eight of which
are located downtown. Ground-up construction
and conversion projects totaling $1.72 billion
will add nearly 2,500 rooms to the city’s existing
75,000-room inventory in the next three years.
“Dallas welcomed 24 million visitors in
2014,” said Phillip Jones, president and
CEO of the Dallas Convention & Visitors Bureau. “We’re thrilled with the growth we’re
seeing in the hotel market. Development is
an essential part of attracting conventions,
events, and domestic and international
visitors to Dallas.”
Gas City, Charles K. Vaughan Center
Gas City’s mini-community has buried pipe (polyethylene, bare and coated steel and sewer pipe),
along with residential, commercial and industrial
meter stations, and allows for fire training and
confined-space entry training through manholes.
Emergency response teams from across the state
come to North Texas to utilize Gas City as a
mock-up destination for their disaster training. A
national gas consortium from South America and
even representatives from Tokyo Gas and Okaski
Gas in Japan have visited to train and explore the
possibility of replicating the training aspect of the
facility overseas.
“With today’s emphasis on avoiding damage to
other infrastructure while digging, employees can
practice excavating with operating equipment
and not disturb other utilities,” McDill said. “The
goal is to take the theory received in the classroom and immediately have students practice
that job skill in as close to real-life scenarios as
possible. Our employees have asked for this type
of training. We listened and implemented it.”
Whether workers live in the region, or are just
in for state-of-the-art training, they all find North
Texas to be – well, a gas.
12
www.ntc-dfw.org
FALL/WINTER 2015
From boutique hotels to luxury brands, Dallas’s
booming hotel market complements the city’s
rapid development and offers options for stay
that make North Texas feel like home. Dallas
From
boutique hotels
to luxury
brands...
...Dallas’s booming
hotel market complements
the city’s rapid development
and offers options for
stay that make North Texas
feel like home.
tourism generated a $6.6 billion economic impact
in 2014, and recent hotel developments are set
to enhance the city’s already-diverse range of
accommodations.
Fort Worth Stockyards
Fort Worth, well-known for being one of the
friendliest cities in the U.S., also hosts major national conventions because of its hospitality and
hotel availability. Annually, more than 6.5 million
visitors trek to “Cowtown,” generating $1.55
billion annually while staying in some of the city’s
13,477 hotel rooms, almost 3,000 of which are
in historic downtown Fort Worth in Sundance
Square. The pedestrian-friendly, 35-block entertainment, shopping and dining district is where
both locals and visitors go for food, fun and
festivals that often occur there. Many companies
choose to host their meetings and trainings
in Fort Worth for the various walkable, friendly
amenities the city offers its visitors in this
exciting urban oasis.
Visitors also find North Texas a tasty and
entertaining place to travel. Known as
a culinary mecca, North Texas provides
guests with nearly 12,000 restaurant
options, 4,000 of them in Dallas alone. The
largest urban arts district in the country,
museums, shops, restaurants, night life and
more make the DFW area the top visitor
destination in Texas. Major events like the
Super Bowl, the Academy of Country Music
Awards, the NCAA Women’s Final Four (in
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