Cleveland definitely has a split personality. With its state-of-the-art sports venues and almost religious devotion to “The Tribe,” the local nickname for the Indians baseball team, Cleveland is the quintessential sports town. And yet, with the iconic Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and a host of other stellar museums, a world-renowned symphony orchestra, noble civic architecture, plenty of live music venues, and one of the country’s largest theater districts, Cleveland is definitely an arts town, too.
Put both of these divergent aspects together and what do you get? A really fun place to hold a meeting.
“Planners are really surprised when they get here,” says Dan Williams, assistant director of sales for the CVB of Greater Cleveland. “Cleveland gets some bad press, but people see how vibrant the city actually is—especially from an arts and culture perspective.”
Not surprisingly, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, which opened on a lakefront site 10 years ago, has proved wildly popular as an off-site venue.
“The Rock Hall cuts across all demographics in its appeal,” Williams says. “I recently took a group of African-American meeting planners through who had thought the rock and roll theme might not be of interest. But then they saw that the museum does a great job showing the influence of African-American music on rock and roll.”
Patty Smith, owner of North Coast Tours, a local DMC, says that groups frequently buy out the Rock Hall for seated dinners or for events with food stations set up among the exhibits.
“It’s had a huge impact on Cleveland,” she says. “If there’s any problem it’s that planners sometime think it’s all we have. What helps is that the Great Lakes Science Center is right next door, so people immediately see that we have other attractions.”
Among those other attractions is Severance Hall, home to the Cleveland Orchestra, which is frequently ranked with Vienna and Berlin as one of the top three orchestras in the world. The renowned music venue is part of University Circle, a beautiful park that boasts one of the nation’s richest concentrations of museums, including the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland Museum of Natural History, and Case Western Reserve Historical Society.
“We handle it kind of like a dine-around,” Smith says of University Circle. “The group gets passes to all of the museums and they can pick and choose the ones they want to visit.”
Other entertainment options include taking in a play in one of the restored vaudeville-era theaters in Playhouse Square or a night out in the Warehouse District, where clubs, restaurants and galleries reside in handsomely restored 19th century buildings embellished by cast-iron architectural detail.
And, of course, Cleveland offers a whole bunch of pro sports choices, including Indians baseball at Jacobs Field or Cavaliers basketball at Quicken Loans Arena. Both of these group-friendly facilities are located right downtown and offer a variety of areas for private events.
