Chicago is the center of gravity for a vast metropolitan area of 9.5 million—but if you think of Chicago as the sun, it has an exceptional number of interesting planets in orbit. The “planets” are Chicago’s multifaceted suburbs, which extend north, west and south of the city to a distance of 40 miles. This area includes two major airports, natural parks and amusement parks, sports stadiums, beautiful scenery, historic architecture, and numerous hotels with a wealth of meeting space.
Visitors to Chicago’s suburbs will immediately notice the reduced traffic and general availability of free parking compared with Chicago, along with charming downtowns, a variety of hotels and plentiful shopping.
Cost is a major reason to choose the suburbs rather than downtown Chicago, as Illinois state figures show: The average room rate for a hotel room in downtown Chicago in 2006 was $142.55, compared with just $87.56 for the rest of Illinois.
Northern Suburbs
Chicago’s nearest northern suburbs include communities along Lake Michigan and just inland, such as Evanston, Glencoe, Glenview, Northbrook, Wilmette, and Skokie.
Lakefront Evanston is primarily known as the site of Northwestern University, while Glencoe offers the Chicago Botanic Garden and Wilmette boasts the gorgeous Baha’i House of Worship, recently named one of the Seven Wonders of Illinois.
Two Skokie hotels performed major renovations last year. The North Shore Skokie Hotel is now the 369-room Doubletree Hotel & Conference Center, and features a kosher kitchen, 22,000 square feet of completely redesigned meeting space, and an indoor/outdoor swimming pool. Nearby, the Holiday Inn Chicago North Shore recently added a $10 million banquet and conference center with an 11,000-square-foot ballroom and 4,000 square feet of additional meeting and exhibit space.
Other top meetings hotels include the Hotel Orrington and Best Western University Plaza in Evanston.
Asked about the region’s popularity as a meetings destination, Gina Speckman, executive director of Chicago’s North Shore CVB, points to the allure of the nearby big city combined with heavy spending by North Shore hotels to upgrade their properties.
“I think it’s our proximity to Chicago, and in total, our hotels have had $60 million in renovations in the past two years,” she says. “Plus, you can be downtown in 20 minutes but you have free parking here and room rates that are much more affordable.”
Speckman’s organization has also been keen to soak up any overflow from the conventions that fill Chicago’s massive McCormick Place convention center.
“We have some more cohesive programs where we do target the 150 days per year when McCormick Place uses all the rooms downtown,” she says. “We try to use that calendar and strategically market to groups that need to be in the Chicago area, but can’t get the [downtown] rooms.”
Plus, by riding the CTA Red and Purple train lines, attendees staying in the Northern Suburbs can get to a Cubs game in short order.
Nearby in an area marketed by the Prospect Heights CVB (also known as Chicago’s North Suburbs CVB) is the new Westin Chicago North Shore in Wheeling, with 35,000 square feet of meeting space, and the Wingate by Wyndham Northbrook/Prospect Heights.
In addition to Wheeling, the towns of Buffalo Grove, Prospect Heights and Northbrook are also promoted by the Prospect Heights CVB, and other top meetings properties in the region include the Hilton Northbrook, Radisson Northbrook and Renaissance Chicago North Shore in Northbrook, and the Best Western Palwaukee Inn & Conference Center in Wheeling.
Slightly farther north is Lake County, which offers close proximity to both O’Hare International Airport and downtown Chicago. Among its major communities are Waukegan, North Chicago and Highland Park, offering many beautiful, natural settings for meetings and retreats, says Kimberly Ghys, senior sales manager at the Lake County CVB in Gurnee.
“We have over 50 hotels and four resorts, thousands of acres of forest preserves, 75 lakes, and two state parks,” she says. “Lake County is also home to hundreds of restaurants, great shopping and Six Flags Great America and Hurricane Harbor.”
Lake County hotels with meeting facilities include the Hyatt Deerfield, Marriott Lincolnshire Resort and Crowne Plaza Chicago North Shore.
The beautifully restored Genesee Theatre in Waukegan is also available for meetings.
And although planners might not usually associate “suburbs” with “forest,” Lake County has several forest preserves with meeting facilities, such as Independence Grove and the Greenbelt Cultural Center.
Lake County is also attracting new development, such as KeyLime Cove Resort, which broke ground in January 2007 and expects to open later this spring with 414 suites, a 64,500-square-foot indoor waterpark, 12,000 square feet of meeting space, a spa, restaurants, and retail establishments.
Northwestern Suburbs
Chicago’s northwestern suburbs include well-established cities such as Arlington Heights, Elk Grove Village, Hoffman Estates, and Schaumburg. The region lays claim to O’Hare International Airport, so it’s the first place most visitors see when arriving in Chicago.
In Schaumburg, the Renaissance Schaumburg Hotel and Convention Center, featuring 500 guest rooms and 148,000 square feet of meeting space, debuted in 2006 and has become a premier group choice in the region.
The Sears Centre in Hoffman Estates is also one of the area’s newest group venues, with 11,000 seats, 1,000 of which are private club seats from which visitors can comfortably watch both live music events and Major League Soccer’s Chicago Fire. This city is also home to a new Cabela’s, the wildly popular fishing, hunting and outdoors store, located in the Prairie Stone Entertainment District.
“We are excited about having this type of retail destination store in our region, which is already known for world-class shopping [at Woodfield Shopping Center in Schaumburg],” says Fran Bolson, president of the Woodfield Chicago Northwest Convention Bureau. “When you visit Cabela’s, you get a shopping and entertainment experience.”
Bolson also mentions another new attraction, TopGolf at the Salt Creek Golf Club in Wood Dale. TopGolf is a game that combines the tools of golf with an electronic scoring system reminiscent of darts that makes hitting golf balls a low-pressure, group-friendly sport.
Other attractions in the area include the Schaumburg Flyers minor-league baseball team, the renowned Arlington Park horse-racing track, CoCo Key Water Resort at the Sheraton Chicago Northwest, and improv courtesy of the Chicago Comedy Company in Schaumburg.
In addition to the Sears Centre, several large venues are located in nearby Rosemont, including the Donald E. Stevens Convention Center, the Rosemont Conference Center, Allstate Arena, and the Rosemont Theatre. Rosemont also boasts close proximity to O’Hare International Airport, as well as numerous meetings-ready airport-area hotels by Crowne Plaza, Doubletree, Hilton, Hyatt, Marriott, Sheraton, Sofitel, Westin, and Wyndham.
Western Suburbs
The suburbs west of Chicago run the gamut from Oak Park, situated just outside the big city and claiming the largest number of Frank Lloyd Wright-designed buildings in the world (see sidebar, page 12), all the way out to St. Charles, Aurora and other cities that have grown up around formerly small farming communities.
However, they seem to take their growth in stride. For example, Aurora first got on the national map because of Mike Myers and Dana Carvey’s Wayne’s World movies, and it’s always been a bit more than meets the eye: Aurora was the first city to light all its streets electrically—and that was back in 1881. Today it’s the second-largest city in Illinois, but despite this distinction, Money magazine named Aurora one of 2006’s top 100 “small” towns to live in.
Aurora’s own Paramount Theatre is a top attraction in the area. The 1930s-era movie palace underwent a $6 million expansion in 2006 and now hosts meetings for up to 300 while seating 1,800 for movies and other events.
Also in Aurora is Walter Payton’s Roundhouse restaurant and entertainment complex. Housed in an actual railroad roundhouse, it supplements its dining area, outdoor courtyard, cognac bar, and live entertainment with about 12,000 square feet of meeting space.
Aurora’s meetings properties include the Aurora Fox Valley Inn, Comfort Inn Aurora and Holiday Inn Aurora.
North of Aurora is the welcoming community of St. Charles, which offers an historic downtown on the banks of the Fox River, several restaurants and boutiques, and even recreational activities such as canoeing and kayaking on the river. Downtown St. Charles is in the midst of numerous improvement projects.
Pheasant Run Resort & Spa has been a mainstay in town for years, and it is also one of the region’s larger group options, set on 250 acres and offering 473 guest rooms, 100,000 square feet of meeting space, 36 holes of golf, a spa, and theater, live music and other entertainment.
DuPage Expo Center, offering 23,000 square feet of space, is also part of Pheasant Run, and across from the resort is the Hilton Garden Inn and Advanced Center for Training.
Meanwhile, Q Center, also in St. Charles, is an IACC-approved corporate training facility with more than 150,000 square feet of space.
Just east of St. Charles in DuPage County are communities such as Downers Grove, known for the corporate headquarters of companies such as FTD, Travelers Insurance, Sara Lee, and Spiegel; Wheaton, spotlighting the history of Christian evangelism in the U.S. at the Billy Graham Center Museum, and featuring Cantigny Park, home to the historic Robert R. McCormick Museum, the military First Division Museum, formal gardens, and the Freedom Museum; and Lisle, a standout for its Morton Arboretum.
Lisle, which has revitalized its downtown area, caters to groups with properties such as the 383-room Hickory Ridge Marriott Conference Hotel, set on 26 wooded acres and featuring a 60,000-square-foot conference center and the Corporate Learning Institute, with ropes courses for training and team building.
Lisle also offers meetings-ready properties such as the Wyndham Lisle–Chicago Hotel and Executive Meeting Center; the Hilton Lisle/Naperville; and the Hyatt Lisle.
Just east of Lisle is the community of Burr Ridge, where the Chicago Marriott Southwest and The Oaks Hotel and Conference Center are well suited for groups meeting in the area. The town is home to the new Burr Ridge Village Center, featuring upscale shopping and dining.
The western suburbs are well equipped with several other meetings hotels and resorts. Standouts include Oak Brook’s Doubletree, Marriott, Renaissance, and Wyndham Drake hotels; Oak Brook Hills Marriott Resort; Eaglewood Conference Resort and Spa and the newly renovated Westin Chicago Northwest in Itasca; the newly renovated Hilton Chicago/Indian Lakes Resort in Bloomingdale; Esplanade Conference Center at Doubletree Guest Suites in Downers Grove; and Lindner Conference Center and the new Westin Lombard, Yorktown Center in Lombard.
Chicago Southland
Chicago Southland is bordered roughly by Interstate 55 to the north; Interstate 80 and the Indiana border to the south; the city of Joliet to the west; and Chicago proper to the east. The Chicago Southland CVB represents 61 towns and cities in this highly diverse, 400-square-mile area.
“You go everywhere from urban to rural in the matter of one expressway,” says Mary Patchin, director of sales at the Chicago Southland CVB. “The southern portion [of our area] is growing in leaps and bounds, just astronomically, especially with the Interstate 355 extension opening up, and it’s created a lot of growth, whereas Oak Lawn and Alsip are more established communities.”
The region is particularly convenient to the increasingly popular Chicago Midway Airport, and its diverse lineup of attractions includes 33 golf courses; professional theater companies; symphony; museums; Balmoral Park Race Track harness-racing facility; and the new Toyota Park, which is the home of Major League Soccer’s Chicago Fire and is also available for special events.
Visitors in the mood for antiquing can head for the Southland cities of Blue Island, Crete, Frankfort, and Orland Park, which are especially noted for their highly walkable “antique rows.”
In Joliet, located along the Heritage Corridor, attendees can enjoy riverboat casino gaming and NASCAR racing at the 75,000-seat Chicagoland Speedway.
Hotels in Chicago Southland that are well suited to groups include Holiday Inn Select Hotel and Convention Center in Tinley Park; Hilton Oak Lawn; Doubletree Hotel Alsip; Chicago Park Hotel in Harvey; and Chicago Marriott Midway, one of seven properties at Midway Center Hotel.
The Doubletree Hotel Alsip just finished renovating its restaurant, while the Hilton Oak Lawn renovated all its meeting space in 2007, and the Holiday Inn in Matheson revamped its entire property in 2006.
Meanwhile, the Irons Oaks Environmental Learning Center will be of particular interest to planners. This corporate team-building facility in Olympia Fields is a unique, 37-acre nature preserve that offers ropes courses, climbing walls and other activities that help groups bond. Meeting facilities are also available.
For More Info
Aurora Area CVB 630.897.5581
www.enjoyaurora.com
Chicago Convention and Tourism Bureau 312.567.8500
www.choosechicago.com
Chicago Southland CVB 708.895.8200
www.cscvb.com
Chicago’s North Shore CVB 847.763.0011
www.visitchicagonorthshore.com
DuPage CVB 630.575.8070
www.discoverdupage.com
Elgin Area CVB 847.695.7540
www.enjoyelgin.com
Greater Woodfield CVB 847.490.1010
www.chicagonorthwest.com
Heritage Corridor CVB 815.727.2323
www.heritagecorridorcvb.com
Lake County CVB 847.662.2700
www.lakecounty.org
Lisle CVB 630.769.1000
www.lislecvb.com
Oak Park Area CVB 708.524.7800
www.visitoakpark.com
Prospect Heights CVB 847.577.3666
www.chicagonorthsuburbs.com
Rosemont Convention Bureau 847.823.2100
www.rosemont.com
St. Charles CVB 630.377.6161
www.visitstcharles.com
