Together, the cities of Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill make up the Triangle area of North Carolina, a mix of the Old South and the cutting edge, the high tech and the historic. Separately, each destination shines in its own right, from the trendy restaurants, art galleries and museums in Raleigh to the contagious sports fever of the Bulls and Blue Devils in Durham, and the architecture, shopping and botanical gardens of Chapel Hill and Orange County.
The area is a magnet for any type of meeting imaginable. With Durham’s 7,000 acres of brainpower in Research Triangle Park, Chapel Hill’s educational pull as home to the University of North Carolina, and Raleigh’s $3 billion development boom, planners can have it all.
Raleigh
North Carolina’s capital city is transforming into a hip, upscale destination, with $3 billion in infrastructure under construction.
The biggest news in Raleigh is the upcoming opening of the new Raleigh Convention Center, set to debut this fall. With a 150,000-square-foot exhibit hall, 32,000-square-foot ballroom, 32,000 square feet of meeting rooms, and the new adjacent Raleigh Marriott City Center hotel, the city can go after much bigger markets, according to Denny Edwards, president and CEO of the Greater Raleigh CVB.
“The two most significant events are the opening of the convention center in October and the Marriott in July,” he says. “We now have a new market index we can capture, with a lot of the new hotel product fitting the upper luxury market.”
He added that nine new hotels will open this year, with 1,500 rooms entering the inventory, including the Renaissance Raleigh Hotel at North Hills. Five new hotels, including the Westin at Crabtree Valley and a Crowne Plaza, will come on-line in 2009, adding another 800 rooms.
The Umstead Hotel and Spa, which opened in 2007 in nearby Cary, is helping Raleigh to reach those lofty heights by being the first hotel in North Carolina to receive a AAA Five Diamond rating.
The new properties fit nicely with the city’s main markets—medical and science meetings, brought in by a number of nationally and internationally known hospitals plus the pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline, based in Research Triangle Park.
The average group size for Raleigh is 1,500 attendees to 2,000 attendees, Edwards says, although the city has booked groups as large as 5,000 people.
Raleigh also has plenty of attractions for off-site venues and attendee downtime, according to Edwards.
“We’re known as the Smithsonian of the South because we have so many quality museums and galleries in the area,” he says.
Popular sites in downtown Raleigh include the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, the Museum of History and the Museum of Art, which is in the midst of a $75 million expansion.
Also in downtown Raleigh are more than three dozen art galleries and 100-plus restaurants, many of which offer themed multicourse dinners matched with the perfect wine, from the “last dinner served aboard the Titanic” at the Angus Barn to the chef’s table at the AAA Four Diamond-rated Second Empire Restaurant and Tavern.
Meeting facilities in Raleigh include the RBC Center, a stadium with 700,000 square feet of event space plus 50,000 square feet of meeting space, and the McKimmon Conference and Training Center, which features 37,000 square feet of function space.
Durham
It can’t be proven, but just stepping into Durham may make visitors smarter. Home to the massive Research Triangle Park, dedicated to several biotech, pharmaceutical, telecommunications, and other cutting edge disciplines, as well as Duke University, it’s no wonder that the city can claim inventions like modern bar code scanners, BC Powder pain reliever and several other significant advances in science and health. In fact, Durham is known as the City of Medicine; one in three residents work in a health-related field here, and the city boasts six hospitals and 300 related companies.
Naturally, medical and educational meetings are strong here; the city can comfortably handle groups of from 500 people to 2,200 people. Smaller meetings are gaining ground as well, according to Shelly Green, COO for the Durham CVB.
“We host a lot of high-end board meeting retreats because of our upscale facilities,” she says. “We have four IACC conference centers, which, along with Research Triangle Park, draw in the corporate market.”
Durham is also on the receiving end of new development. Several new hotels will add upscale rooms to the city’s inventory, including a 207-room Westin property that is scheduled to open later this year; the 125-room Hotel Indigo Durham, set to debut this spring; and a boutique hotel and spa (currently unflagged), which is slated to open by early 2009.
New development is even popping up in the city’s sports scene, with Duke University’s Center for Athletic Excellence on track to open its doors this spring. The center will offer banquet space for up to 300 people, a viable option for groups that want to inject a little of that Blue Devil basketball spirit into gatherings, since the meeting space will overlook the training gym.
“In the past, we’ve had groups hold banquets on the floor where the Blue Devils play (in Cameron Indoor Stadium),” Green says. “This new center will appeal to people because of the Duke basketball legacy.”
Another popular sports venue is Durham Bulls Athletic Park, home of the much-loved hometown AAA baseball team. A new picnic area is available for groups, and packages include tickets as well as an all-you-can-eat buffet.
Other top picks for group activities include Duke Gardens, perfect for a spring reception, or Breakfast with the Butterflies at the Museum of Life and Science.
“The insectarium is an even temperature, so it feels great all year-round,” Green says. “Enjoying a continental breakfast while surrounded by butterflies is one of our most popular group events.”
Primary meeting facilities include the Durham Civic Center Complex, with 103,000 square feet of event space; the Washington Duke Inn and Golf Club, which offers 180 rooms and a 7,000-square-foot conference center; the Paul J. Rizzo Conference Center; and the 19,000-square-foot Charles Hamner Conference Center.
Chapel Hill/Orange County
Named for the highest point where a church once stood, Chapel Hill and surrounding Orange County continue to inspire visitors with a rich history, unique attractions and a picture-postcard backdrop of green hills and graceful architecture.
From the tree-lined campus of the University of North Carolina (UNC), the nation’s first state university, to Hillsborough, where the entire downtown district is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, heritage remains important to the area. But there’s also room for progress, according to Linda Ekeland, director of sales for the Chapel Hill/Orange County Visitors Bureau.
“We’ve got a lot of action going on,” she says. “New hotels are coming in, and renovations are happening as well.”
The Best Western University Inn closed last fall to make way for a new property, expected to open in 2009, and two of the area’s main meetings properties, Sheraton Chapel Hill and Courtyard by Marriott Chapel Hill, have undergone renovations within the last year, according to Ekeland.
A new attraction, the Carolina Basketball Museum, also opened this year. The facility is an 8,000-square-foot interactive multimedia museum dedicated to regional basketball. The museum opened on the first floor of the Ernie Williamson Athletics Center in January and is sure to become a popular site for receptions and other group events.
A Southern Season, a large gourmet and kitchen accessory store, is another hot spot for group activities, especially team-building culinary classes. The business often brings in chefs and food writers for tasty demonstrations, and has been noted in publications like the New York Times.
North Carolina Botanical Garden, the largest attraction of its kind in the Southeast, is another recommended outing for attendees, Ekeland says.
“For attendees with free time, we pack box lunches and do tours of the garden,” she says. “It’s a wonderful, relaxing way to balance the often intense world of all-day meetings.”
Educational and medical meetings are the largest sales demographic in the area, due to UNC and nearby access to other Triangle business interests, Ekeland says, and the ideal meeting size is 150 attendees to 200 attendees, although groups of up to 400 people can be accommodated.
The destination’s main gathering facilities include the William and Ida Friday Center for Continuing Education, with 25,000 square feet of function space and a 425-seat auditorium, while popular meetings hotels include the Carolina Inn, the Franklin Hotel, and the Residence Inn by Marriott–Chapel Hill.
For More Info
Chapel Hill/Orange County Visitors Bureau 919.968.2060
www.chocvb.org
Durham CVB 919.687.0288
www.durham-nc.com
Greater Raleigh CVB 919.834.5900
www.visitraleigh.com
