For Brenda Dreier, CMP, director of event management for the Geneva, Ill.-based Association for Laboratory Automation, the cozy feeling and bountiful activities offered by Palm Springs is more than enough reason for her group to come back again and again.
“We have such great success there,” she says, adding that her LabAutomation group has spent a January week in “The Springs” since 2006—besides meeting there many times before—and plans on returning at least through 2012. “We moved out of there for awhile and we found that our members and exhibitors asked to go back. We have a lot of attendees from the Northeast, and they said it’s a great place to be at that time of year.”
In addition to the availability of an ample, modern convention center, the compact nature of Palm Springs appealed to her group of nearly 5,000 by creating a closeness that’s sometimes lost in much larger destinations.
“In Palm Springs we became a citywide,” she says. “It’s a nice, community feeling, and it extends the community of the event beyond the convention center.”
Dreier’s group utilized the Palm Springs Convention Center and about 1,200 rooms in roughly seven properties, but didn’t feel lost in the shuffle.
“While we were in seven hotels or whatever, it doesn’t feel like you’re completely spread out, because the area where the hotels are is so compact,” she says. “All of the restaurants are there, too, so when people are out walking around they’ll run into each other. If you go to L.A., once you leave the convention center you’re lost—it’s just so spread out for a group of our size.”
Even though Palm Springs is associated with movie stars and posh desert resorts, Dreier also found the price tag reasonable.
“Another reason we’ve selected it is its affordability over some of the other Southern California options, which some might not think [would be the case] in a desert community in January, but it’s true,” she says.
Holding the meeting in January also contributed to the availability of activity options, she says, adding that many members took it upon themselves to set up their own tours of Joshua Tree National Park, take desert Jeep tours or head out for golfing on the area’s championship courses.
“We didn’t organize any golf trips, but I know it’s happening,” she joked.
Dreier says that many of her attendees came from or flew through the Chicago area, which offers a direct flight to Palm Springs that works well for her international delegates, and some jetted in to Los Angeles and drove about two-and-a-half hours to the destination.
“It’s been a great destination for us,” she says.
