Principal
Miles & Stockbridge P.C.
Baltimore
Describe your event.
We have had a couple of annual partner/principal retreats at The Hotel Hershey for about 100 people, and we will be there again in 2009. The format is two room nights in the hotel, with about eight hours of business meetings. We do golf, tennis, biking, hiking and spa during the meeting. It’s a time to get all our principals in eight offices together for both serious business and social time. We are on a three-year rotation. One year, it’s just principal attendees, the next year everyone in the firm, and the third year is all attorneys, spouses and families. Hershey is for principals only.
Why did you decide to host the meeting in Hershey?
The Hershey Hotel is elegant, and they have been very accommodating to us. It’s also well located for us because we have offices in Maryland and Northern Virginia. I have a sort of three-hour radius in which I need to site the meeting.
What do your attendees seem to enjoy the most?
The spa and the Milton Hershey Suite for hospitality events—they like that a lot. The suite has lots of elegant space inside, and a terrace that overlooks Hershey’s legacy, the town of Hershey.
Has anybody been particularly helpful at the hotel?
Yes, my banquet manager, Donna Balmer, has been excellent. She is responsive, thinks about details, makes good suggestions, and oversees everything so that it happens the way we intend. In sales, Lauren Kautz has also been great with the contracting process.
Will you do anything differently for your 2009 meeting?
We pretty much stick to the same pattern, but I will be reviewing the new recreational activities they have added to the mix.
How does Hershey compare to other destinations where you have hosted meetings?
It is the best place we meet. The others aren’t far behind, but the architecture and elegant ambience of the hotel is wonderful, as is the staff and service. I think their spa is the best in the mid-Atlantic region.
Do you have any advice for other planners who might bring a meeting to Hershey?
If you can work the Milton Hershey Suite into your program, do it!