Past meets future in dramatic fashion on Florida’s Central East Coast, set against the ocean midway between Miami and the Georgia state line. Where pirates once plied the waters in galleons propelled by wind, shuttles launched from the Kennedy Space Center now hurtle into outer space. Where automotive pioneers (with names like Olds and Ford) once raced new-fangled roadsters on the hard-packed sands of Daytona Beach, today’s skilled drivers pilot high-performance race machines at breakneck speeds around the 2.5-mile tri-oval of Daytona International Speedway. And where spring breakers once shared the beach with surfers and migrating sea turtles, convention and meeting delegates are the new familiar faces among the crowds who descend on this high-thrills, low-stress slice of Florida coastline.
Daytona Beach
Right from the start, the Daytona Beach area was an eclectic mix of surf and sand, race cars and diesel fumes, a unique blend that earned the region its nicknames: “The World’s Most Famous Beach” and “Birthplace of Speed.”
Now there’s a new nickname for this oceanside city famed for its eponymous speedway and LPGA golf: “Convention Capital,” thanks to the early October unveiling of the long-awaited expansion at the Ocean Center, a convention, sports and entertainment complex set near the Atlantic. Once a modest 60,000 square feet, the Ocean Center now offers 200,000 square feet of interior meeting space, including 33 new high-tech breakout meeting rooms and an oceanview concourse and mezzanine, making it the sixth-largest convention center in Florida, says Tara Hamburger, sales manager for the Daytona Beach Area CVB.
“We are now able to open the doors up to larger groups who could not use us in the past,” she says.
Multiple large groups are another new possibility, reports George Recktenwald, acting director of the newly expanded center. “It gives us a lot more flexibility, with the arena and connected exhibit hall, allowing us to hold multiple events at the same time,” he says. “That was not possible before. And we’re seeing a lot more interest because of it. So far, it’s been a smashing success,” he adds.
But while the expanded center is up and running, the project as a whole is nearing final completion as the finishing touches are put on the E-Zone, a conversion of Auditorium Boulevard—which links Ocean Center to the historic Peabody Auditorium—into a landscaped pedestrian mall for foot traffic and informal gatherings between the two group venues.
“We’ll be able to flow our events out into this space,” Recktenwald says.
With the Ocean Center expansion finally complete—advancing Daytona Beach to a second-tier convention market—the region’s past life as a spring break playground melts further into the background, though it’s a label the CVB still works to erase, Hamburger says.
“It is so hard to escape the stigma of a spring break town and reeducate planners, but once we get them here, they are just very impressed,” she says. “The groups who have been down to see all that has taken place are just amazed. Amazed at the convention center and amazed by all that Daytona Beach has to offer.”
Indeed, though spring break traffic has dwindled, Daytona Beach still knows how to have a good time, as any group booking an event at the Daytona 500 Experience soon discovers. Billing itself as “the official attraction of NASCAR,” this offshoot of the Daytona International Speedway offers 60,000 square feet of interactive motorsports activities, including timed pit-stop competitions, race car design and video testing, and racing simulators like Acceleration Alley, which pits delegates against each other in the race for the checkered flag, as well as the new ARCA Driver Development Program simulator, consisting of four racing cockpits with 42-inch LCD screens.
Daytona International Speedway also offers a variety of spaces for group events, from the 3,240-square-foot Bill France Room, featuring a bird’s-eye view of the Daytona 500 Experience, to the new Boardwalk Club, an indoor/outdoor venue set within the race track’s infield.
Such unique venue options are complemented by a quintet of newly renovated luxury properties: the Hilton Daytona Beach Oceanfront Resort, the Plaza Resort & Spa, the Shores Resort & Spa, the Wyndham Ocean Walk and the Daytona Beach Resort and Conference Center—all boasting copious meeting space—as well as abundant smaller properties like the Best Western Aku Tiki Inn, offering 1,650 square feet of flexible function space.
Space Coast
If you wanted to test the idea that opposites attract, look no further than Florida’s Space Coast, where the Kennedy Space Center—NASA’s launch headquarters—is set within the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, gateway of the Great Florida Birding Trail and home to 140,000 acres of coastal dunes, forests, hammocks and marshes inhabited by 1,500 species of plants and animals. Groups can absorb the natural surroundings via the manatee observation deck, on a wildlife drive or by boating and paddling through the refuge’s waterways.
If you visit between the months of May and August, Space Coast beaches become a gigantic nursery as thousands of sea turtles lumber ashore to lay their eggs. Nighttime guided tours allow groups to witness this ancient, unchanging event up close.
Going from the Stone Age to the Space Age, though, only takes a few minutes here in the home of the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, which explores the past, present and future of the country’s space program through live shows, hands-on activities and behind-the-scenes tours, including custom tours for groups. The center’s newest addition is Eye on the Universe: The Hubble Space Telescope, an exhibit featuring powerful images that showcase the science of deep-space discovery.
But in addition to being a great off-hours attraction, the KSC Visitor Complex makes an incredible off-site venue for meetings, banquets and other functions, with event spaces that include the 100,000-square-foot Apollo/Saturn V Center, the centerpiece of which is a gigantic moon rocket, and the 5,765-square-foot Debus Conference Facility, which overlooks the center’s historic Rocket Garden.
“It’s unique to find yourself surrounded by the tangible greatness of the men and machines of America’s greatest accomplishments,” notes Thomas Olson, the complex’s director of marketing. “Whether you dine among iconic rockets or meet an astronaut, this is an experience in realism unmatched at any other destination.”
Beyond the cosmos, there’s plenty of space for fun and excitement in this region of Central East Florida, from hanging 10 on the waves of Cocoa Beach to exploring Old Florida along the vintage streets of Titusville, Historic Cocoa Village and Downtown Melbourne, not to mention plenty of meeting space at resorts like the Crowne Plaza Melbourne Oceanfront Resort and Spa, the Doubletree Hotel Cocoa Beach Oceanfront and the Radisson Resort at the Port.
For More Info
Daytona Beach Area CVB 386.255.0415 www.meetings.daytonabeach.com
Space Coast Office of Tourism 321.433.4470 www.space-coast.com/meeting
