Whether relaxing in leafy Rittenhouse Square, visiting Independence National Historical Park (billed as America’s most historic square mile) or marveling at the Schuylkill River’s iconic Boathouse Row decorated in wintertime holiday lights, Philadelphia delivers an unmistakable sense of place.
Gateway to the Northeast and mid-Atlantic, Philadelphia sits between America’s financial capital, New York, and its headquarters, Washington, D.C. The City of Brotherly Love is within a day’s drive of 40 percent of the U.S. population, although the more romantic arrival is always by train into the landmark 30th Street Station, among America’s finest transportation hubs.
As the birthplace of American government and the new nation’s first capital, Philadelphia, founded in 1682, has been mastering the congressional arts for 327 years, endowing the city with a lasting legacy as a center of ideas and learning.
Today, meetings drive the local economy, with 41 percent of all in-bound business related to conventions, and 31 percent driven by corporate travelers.
“We are very focused on successful meetings,” notes Jack Ferguson, executive director of the Philadelphia CVB.
Philadelphia’s conference heritage extends to its countryside, where in nearby Valley Forge, George Washington held daily planning sessions during the Continental Army’s epic winter encampment of 1777-1778. Today, Valley Forge is a modern meetings force, boasting the country’s largest concentration of conference centers. And Bucks County is a bucolic, beautiful escape for smaller gatherings and getaways.
Philadelphia
A city of neighborhoods, town squares, public gardens and parks, Philadelphia, the nation’s sixth-most populous city, offers big-city amenities and allure while maintaining a small-town atmosphere.
“Compact and walkable, Philadelphia is a city that planners and conferees can truly engage,” Ferguson says.
Sixteen years ago, he continues, the opening of the Pennsylvania Convention Center “brought a new energy to the city.” Offering more than 440,000 square feet of exhibit space, a 33,000-square-foot ballroom and 50 meeting rooms, the center today remains the epicenter of Philadelphia’s robust convention business, which is certain only to grow following completion of its expansion, expected in 2011.
A key part of the “engagement” is the city’s hotel product, with pricing options across the board at more than 30 available brands. Of the more than 10,000 rooms in Center City, 7,800 of these units are within walking distance of the Pennsylvania Convention Center, with 3,600 within one block. Another 3,000-plus rooms are available at Philadelphia International Airport and in nearby New Jersey.
The Pennsylvania Convention Center expansion has inspired a wave of hotel renovations and new developments, with another 2,500 rooms to be added by 2013.
Two new hotels are slated to open this year: Le Meridien Philadelphia and Hotel Palomar, while Four Points by Sheraton Philadelphia City Center and aloft Philadelphia Airport recently debuted. The newcomers join existing meetings-ready favorites like Philadelphia Marriott Downtown, The Ritz-Carlton, Philadelphia and Doubletree Hotel Philadelphia, all newly renovated, as well as Hyatt Regency Philadelphia at Penn’s Landing and Park Hyatt Philadelphia at the Bellevue, home to the stylish XIX Nineteen restaurant, specializing in creative gourmet fare. Other top options include Loews Philadelphia; Four Seasons Philadelphia; Sheraton Philadelphia City Center; and Omni Hotel at Independence Park.
With the city’s powerful base in medicine, one-half of all Philadelphia conventions are related to healthcare and the life sciences. One of the city’s more beguiling attractions is the Mutter Museum, a collection of medical abnormalities not for the faint of heart.
Planning ahead, the Greater Philadelphia Life Science Congress—one of three distinct divisions created by the Philadelphia CVB to address specific markets—is working on branding Philadelphia as “America’s Life Sciences Meetings Destination.”
Bolstered by the efforts of the other two divisions, the Philadelphia Sports Congress, which leverages this sports-mad city’s extensive sports facility infrastructure, and the Multicultural Affairs Congress, which seeks to capture a share of this estimated $1.9 trillion market, the CVB’s sales and marketing initiatives are returning handsome dividends.
Last fiscal year, the CVB generated more than 768,000 future meetings and convention hotel room nights, valued at $1.2 billion in regional economic impact. Another win was a 27 percent lift in international visitors, the largest percentage increase for any major U.S. city.
“They are coming to discover our culture and history,” Ferguson says.
A veritable treasure trove awaits them; sweetening the appeal is that many of the attractions are free. That means complimentary visits to Philadelphia essentials such as the Liberty Bell Center, Congress Hall and the other sites within Independence National Historical Park.
A number of top-notch museums and galleries are also free, including the Rodin Museum (donation requested), The Galleries at Moore College of Art and the Old City District’s many private galleries. Of course, it always pays to visit The Franklin Institute Science Museum, The Academy of Natural Sciences and the magnificent Philadelphia Museum of Art, where a run up its 72 “Rocky” steps is a cultural necessity.
Philadelphia also lives by the great outdoors. Founder William Penn’s vision of a “Green Countrie Towne” was magnificently realized in the city’s Fairmont Park, at 9,200 acres the largest landscaped city park in the U.S. Whether hiking in the park’s Wissahickon Creek, strolling in the Horticulture Center or visiting the Fairmount Water Works (the first municipal waterworks in the U.S. and home to the ultra-romantic Water Works restaurant), you’ll easily forget that you are in a major metropolis.
There’s never any mistaking the love of sports in this town, though, home to 12 professional sports teams and state-of-the-art facilities, including Lincoln Financial Field, Citizens Bank Park, Wachovia Complex and The Liacouras Center. The hometown Phillies’ 2008 World Series win—their first in 28 years and the city’s first major sports championship in a quarter-century—was a home run for the city, and the Eagles have been in the top echelon of NFL teams for the last decade.
Valley Forge
Just outside of Philadelphia in Montgomery County, this suburban region, mixing a heavy corporate presence with rolling countryside, is especially attractive as a meetings and conventions destination. There are nearly 7,500 first-class hotel rooms in 50 properties—14 full-service convention hotels with seven state-of-the-art, IACC-accredited conference centers among them. It also offers the privately owned and operated 108,000-square-foot Valley Forge Convention Center, connected to two hotels: Scanticon Valley Forge Hotel and Conference Center and Radisson Hotel Valley Forge.
Trade shows are back in the mix, too, with the opening this month of the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center in Oaks, Pa. The center offers 210,000 square feet of contiguous exhibition space and large meeting rooms on one floor, plus three flexible halls, six drive-in doors, eight loading docks and 5,000 free on-site parking spaces.
“The center resurrects what we lost with the closing of the Fort Washington Expo Center in 2006,” says Paul Decker, president of the Valley Forge CVB. “With 32 pieces of business already booked for 2009, we are estimating a return of some $180 million and around 20,000 room nights.”
IACC-accredited for over a quarter-century, ACE Conference Center offers 120 guest rooms, 38 dedicated meeting rooms and a Gary Player championship golf course.
Valley Forge’s seven-member IACC collection also includes the 225-room Liberty Conference Center at the Crowne Plaza Valley Forge and the 160-room Scanticon Valley Forge Hotel and Conference Center, adjoined by the newly opened Waterford, a luxurious, multitiered ballroom. The 141-room Normandy Farms Hotel & Conference Center has 23,000 square feet of meeting space, while the 58-room Villanova Conference Center comes with the elegant Montrose Mansion for private functions. Rounding out the list are the 265-room Park Ridge Hotel and Conference Center at Valley Forge and the scenic, 194-room Desmond Great Valley Hotel and Conference Center.
Another top meetings option is the newly renovated Dolce Valley Forge, formerly the Hilton Valley Forge.
Valley Forge National Historical Park, the site of the Continental Army’s valiant winter encampment of 1777-1778, is of inestimable importance to American history. With more than 3,600 acres of rolling hills and well-worn trails, it is also a major outdoor draw. The vast expanse of open space links the Schuylkill River Trail to the Horse Shoe Trail, turning the park into a major hub in a 75-mile system linking Philadelphia to the Appalachian Trail.
King of Prussia, formerly called Reesville, was named in honor of Frederick the Great, King of Prussia, who was a valued ally of the British Army. The inn for which the area was named still stands today and is a historical landmark (1709); the town is also home to the King of Prussia Mall, the largest retail complex in the U.S.
Bucks County
The rustic, colonial-era treasure of Bucks County runs along the banks of the Delaware River and unfolds across a magnificent landscape of covered bridges, wineries, rolling hills and stone-walled fields.
With nearly 40 hotels and almost 50 bed-and-breakfast properties, the area is an ideal Philadelphia convention excursion or destination for small meetings and retreats, says Michelle Greco of the Bucks County CVB.
Dating to 1700, the town of New Hope, a strategic stop along the original Philadelphia-to-New York stagecoach route and Revolutionary War crossing point, was reborn as an artist’s colony in the 1920s. With a hopping restaurant and bar scene and attractions such as the New Hope Theater and the New Hope & Ivyland steam railroad, the riverfront town today is a major visitor draw.
Outside of town, executives seeking a secluded retreat have a high-tech conference table awaiting at the six-room Inn at Bowman’s Hill, an idyllic English country-style getaway created by owner and former pharma executive Michael Amery.
Larger hotel options in the region include Sheraton Hotel Bucks County.
In charming Doylestown, birthplace of novelist James Michener and home to the art museum bearing his name, the Fonthill Museum—a 44-room concrete castle built in the early 1900s—is a stunning backdrop for special events.
For More Info
Bucks County Conference and Visitors Bureau 215.639.0300 www.visitbuckscounty.com
Philadelphia CVB 215.636.3300 www.pcvb.org
Valley Forge CVB 610.834.1550 www.valleyforge.org
