Carrying the tagline “Cowboys & Culture. Only in Fort Worth,” the soul of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is a place where one can spend a few thousand dollars on custom-made boots at the legendary Leddy’s or be immersed in some of the top fine arts museums in the nation.
Filling in the rest of this Texas tableau is the modern downtown entertainment district of Sundance Square and nearby Bass Performance Hall—an opulent Art Deco showpiece—and the Old West homage of the Stockyards National Historic District, where Billy Bob’s Texas boasts the world’s largest honky-tonk and the Fort Worth Herd saunters down main street driven by dudded-up cowboy showmen.
With this wealth of culture and entertainment, and the new 614-room Omni Fort Worth Hotel, which offers nearly 70,000 square feet of meeting space across the street from the Fort Worth Convention Center, this “Cowtown” is grazing in high clover.
Selling the destination is meetings industry veteran David DuBois, president and CEO of the Fort Worth CVB who was integral in setting up what became a three-way sales partnership between Fort Worth, Baltimore and Sacramento, Calif., with the goal of attracting associations with annual meetings on a rotation.
And DuBois and his team have a lot to sell these days.
The new Omni, a Dallas-based up-market chain noted for its cutting-edge meetings programs and sophisticated, rock-solid decor, represents a substantial upgrade to the Fort Worth hotel product due to its ample meeting space and location across from the recently expanded and renovated convention center. Its catering staff even handles events at the convention center on an exclusive basis.
Other features of the Omni Fort Worth include 29 meeting rooms, the nearly 19,000-square-foot Texas Ballroom and 6,500 feet of lushly landscaped outdoor space.
The Fort Worth Cultural District is home to five world-class museums: the Kimbell Art Museum, the Amon Carter Museum, the Modern Art Museum, the Cattle Raisers Museum, the Museum of Science and History and the oh-so-Texas National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame.
And even though one may be tempted to saddle up and canter into town on the Chisholm Trail, these days it’s much easier to get your cowboys and culture via DFW Airport, a little more than 17 miles away.
