From the urban blitz of Detroit to the small-town bliss of Saginaw and Kalamazoo, Michigan delivers when it comes to meetings diversity. You want arts and high-tech? Ann Arbor has you covered. Resorts and relaxation? Try Traverse City. A step back in time? It’s gotta be Mackinac Island.
Add lakes as big as oceans, Motown, maritime and motor history, world-renowned educational centers, 800-plus golf courses and family-friendly resorts, and you just can’t go wrong bringing your group to Michigan.
But wait. There’s more.
Value for money. From Detroit, where hotel prices can be up to $100 cheaper than in comparable metropolitan areas, to Traverse City, where top resorts are offering crisis-conscious perks to groups, meeting planners often cite Michigan’s affordability as a major factor in booking.
Detroit
Whether you call it the Motor City or Motown, Detroit is a mythical place. Yet despite high-profile annual events such as the North American International Auto Show, “the D,” as locals call it, often falls off the meeting planner radar.
“We have found that many planners have never been to Detroit or were here 20 years ago,” says Chris Baum, senior vice president of sales and marketing for the Detroit Metro CVB. “When they do make a site visit, they are very surprised by what they find.”
Baum is referring to state-of-the-art convention sites, world-class sporting facilities and 40,000-plus hotel rooms. Add musical heritage, automotive history, Vegas-style casinos and a vibrant arts scene, and you have a hot meetings spot. So hot in fact that Detroit recently beat out Los Angeles for the much-sought-after Alcoholics Anonymous 2020 International Convention and its 50,000 attendees.
Major convention facilities include Cobo Center in downtown Detroit, with 2.4 million square feet of flexible space, and Rock Financial Showplace in the Western suburbs, with 320,000 square feet of function space. Sports venues include Ford Field, which hosted the 2006 Super Bowl, and Joe Louis Arena, home of NHL’s Red Wings.
Meetings-ready hotels include two recently renovated historic Detroit properties: the Westin Book Cadillac and the Doubletree Guest Suites Fort Shelby. Among the city’s large properties are Detroit Marriott at the Renaissance Center, Athenaeum Suite Hotel and Conference Center, MGM Grand Casino, Motor City Casino and Greektown Casino, which inaugurated a 30-story hotel in February.
Outside of the city, the 188-room Inn at St. John’s offers conference facilities and a highly rated golf course. The Royal Park Hotel features luxurious meeting space on the banks of the wooded Paint Creek. Other suburban hotels primed for meetings include the Hyatt Regency Dearborn, The Ritz-Carlton Dearborn, Sheraton Detroit Novi, Westin Detroit Metropolitan Airport and Crowne Plaza at the Airport.
There are also plenty of locally flavored venues, such as the Detroit Historical Museum; the Walter P. Chrysler Museum in Auburn Hills; the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village in Dearborn, which houses the Rosa Parks Bus, the Wright Brothers’ bicycle shop, Thomas Edison’s workshop and working Model-Ts; and Cranbrook Educational Community, a 319-acre National Historic Landmark campus of manicured gardens, art museums and 1920s manors.
Ann Arbor
“Ann Arbor is a place for everyone,” says Marianne Gosz, communications director for the Ann Arbor Area CVB. “This is a college town but so much more, and for groups we can accommodate any interests, from fine dining tours to art classes to unique facilities.”
The largest venue is the Eagle Crest Resort, featuring a conference center, a Golf Digest-ranked course and a 235-room Marriott. Other meetings-friendly hotels include the Four Points by Sheraton, Holiday Inn Near the University of Michigan, Kensington Court and Chelsea Comfort Inn & Village Conference Center.
The University of Michigan accommodates large groups with facilities such as Palmer Commons and Towsley Conference Center. Nearby Eastern Michigan University offers the spacious Convocation Center.
Unique meeting sites go from high tech at the Michigan Information Technology Center to high style at the Boardwalk Creative Center, an art-filled environment designed to unleash creative thinking.
Each July, Ann Arbor hosts one of the country’s biggest art fairs, but several venues add an arty touch to events year-round, including the Ann Arbor Art Center, which hosts both art-making classes and elegant receptions; The Hands-On Museum; and the University of Michigan Museum of Art, which debuted a $42 million expansion in March.
During downtime, attendees can climb the walls at Planet Rock, pick apples at Wiard’s Orchards, visit the Chelsea Teddy Bear Company, or take a tasty “Tour de Food” through the deli, creamery and bakery of Ann Arbor institution Zingerman’s Deli.
Saginaw
The Saginaw Bay is surrounded by maritime communities, rolling farmland and hundreds of lakes and rivers. It is also fertile ground for affordable, family-friendly meetings.
The Dow Event Center in downtown Saginaw is the area’s largest meeting facility, and it sits across the newly inaugurated 177-room Saginaw Plaza Hotel.
Other meeting facilities include Horizons Conference Center, Saginaw Valley State University’s Conference and Event Center, and Birch Run Expo Center, which is next door to the area’s top attraction: Prime Outlets, an outlet mall.
Meetings-ready hotels in the area include Apple Mountain Resort; the modern H Hotel, a Dolce Hotels and Resorts property; and the Doubletree Hotel Bay City Riverfront. In Frankenmuth, The Bavarian Inn is a family-fun facility with ample meeting rooms and unique downtime activities ranging from rolling pretzels to making strudel.
Among the off-site options are the Military and Space Museum, the interactive Mid-Michigan Children’s Museum and the Japanese Cultural Center. But the real draw in Saginaw is nature, and groups can book fishing charters to Lake Huron, canoe through the Shiawassee National Wildlife Refuge and visit Big Charity Island, a sanctuary of isolated beaches and hardwood forests.
Greater Lansing
“As home to Michigan’s state capital and a Big Ten university, Greater Lansing has all the resources needed to plan a great meeting,” says Julie Pingston, CMP, senior vice president of the Greater Lansing CVB.
This means state-of-the-art conference centers, Big Ten sporting facilities and interesting speakers ranging from legislative movers and shakers to cutting-edge researchers are readily available.
Lansing Center is the largest facility and is adjacent to the recently renovated Radisson Hotel. Other meetings-ready properties include East Lansing Marriott, Sheraton Lansing and the Kellogg Hotel and Conference Center.
Michigan State University campus venues include The Henry Center, an all-inclusive conference center with a golf course and 128-room hotel; the Breslin Student Events Center; and The Spartan Club, a posh lounge overlooking the football stadium.
Unique off-site venues include the Golf Digest-acclaimed Hawk Hollow Golf Properties; Grand Ledge Opera House, built in 1884; The English Inn, a 1927 Tudor Revival mansion; and the R.E. Olds Transportation Museum.
Le Chat Gourmet offers culinary team building and attendees enjoy the historic Old Town district, Impressions 5 Science Center, the orchards at Uncle John’s Cider Mills and Country Mill Farms, and steamboat rides on the Grand River.
Grand Rapids
Michigan’s second-largest city, Grand Rapids, has recently emerged as a dynamic cultural and urban hub. But it hasn’t forgotten its Midwestern roots, according to Janet Korn, vice president of marketing for the Grand Rapids/Kent County CVB.
“Alongside top-tier facilities and an amazing arts scene, planners will find small-town friendliness and affordable prices,” Korn says.
The largest meeting space is DeVos Place, a 1 million-square-foot convention center connected via covered walkway to over 1,100 hotel rooms in three properties: JW Marriott, Amway Grand Plaza and The Courtyard by Marriott.
Other meetings hotels include the Crowne Plaza, the Grand Inn and Conference Center, the Prince Conference Center, the Radisson Hotel Riverfront and the Hilton Grand Rapids Airport.
For off-site venues, planners can utilize the Gerald R. Ford Museum, The Public Museum and the Grand Rapids Art Museum, which opened in 2008 as a nationally certified reference for green, sustainable building.
The Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park offers 125 acres of sculpture-filled botanical gardens and various reception spaces, including an outdoor auditorium perfect for private concerts; an Amway group booked Sting to perform there in May.
Muskegon Area
“There is just such an amazing array of things to do in Muskegon that it really surprises planners,” says Jill Foreman, Tourism Manager for the Muskegon County CVB.
Start with the area’s rich maritime history. The Great Lakes Naval Memorial and Museum inaugurated a new reception-ready facility in June, right next to the WWII submarine Silversides. The LST 393, a D-Day landing tanker, hosts tented parties on deck complete with 1940s big band performances. Port City Princess Cruises offers themed cruises on the lakes. A highlight is the passage through the channel connecting Muskegon Lake to Lake Michigan.
Back on land, meeting facilities include the LC Walker Arena, the Muskegon Harbor Holiday Inn and The Stevenson Center at the Muskegon Community College.
Two large meetings favorites in the Muskegon area—the Double JJ Ranch, Waterpark and Golf Resort and the Shoreline Inn—promise upgrades of facilities as each undergo transitions to new management.
Kids love the endless miles of beach and Michigan’s Adventure, the state’s largest water and amusement park, while attendees and spouses enjoy the Historic District, including the Lakeshore Museum Center, which houses both a Depression-era home and a 19th century lumber baron’s mansion.
Come fall, groups will also be able to take cooking classes, enjoy receptions and do culinary team building at the new Culinary Institute of Michigan.
Kalamazoo
Located midway between Detroit and Chicago and chock full of arts, culture, science and nature, it is clear why Kalamazoo County bills itself as “easy to get to, hard to leave.”
“We have three universities here and all the benefits of that, from state-of-the-art facilities to educational speakers to a very rich artistic community,” says Mary Ridderman, director of sales for the Kalamazoo County CVB.
The largest meeting facility is the campus of Western Michigan University itself, which offers dozens of meetings options. Other venues include the Michigan Technical Education Center at Kalamazoo Valley Community College and the Kalamazoo Fairgrounds.
The largest meetings-ready hotel is the 341-room Radisson Plaza Hotel & Suites. The hotel’s four restaurants regularly host cooking events, including culinary team-building options. The Holiday Inn West completed a $10 million makeover last year that included expanded function space.
Nature adds a spectacular backdrop to venues such as the Yarrow Golf and Conference Center; the Kellogg Biological Station; the 1925 Kellogg Manor; and the Kalamazoo Nature Center, located in an old growth forest.
Indoor activities are pretty spectacular, too, especially those at the Air Zoo, a Smithsonian-affiliated museum that houses classic aircraft, flight simulators and a zero gravity tank. The Air Zoo is in the midst of an expansion. Gilmore Car Museum is also expanding with hands-on activities and additional reception space in the works. The Parks Trade Center houses some 65 artist studios and offers “make and take” events for groups.
Traverse City/North Michigan Resort Area
The Traverse City area doesn’t seem to have trouble attracting groups considering Michigan, according to Brad R. Van Dommelen, president of the Traverse City CVB.
“We are a very desirable destination, and meeting planners tell us all the time that their events in the Traverse City area draw record attendance,” he says.
The reasons are beautifully clear—the turquoise waters of Grand Traverse Bay and Lake Michigan, rolling green hills of vineyards and cherry orchards, and 180 miles of powdery-soft beaches and dramatic dunes. Add world-class resorts, luxury spas, award-winning golf courses, wet-and-wild waterparks, casinos, wineries, boat tours and quaint lakeside villages full of art studios, boutiques and fine dining, and you have a perfect meetings resort.
The destination’s three largest meetings properties are in fact resorts: Grand Traverse Resort; Great Wolf Lodge, which opened a high-tech conference center last year; and Shanty Creek Resort, which has a new Lakeview Conference Center.
Farther north, the seaside ports of Petoskey and Harbor Springs boast cobblestone streets, 1930s Victorian mansions, art galleries, boutiques and world-class, meetings-ready properties. The Inn at Bay Harbor and Bay Harbor Resort are popular for group retreats.
Just inland, Boyne Highlands Resort and Boyne Mountain Resort are jointly owned and can be booked together for larger gatherings.
Moving east into the lake-rich region of northern Michigan are several top meetings spots, including Treetops Resort, Otsego Club and Resort and Garland Resort.
Mackinaw City and Mackinac Island
The Straits of Mackinac is where Lake Michigan meets Lake Huron, and naturally, lake sports—fishing, parasailing, sunset cruises—are plentiful, but so is history.
Mackinaw City is not a city at all but a quaint lakefront village full of boutiques and old-time candy shops (fudge is a local obsession). National Historic sites include the 1770s fort Colonial Michlimackinac; the Old Mackinac Point Lighthouse; and Historic Mill Creek, an 18th century working mill with a very modern zip-line offering glides through the treetops. All three properties are available for group receptions of up to 300.
Larger hotels with meeting space include Best Western Dockside Waterfront Inn, Holiday Inn Express and Clarion Hotel Beachfront.
Mackinac Island is just 20 minutes by ferry from Mackinaw City, but a world away. This 1,800-acre gem preserves an 1820s downtown of historic buildings, a national park of lush forests and limestone bluffs overlooking the lakes, and, since 1898, a strict no car policy. But don’t let that become a concern, says Ken Hayward, vice president of sales and marketing at Grand Hotel, the island’s most famous property.
“Planners sometimes question the logistics of groups getting to Mackinac, but once they visit us, they realize what an efficient system of handling passengers and luggage via horse-drawn taxi transportation we have,” Hayward says. “It makes getting here part of the Mackinac experience.”
Other meetings-ready properties include Mission Point Resort, Iroquois Hotel and Lake View Hotel.
For interesting off-site options, planners can take advantage of the greenhouses of the Wings of Mackinac butterfly conservatory; Fort Mackinac, which boasts spectacular vistas over the straits; and the Stuart House Museum, an 1817 mansion, where the American Fur Company Trading Post was once headquartered.
