While it’s a given that Midwest resort locations offer plenty of family-friendly options for the guests of meeting attendees, what happens when the meeting is at a downtown hotel? How do cities accommodate guests before, during and after a business program, regardless of season?
The answer is that Midwestern cities often have an ample supply of activities for both attendees and their guests. While this year’s greater emphasis on business-only programs may have reduced the number of family guests at meetings, there has never been a better array of value-priced options to keep everyone entertained.
Milwaukee
While meetings where family members tag along are not the norm in Milwaukee, the city is well-prepared for them when they do come along, says Dave Fantle, spokesman for VisitMilwaukee, the CVB for Milwaukee.
"We have a couple of large annual conventions here, Northwestern Mutual Financial Network and Lia Sophia Jewelry, who do bring their families in large numbers," he says. "Northwestern is typically about 10,000 people. Lia Sophia is predominantly female attendees and they did bring in quite a few children. But these events are the exception here. We’ve really never seen a lot of family-oriented meetings though we certainly have the infrastructure to welcome them."
Among Milwaukee’s kid-friendly options is the Betty Brinn Children’s Museum, a great place for kids in preschool through early grades to play and learn, and Discovery World Museum, a showcase for science and technology that offers interactive exhibits for kids in the primary school grades. Both venues welcome private groups and can work out special
programs and activities that engage attendees and their guests.
At the new Harley-Davidson Museum, kids can enjoy a scavenger hunt. Participants get an Adventure Road Pack with everything they need to discover things within the site. Popular with kids and parents alike is a behind-the-scenes tour that provides answers to such burning H-D trivia questions as to why the hanging gallery is in the shape of a gas tank.
Families also enjoy the city’s natural side at places like the Milwaukee Zoo and Schlitz Audubon Nature Center. At the Milwaukee County Zoo Mining Company, located next to the zoo’s penguin exhibit, visitors can pan for gold, fossils and semi-precious stones and arrowheads. Spouses can enjoy a memorable catered meal experience at several zoo venues, including the aquatic and reptile center and the big cat feline center.
At eco-minded Schlitz Audubon Nature Center on the shores of Lake Michigan, attendees and guests can take in its 185 acres of natural beauty and can meet and dine in several of the center’s indoor and outdoor venues.
Shopping enthusiasts delight in Milwaukee’s Historic Third Ward in the downtown area. This former warehouse and manufacturing district offers the highest concentration of art galleries in the city, plus many restaurants, specialty stores and boutiques.
Kansas City
In Kansas City, Mo., family meetings guests have a lot of fun and educational options to experience besides legendary barbecue, jazz and the city’s array of decorative fountains, according to Michael Sinatra, president of Carey Kansas City, a local DMC.
He notes that there is a growing trend for meetings and conventions to serve as a combined business trip and family vacation, but that fewer organizations are willing to foot the bill for guests.
"We see lots of people turn their convention into a family event, so they bring the spouse and child along," he says. "But instead of the company paying for activities, they are on their own."
Adult family guests often opt for one of Kansas City’s most popular activity choices, the gangster tour, which is conducted by professional actors. Participants are immersed in stories of the city’s most notorious citizens while getting a look at mob homes and hangouts and the scenes of turf wars and crimes like the Union Station massacre.
"You learn a lot about Kansas City history on this tour, even though you remain on the tour bus," Sinatra says. "Groups can combine this tour with dinner in our Italian district. Garozzo’s Ristorante is the most famous and it can handle about 40."
For older children, a "Segway Safari" at the Kansas City Zoo is sure to please. Riders travel through African and Australian habitats in a whole new way that’s fun and efficient. Adults enjoy Segway tours of the historic Country Club Plaza, an upscale downtown shopping district of fountains, sculptures and Spanish-style architectural sites that was built in the 1920s.
Indianapolis
Meeting attendees with family in tow have plenty of options to "soak in the city" of Indianapolis, according to Chris Gahl, spokesman for the Indianapolis Convention & Visitors Association.
"We have plenty of opportunities for groups to integrate spouses and children into their formal agenda, as well as ways for the family to wrap vacation or time off around the meeting or convention," he says.
Indianapolis hosts family-oriented conferences like the annual Do It Best Hardware event, which brings in about 12,000 people to the city. The CVA assists with activities for education and entertainment at such venues as The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis, which offers 400,000 square feet of exhibits.
Among 11 permanent galleries, the Children’s Museum features a Victorian-era carousel, a science center, an official Indianapolis 500 race car and real paleontologists in the dinosaur lab. Tours and parties for children aged three to about 13 find an array of options within this museum.
Indianapolis offers plenty of entertainment for guests who are sports enthusiasts, particularly at such venues as the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and NCAA Hall of Fame, according to Gahl.
"Many ages of visitors enjoy the NCAA Hall of Champions here in Indy," he says. "It is walkable from the convention center and major hotels. NCAA sanctions 23 sports, and each one has a place in this museum. So men especially enjoy meandering through the memorabilia. And it’s a great place for special events, too."
The Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame is located right at the famed oval track where the Indy 500 happens annually. The museum has an eclectic collection of antique cars, including the first race winner, a 1911 Marman Wasp. Guests may take a grounds tour, then don helmet and racing suit for a thrill ride in a track car driven by a former competitive driver.
Minneapolis
Sam Thompson, president and CEO of metroConnections, a Minneapolis-based DMC, says his staff is well-versed in responding to today’s short-term meetings booking climate.
"We are finding planners don’t like to give guarantees they think they can’t meet, so we must have our tour guides and others on call," he says. "Though we have seen quite a drop in group demand, we are seeing an increase in independent same-day calls for services, especially online."
Popular choices from the company’s repertoire are the three-hour Twin Cities Highlights tour, a Mississippi River cruise and a tour that includes a downtown farmers’ market.
"Stillwater, an old logging town along the St. Croix River between Minnesota and Wisconsin, is a great choice," Thompson adds. "It’s only about 35 miles out of the city center, and we include a lunch cruise, wine tasting and antique shopping in the town."
Another tour offered by metroConnections focuses on the gangster history of St. Paul during the 1920s.
"We do tours with actors in costumes who hijack vehicles and maybe do a shootout," Thompson says. "We also take people to the rather famous Wabasha Street Caves that used to house a nightclub. Guests hear stories of mobster massacres and ghosts in a setting that’s memorable."
Chicago
Rose Horcher, managing director of client services for the Chicago CVB, says that while the last couple of years have brought a drop-off in family guests at meetings, Chicago remains ready to welcome guests with a big-city smorgasbord of activities and tour options.
For starters, consider a shopping program that includes The Oprah Store, which sells South African arts and crafts and other products, or try The ShopWalk, a guided neighborhood tour to some of the city’s hippest boutiques.
For more cultural submersion, there’s The Devil in the White City tour offered by the Chicago Architecture Foundation, based on a best-selling book that chronicles momentous local events during 1893, including the World’s Columbian Exposition. Participants do a virtual fair tour through photographs and also visit pertinent sites.
One of the hottest new options are Obama Tours that take people just a few miles south of McCormick Place to the southside of the city.
"People are interested in his house, where he gets his hair cut, where he buys ice cream, and so on," Horcher says.
Summer is the prime season in Chicago for family visits, she adds.
"We see more children coming in the summer season because there is so much for kids to do here, and because we are a big sports town with two major league baseball teams," she says. "Older children and children enjoy bicycle tours of Chicago neighborhoods and Segway tours of Millennium Park along the lakefront. And boat tours on Lake Michigan and the Chicago River are popular choices for all ages."
