Museums & Attractions
- Florida’s Coral Gables Museum is slated to debut late this year. The museum will showcase the civic arts of architecture, urban design and planning, as well as historic and environmental preservation. The facility will consist of the city’s original police and fire station with additions including a courtyard off of the main lobby, a new 3,000-square-foot gallery and a 5,000-square-foot public plaza on the northwest corner of the complex. Both buildings will be LEED certified, restored and constructed utilizing environmental practices and materials. The signature sculptures on the west side of the old station will remain, as will all original design detail. For more information, call 305.910.3996 or visit www.coralgablesmuseum.org.
Programs & Packages
-
The Austin CVB launched a new interactive tool to solicit convention groups: the Five-Minute Meeting Planner. This web application lets meeting planners quickly enter basic event details and compare the area hotels, service providers and vendors that can best accommodate their group or convention. To use the program, planners click on the Plan My Meeting in Minutes button at www.austintexas.org/meeting_professionals, then answer five questions about their meeting: dates, room nights necessary on peak, required meeting space and off-site facilities, and preferred neighborhood. The Five-Minute Meeting Planner quickly returns custom search results that fit the group’s requirements. Planners can map the venues and there is space to save notes for future reference. The tool leads the planner to explore destination information or to directly submit an RFP. The online tool is available through www.austintexas.org.
-
Hilton New Orleans Riverside developed the website www.riversideperks.com to offer planners a seamless approach to coordinating meetings filled with sustainable and team-building options. The new microsite blends together three basic initiatives: sustainability; unity and team building; and tools, perks and benefits. For sustainability, the specific focus is on waste reduction, energy and water conservation and clean air practices. The hotel offers planners programs to measure the impact and quantify the difference the group is making. Team building includes voluntourism options while the tools, perks and benefits initiative helps planners calculate the economic impact their meetings will have on the destination. For more information, call 504.561.0500 or visit www1.hilton.com.
-
Amelia Island Plantation, Fla., recently launched the Meet at Amelia Island Plantation program, offering free golf and more for meeting attendees. Each attendee receives 18 holes of complimentary golf on one of three championship courses on select dates from July to February 2011. Other benefits of the program include a free group activity, one-hour welcome reception, 25 percent audiovisual discount, 30 percent attrition and no resort service fee. The offer applies to new group bookings on stays of three nights or more with a minimum of 50 rooms per night booked by July 1. For more information, call 904.261.6161 or visit www.aipfl.com.
- > Marriott and Renaissance Caribbean & Mexico Resorts introduced its Meetings Matter More campaign. All meetings with 50 cumulative room nights or more held by Dec. 31 and select hot dates in 2011 receive perks such as 35 percent allowable attrition, one complimentary hotel room for every 35 paid rooms, 10 percent rebate to the master bill on hotel rooms and food and beverage revenue (for 100 or more cumulative room nights), 10 percent audiovisual discount, 2009 food and beverage pricing and one suite upgrade (with 40 peak rooms or more). Mexico resorts have the added incentive of a VAT tax rebate: 16 percent in Puerto Vallarta and 11 percent in Cancun. For more information, call 888.778.4722 or visit http://paradisebymarriott.com.