Eastern Pennsylvania has a unique cache of American heritage sites in its urban districts and rolling verdant valleys, along with modern group facilities and activities. Groups that book business meetings in Philadelphia, Valley Forge and Bucks County often mix experiences of the past in local museums, unique venues and manor estates with contemporary adventures like exploring wine trails.
Mingling with the region’s icons of other eras is an enlarging portfolio of group facilities headlined by The Pennsylvania Convention Center expansion that opens in March.
Philadelphia
When the newly expanded Pennsylvania Convention Center debuts in central Philadelphia this March, it will offer 1 million square feet of useable space—528,000 of it contiguous—and one of the largest ballrooms on the East Coast. Included are 79 meeting rooms and a second floor-to-ceiling glass entrance only steps from The Avenue of the Arts and the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, the city’s culture corridors.
Danielle Cohn, marketing and communications vice president for the Philadelphia CVB, says the convention center’s expansion wraps up a complete multibillion-dollar Philadelphia meetings and visitor package that has been over a decade in the making.
"Our industry advisory board told us the overall package for meetings—including accessibility, facilities and affordability—is really important to business people. So the attendee is our major focus more than ever," Cohn says. "We now have technologies like an app called Find Your Philly for city exploration and a convention center concierge staff that is intent on making any attendee’s experience enjoyable."
Complementing the convention center expansion is the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts’ new Lenfest Plaza, an open-air piazza that also opens this spring. It will serve as a gateway to the city’s Museum Row and a great outdoor break option for attendees.
Hotel rooms within walking distance of the center now number 8,500, but more are coming in price points for all budgets. One of the newest facades is Le Meridien Philadelphia, a 202-room center city property situated inside a historic building. Features include 5,500 square feet of meeting space and the Adele Library, with floor-to-ceiling windows that overlook historic City Hall.
Philadelphia’s historic district and Old City are replete with iconic attractions, including Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell and the Betsy Ross House. The newest stop on the tour, located in Independent National Historical Park, is the President’s House site, a footprint of the original house and former home of President George Washington and his family.
Just across the street from the President’s House is the new National Museum of American Jewish History that opened in November.
There’s also plenty of buzz around the impending 2012 move of the renowned Barnes art collection from suburban Merion to the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. The storied Barnes collection contains an extraordinary number of paintings by art icons such as Renoir, Cezanne, Matisse and Picasso, among others.
Meanwhile, the Adventure Aquarium, which opened in 2005, is one of the city’s unique off-site venues, offering views of the Philadelphia skyline and intriguing exhibits that attendees can explore during events.
"We’re not kidding when we say Philadelphia is at the center of it all because it sits within a day’s drive of 40 percent of the U.S. population and is one of the most walkable cities in the nation," Cohn says.
Valley Forge
Outside the bustle of the city, the nearby Valley Forge area has several corporate headquarters and a lineup of conference centers and other facilities to serve groups. Besides its easy access by road, rail and air, Valley Forge offers groups an affordable choice in America’s vibrant northeast corridor.
Valley Forge’s 50 hotels have 7,500 guest rooms, and the Valley Forge Convention Center provides 108,000 square feet of function space. Connected to the center is the Radisson Hotel Valley Forge and the IACC-certified Valley Forge Scanticon Hotel and Conference Center. Among the many other Valley Forge conference centers are the IACC-approved Liberty Conference Center at Crowne Plaza.
One of the newest hotels in the Valley Forge portfolio is Hyatt Place Philadelphia/King of Prussia, with 129 rooms and 1,100 square feet of meeting space. Spring Hill Suites, a 110-unit hotel with fitness and business centers, is scheduled to open this spring. Hotel Sierra, a 147-room property adjacent to the King of Prussia Mall, will open next summer with 3,200 square feet of meeting space.
The Best Western Inn at King of Prussia recently completed an $11 million renovation and addition and now features 68 guest rooms and 2,000 square feet of meeting space. Wyndham Garden Hotel, the former Inn at Chester Springs, plans to finish a renovation this spring.
Sports is a rising events market for Valley Forge, and it has new venues to support the influx.
BucksMont Indoor Sports center is a new 78,000-square-foot recreational site for volleyball, basketball and field hockey. Competitive Edge Sports recently opened in King of Prussia and has 40,000 square feet for basketball and volleyball. YSC, a sports facility hosting soccer, lacrosse and field hockey, recently finished a 60,000-square-foot expansion.
The region also features plenty of diversions, including Valley Forge National Historical Park; Longwood Gardens, often called America’s premier horticultural display; and outdoor recreation options such as golfing, hiking, biking, boating and birding.
Bucks County
Smaller meeting groups use this enticing area north of Philadelphia as a unique base for conducting business. What they find is an impressive array of charming inns and bed-and-breakfast properties, unique cultural attractions, historical treasures and restaurants that satisfy the most discriminating palates.
Heather Walter, meetings, events and sports sales manager for Visit Bucks, says her CVB is ramping up meetings initiatives.
"We are offering customized landing pages on our website for groups to welcome attendees and connect to our new online housing system," she says, adding that the area can host groups of up to 2,000 attendees.
New hotels in the area include Homewood Suites by Hilton Newton, with 104 guest units and meeting space for up to 150. The newly renovated Courtyard by Marriott Langhorne has a refurbished lobby and The Bistro for dining. The 214-room Crowne Plaza Hotel Bucks County recently enhanced its offerings to accommodate 300 people in more than 5,500 square feet of function space. For after hours fun, PARX Casino is sporting a major renovation in its 260,000-square-foot space.
One of Bucks’ strongest group lures is its array of charming and unique venues. Peddlers Village is a popular retail stop that features an 18th century look, 70 specialty shops, six restaurants and the 70-room Golden Plough Inn. Also on the 42-acre landscaped site is Giggleberry Fair, a family "edu-tainment" center containing an antique operating carousel and spaces for meetings, lunches, dinners and other functions.
Two National Historic Landmarks, The Mercer and Fonthill Castle Museums, feature treasures of early Americana and space for meetings and events. The Mercer’s Elkins Gallery is a stately Georgian room for up to 150, and the Fonthill’s Terrace Pavilion has leafy surroundings and an intimate setting for up to 200 when combined with a tent. The historic Mercer Museum will finish a 13,000-square-foot expansion this spring that will display traveling exhibitions and collections from the Smithsonian and elsewhere.
