Your budgets may be smaller than usual, your time always crunched, but if you bring a group to Central Florida, you might find yourself dusting off the word “unlimited” and applying it to everything from hotel and resort variety to venue creativity.
In a region where outdoor adventures hold their own against theme park techno-thrills, and the local critter everyone expects to see—the alligator—competes for attention with thoroughbred horses and native birds, you can assume that finding innovative meeting spaces and things to do won’t be a problem. Especially when the destination keeps dreaming up new ways to host and entertain meeting groups of every kind.
Orlando
With its theme parks and attractions, whimsical hotels and dining attractions, Orlando has long challenged the notions of conventional meeting space, but now the destination is defying the recession as well, welcoming a record-breaking 51.45 million visitors in 2010, an increase of 10.5 percent over 2009, according to figures released by Visit Orlando. Also on the rise—the number of groups adding back time at the parks and other group activities that may have been trimmed in leaner days.
“We’re seeing groups going back to adding more content, where for a while, they really just had to come in and get down to business and get people back out,” says Tammi Runzler, Visit Orlando’s senior vice president of convention sales and services. “It’s just a fact that when people come to Orlando, there is a certain expectation of having at least a little bit of that theme park experience. And we’re starting to see planners say, ‘Yes, we know attendees want to do that, we know it gives them a chance to experience the destination and spend more time together.’”
Many attendees are no doubt heading to Universal’s Islands of Adventure, where the new Wizarding World of Harry Potter attraction has generated “an excitement that hasn’t yet started to wane,” Runzler says.
In 2013, the momentum may swing back to Walt Disney World as the Magic Kingdom unveils the largest expansion in its history, adding to Fantasyland with a ride-through attraction based on the animated classic, The Little Mermaid; while for groups, there will be a variety of new private-event venues and entertainment options.
But the parks aren’t the only ones with big plans on the drawing board; the entire city is in the midst of a $4 billion construction boom, welcoming or anticipating a host of new projects, including the 600-acre “medical city” complex at Lake Nona, where the Nemours Children’s Hospital and Research Campus and other facilities will open in 2012.
New hotels are in the mix as well, along with a variety of new facilities in downtown Orlando, whose latest showpiece is the $380 million Amway Center, home of the NBA Orlando Magic, where groups can gather in five banquet rooms, a rooftop bar, a full-sized practice court and the 31,000-square-foot arena floor.
Steps away are the restaurants and clubs of Church Street, while nearby, a new performing arts center just broke ground in June.
“It’s giving people a new part of Orlando to see and experience when they’re here,” Runzler says. “Downtown Orlando is recapturing the excitement it had a few years ago.”
Kissimmee
Orlando’s neighbor to the south, Kissimmee, is boasting its own boomlet of expansion projects, with a new Embassy Suites opening its doors in 2012 and extensive renovations at two major convention properties—the Omni Orlando Resort at ChampionsGate and the Gaylord Palms Resort & Convention Center.
Meanwhile, the CVB recently put meetings on the front burner by doubling the size of its event services department, breaking it out of sales and setting up a dedicated staff “to really help with groups who need extra attention, more than they can get from just the hotels as far as coordinating activities,” says Shelley Maccini, the bureau’s new executive director. “It’s just a commitment on our part, to make our groups feel welcome and be more responsive than we could before.”
Though right in the hub of Central Florida’s attractions scene, the Kissimmee area sits near the vast acres of undeveloped prairie lands, forests and lakes of Osceola County, so if a group wanted to escape civilization, they wouldn’t have to go far. Local facilities, including a large network of vacation homes, can assist.
“Our vacation homes have really developed a niche for themselves as settings for board meetings and retreats,” Maccini says. “We also have our own airport, for private service. So it really does bring the whole package together to provide a more remote experience, and a more personalized experience in a lot of ways.”
When groups are ready to emerge, they can explore the local landscape on horseback via outfitters like Horse World Stables, zoom across a pristine lake surface with one of many airboat operators, or take in some ropin’ and ridin’ action at the Silver Spurs Arena, which hosts the Silver Spurs Rodeo and other events throughout the year.
Seminole County
Set north of Orlando and billing itself as “Florida’s natural choice,” Seminole County also offers an escape from the hubbub while remaining in the attractions hub a mere 15-minute drive away from downtown Orlando.
“We like to brag that when you want to get away from it all and still be close to everything, come to Seminole County,” says Sharon Sears, executive director of the Seminole County CVB. “We’re so centrally located, 30 minutes from the attractions, 30 minutes from the beaches, it’s just a perfect location for people who are here for meetings.”
An added attraction: “Our hotels are a third less expensive than our neighboring counties,” Sears says. Area properties include the Hilton Orlando/Altamonte Springs, the Embassy Suites Orlando North, the Orlando Marriott Lake Mary and the new Westin Lake Mary, with 14,000 square feet of meeting space.
Outside of meetings, groups are sure to relish such leisurely pursuits as canoeing and kayaking—the county boasts some 2,000 freshwater lakes and rivers—as well as history hunting through the downtown districts of Sanford, Longwood and Oviedo. Breakout sessions in local parks are not out of the question, either.
“It’s a nice change for people who want to be away from the hustle-bustle of everyday life,” Sears says.
Lakeland/Polk County
The pace slows down even more in the laid-back town of Lakeland, set midway between Tampa and Orlando and surrounded by the rolling countryside of Polk County, yet checking in with the 100,000-square-foot Lakeland Center and adjacent 127-room Hyatt Place.
Small-town charm reigns supreme here, as attendees will discover while roaming the antique districts of Lakeland, Winter Haven and Lake Alfred, or while taking an architecture tour through lovely Lake Wales, whose historic structures include homes dating back to the early 1900s.
Lake Wales is also where you’ll find Bok Tower Gardens, a sanctuary of shade trees, ferns, palms and pines, with winding pathways and quiet ponds. The peace is disturbed only when the tower’s 60-bell carillon peals during concerts at 1 and 3 p.m., while brief recorded carillon music fills the garden every 30 minutes. Against this serene backdrop, two lecture halls and a conference room are available for meetings.
Bok Tower is but one of many unique venues in Polk County; others include the Fantasy of Flight vintage aircraft museum, featuring an Officer’s Club for group events; and the Chalet Suzanne restaurant and country inn, with small meeting rooms for groups of up to 30.
Meanwhile, the countdown is on for the opening of Legoland Florida, a 150-acre interactive theme park which will be unveiled this October on the site of the former Cypress Gardens in Winter Haven. Overlooking the new attraction will be the Best Western Park View Hotel, with 5,000 square feet of meeting and banquet space.
Ocala/Marion County
Kissimmee isn’t the only horse country in these parts. North of Orlando, Ocala and surrounding Marion County are home to hundreds of horse farms, many open to visitors. Not surprisingly, the equestrian theme is prevalent throughout the region, and your group can expect to take horse-and-carriage tours, go trail riding and attend special events like the Horse Shows in the Sun (HITS) Ocala Winter Circuit, a series of jumping competitions held over a seven-week period.
Besides fun of the four-legged variety, you can put your own two feet to use on hikes through Ocala National Forest, or check in at one of the state’s first-ever attractions, Silver Springs, where glass-bottom boats glide over clear springs and river cruises explore the park’s 10,000-year history.
More up-to-date are the hotels and venues serving meetings, including the Hilton Ocala and the Courtyard Ocala, and—for groups that want to get away from it all—the Horseshoe Lake Park & Retreat.
Gainesville
North of Ocala, expect a refreshing time in Gainesville—after all, Gatorade was invented here at the University of Florida in 1965. But the Gainesville area is also home to dozens of freshwater springs, many of them first-magnitude, meaning they discharge at least 100 cubic feet of water per second. If you can tear attendees away from these cool, impossibly clear bodies of water, your group can time-trip through history at the Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings House in Cross Creek, a typical 19th century Cracker-style house; or glimpse birds, bison and wild Spanish stallions at Paynes Prairie State Park Preserve, a 21,000-acre wilderness sanctuary located just 20 minutes from downtown Gainesville.
And at day’s end?
“A dine-around in historic downtown Gainesville is such fun for all the attendees, and no work for the meeting planner to arrange,” says Nancy Fischer, director of sales for VisitGainesville. “We will take care of it.”
Meetings in Gainesville are hosted at hotels that include the Gainesville Hotel and Conference Center and the Hilton University of Florida Conference Center, as well as at several venues on the university campus itself. Meanwhile, VisitGainesville’s always-popular Conference Grant can help defray expenses; the twice-yearly program bestows up to $75,000 in grant funding, with individual grant caps at $10,000 for qualified meeting planners who conduct their conferences in Gainesville/Alachua County.
“Planners are very enthusiastic about the Conference Grant,” Fischer reports. “During our spring grant cycle, about 15 meeting professionals applied.”
