Shopping for a meeting site in Florida? Whether you’re looking to save a little money or do a little splurging, Palm Beach and the Treasure Coast have plenty in store for meetings, from five-star resorts, designer shopping and glittering nightlife to untouched beaches, pristine nature preserves and hotel gems in settings of eco-seclusion.
Palm Beach
When oil and railroad magnate Henry Flagler extended his Florida East Coast Railway to Palm Beach in the late 1800s, he envisioned a winter retreat for wealthy Gilded Age travelers, and for a time, Palm Beach was just that—an exclusive enclave of palatial resorts where old-money snowbirds took the sea air and played croquet.
Today the original resort island of Palm Beach has expanded into a 2,000-square-mile county of 15 distinct districts, including Boca Raton and Delray Beach, though its reputation for pomp and panache is firmly in place at places like The Breakers, one of the original Flagler-built hotels, as well as the Boca Raton Resort & Club, A Waldorf Astoria Resort, the oceanfront Ritz-Carlton, Palm Beach and the elegant Four Seasons, all boasting copious convention space.
“We’re very proud of the long tradition of hospitality in Palm Beach County. We’ve trademarked the phrase ‘America’s first resort destination,’” says Jorge Pesquera, president and CEO of the Palm Beach County CVB. “We’ve had 115 years of hosting dignitaries and others since the early days of meetings. That’s part of the aura and mystique that make meetings in Palm Beach so special.”
Groups can absorb some of that glamour on tours of Flagler’s former estate, Whitehall, now a museum, or take to the waves via water taxi to view the fabulous mansions and yachts owned by the rich and famous that still call Palm Beach home. If rubbing elbows with the local glitterati has appeal, groups can stroll Worth Avenue, dubbed the “Rodeo Drive of the East,” where names from the couture stratosphere include Hermes, Pucci, Armani and Kors. Meanwhile, meetings enjoy a touch of class at such only-in-Palm-Beach locales as the International Polo Club, the National Croquet Center and the Palm Beach Yacht Club.
“We partner very closely with these venues and use them when we host meeting planner familiarization trips,” says Doug McLain, the CVB’s senior vice president of global sales, who also notes that the 9th annual PCMA Education Foundation Partnership Summit is set to descend on the PGA National Resort & Spa in Palm Beach Gardens from May 17-20. “It will probably be one of the country’s largest gatherings of meeting planners,” McLain says.
But impressive group numbers are becoming more common here, according to recent figures from the CVB showing double-digit growth in the group segment last fall.
“January 2012 was a record-breaking month in the history of the CVB, with 13,300 room nights booked,” McLain says.
Groups of all sizes and budgets are being accommodated here by a host of convention-minded properties, including the Delray Beach Marriott, home to 14,000 square feet of meeting space, and the newly renovated Hilton Singer Island, offering 7,146 square feet of space. Dozens of Doubletree, Wyndham, Hilton Garden Inn, Courtyard, Hampton Inn and Embassy Suites properties also dot the meetings landscape in Palm Beach County.
“In terms of resort and mid-market meeting facilities, I think we have a fantastic mix,” Pesquera says.
That isn’t even counting the 350,000-square-foot Palm Beach County Convention Center, the centerpiece of a conference and entertainment district that includes the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts, with multiple rentable spaces, and CityPlace, an open-air shopping and dining center set directly across from the convention center and featuring the multi-use Harriett Himmel Theater, which can host up to 900.PageBreak
Treasure Coast
Where Palm Beach County ends, Martin County picks up, though things actually slow down in this Old Florida enclave of small towns—Stuart and Jensen Beach among them—and big outdoor adventures like those found at the massive Jonathan Dickinson State Park, where groups can rent equipment for paddling and motorboating or hop aboard the Loxahatchee Queen II for a two-hour tour that includes a stop at the restored camp of Trapper Nelson, the “Wildman of the Loxahatchee.”
“What makes meetings and conferences unique in this area is that you’re outside the box,” says Rozeta Mahboubi, director of the Martin County CVB. “You can connect your mission to the venue. For example, if you’re an environmental group, you can meet at the Florida Oceanographic Center.
“We’re also bicoastal, with Lake Okeechobee on our western boundary,” she adds. “I consider us the ‘Panama Canal of Florida,’ because boaters can go from the Atlantic to the Gulf through the lake.”
Not going that far? Local marinas offer boating and fishing, while a new attraction, Sailfish Splash Waterpark, just opened in April with waterslides, a lazy river and Olympic-size pool, along with rental facilities for groups. The park joins a collection of unique group settings that include the visually striking Mansion at Tuckahoe, the Elliott Museum and more traditional venues such as the Hutchinson Island Marriott Beach Resort & Marina, home to 29,000 square feet of meeting space, though a customized group experience is the goal here, Mahboubi says.
“Because we’re a small destination, we can give groups the red carpet treatment,” she says. “We are a very visitor-friendly destination. People not only feel welcome, but it’s a lot less costly.”
Affordability is also an attribute stressed by Martin County’s neighbor to the north, St. Lucie County, whose two main cities, Port St. Lucie and Fort Pierce, are home to the region’s main convention venues, the Port St. Lucie Civic Center and the Havert L. Fenn Center.
“We’re right smack in the middle between Miami and Orlando, which are major convention hubs, but we’re probably a third of the price,” says Charlotte Lombard, manager of tourism development for the St. Lucie County TDC. “We offer more interesting activities, and more small-town charm,” she says, pointing to locations like historic downtown Fort Pierce, set against the Indian River Lagoon and home to attractions that include the 1923 Sunrise Theatre and the Fort Pierce City Marina, launch point for fishing and boat-tour charters and set minutes from the Fenn Center.
Meanwhile, the newly formed Fort Pierce Authentic Tours can take groups on adventures that include birding, scuba diving, kayaking, horseback riding, ranch and lagoon excursions, available all year long.
Meetings in St. Lucie are served by a cluster of hotels set within five miles of the Civic Center, with Hilton, Marriott, Holiday Inn and suite properties in the mix, along with larger properties like Club Med Sandpiper, offering a ballroom for group functions, and the sprawling PGA Village, home to three golf courses, a 35-acre practice facility and a museum of golf as well as a variety of on-site and nearby accommodations.
“All the PGA facilities are open to the public and pristinely maintained,” Lombard says. “Any golfing enthusiasts in the group are going to be overwhelmed by all the golf opportunities we have here.”
It’s only fitting in a county where the New York Mets hold spring training and where sports groups of every kind—including cheerleading, karate, volleyball and swim teams—regularly arrive for regional and national competitions.
“Sports events are huge for us; they’re a major part of our tourism,” Lombard notes.
The sporting ambience can also surround group events at the Vero Beach Sports Village, north of St. Lucie in Indian River County, where visiting teams train in rugby, lacrosse, baseball, football, tennis, soccer and other sports while meeting groups gather in 14,000 square feet of function space.
“We’re very well positioned for small to midsize meetings, and some of the most memorable and successful meetings, from conferences to retreats, take place here,” says Susan Belgam Hunt, director of tourism for the Indian River County Chamber of Commerce. “We have such an array of venues.”
Indeed, groups here also gather at lush McKee Botanical Garden, the imposing Riverside Theatre and the Vero Beach Museum of Arts, where rental spaces include an airy atrium. Meanwhile, hotel-based meeting space can be found at Costa d’Este Beach Resort, Disney’s Vero Beach Resort, the Vero Beach Hotel and Spa, the Holiday Inn Oceanside and the Caribbean Court boutique hotel, among others.
“We have great hotels. We’re a small town with big culture and we have highly competitive rates,” Hunt says. “These are the kinds of things that are leading people here.”
