While Alabama is a state rich with tradition and history, planners looking for something new or out-of-the-ordinary will be pleased with what they discover. From the coast to the mountains, the Yellowhammer State is alive with group settings and attractions that break away from the everyday.
Here’s a look at some provocative possibilities for groups bound for ’Bama.
Gulf Coast Region
In Mobile, the big buzz is over a singularly spectacular $60 million, 90,000-square-foot riverfront attraction celebrating the maritime heritage of the Gulf of Mexico.
“It is an amazing venue both for regular tourists and convention groups,” says Stacy Hamilton, vice president of marketing and communications for Visit Mobile, referring to the brand-new GulfQuest venue. The new lure shows off 90 interactive exhibits, uniquely displayed in a life-size replica of a container ship, and offers substantial discounts for group visits.
Perhaps most impressive to planners is the array of possible spaces for group functions. Options range from the Shelby Room, with sweeping views and reception capacity for 280, to a full venue buyout for a grand affair hosting up to 2,500 guests.
And in the scenic Gulf Shores/Orange Beach region, Ally Mills Dorrough, the public relations coordinator with Gulf Shores & Orange Beach Tourism, highly recommends some memorable outdoor experiences to shake things up for meeting groups.
How many attendees have gotten to take over an island for a day of water sports? Sail Wild Hearts offers a 53-foot catamaran that offers this and other activities, including sunset cruises, from its dock across from the Perdido Beach Resort in Orange Beach.
River Heritage Region
In the Auburn-Opelika area, CVB Vice President Robyn Bridges says her bureau often promotes some cool collegiate venues to groups seeking something different and memorable.
For smaller groups, Bridges touts Auburn University’s Lettermen Lounge at Jordan-Hare Stadium, home to Auburn football. The snazzy setting can host about 100 attendees and is an ideal option for a group seeking a reception space that won’t break the bank; events here should be booked directly through the Auburn-Opelika CVB.
For planners hosting a larger function, Bridges points toward Auburn Arena, home to the university’s basketball and gymnastics squads—plus 12,000 square feet of banquet and function space. Event options include the Courtside Club, the Scholarship Terrace and meeting rooms.
In Opelika, an outside-the-box opportunity awaits at the Bottling Plant Event Center, a former Coca-Cola facility that can host groups of up to 1,500 for everything from conferences to exhibitions to reunions.
The state’s capital, Montgomery, is loaded with offbeat offerings, with two standouts being an outdoor oasis dedicated to the arts and a museum honoring one of America’s most legendary country singers.
Blount Cultural Park stretches across 77 acres, with eye-catching statues, endless hiking paths and plenty of ponds. But what’s truly unique about the enclave is its artsy lures, playing host to the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts and the acclaimed Alabama Shakespeare Festival at the State Theater. The 2016 slate of the Bard in ’Bama will feature two compelling comedies, The Comedy of Errors and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, with the season running from early March through early May.
Elsewhere in town, the Hank Williams Museum pays homage to the famed country star who moved to Montgomery in 1937 at age 13 and resided there until his untimely death from heart failure at age 29. Visitors can tour 35 showcases of memorabilia that include an immaculate 1952 Cadillac, and the venue is also home to occasional live country music performances as well.
PageBreak
Metro Region
Alabama’s largest city and home to about a fourth of the state’s populace, Birmingham is burgeoning with some new and unusual venues planners should ponder.
The just-opened Grand Bohemian Hotel Mountain Brook, Autograph Collection is an elegant boutique that stands out in a number of ways, including an art gallery showcasing both local and global works, interactive culinary and wine-focused courses, and a rooftop dining spot overlooking the Birmingham Botanical Gardens. Its 100 upscale guest rooms are bolstered by about 12,000 square feet of flexible event space.
Another new downtown venue grabbing attention is the Negro Southern League Museum, exhibiting the most extensive collection of original Negro League baseball collectibles in the nation, with items that date back to the late 1890s.
A well-established wonder in the city is Sloss Furnaces, an iron foundry for 89 years that after shutting down found new life as a National Historic Landmark. Home to metal arts programs and exhibitions, the sprawling compound boasts a number of unforgettable event spaces, ranging from a rustic furnace apron hosting up to 100 to a dramatic water tower base able to accommodate up to 300 for a seated affair.
“Groups love to use the cast shed at Sloss for social functions such as Hot Barbecued Gospel, a great outdoor event with barbeque and local gospel entertainment,” says Dilcy Hilley, vice president of marketing and communications for the Greater Birmingham CVB. “And Sloss Furnaces is also the setting for the enormously popular Sloss Music & Arts Festival in July.”
Additional interest at Sloss, she adds, is the speculation that the furnaces are haunted by a former foundry worker.
When it comes to something a bit different in Tuscaloosa, the city tempts groups with some unusual museums and some extraordinary alfresco opportunities.
Most people associate Mercedes-Benz more with Bavaria than Alabama, but the company’s Visitor Center 10 miles outside of Tuscaloosa is one of the state’s most popular attractions. Visitors can peruse dynamic exhibits on the company’s history and even take a factory tour.
Another unique venue in Tuscaloosa is the Mildred Westervelt Warner Transportation Museum, housed in the historic Queen City Pool and Pool House structure designed by Frank Lloyd Wright disciple Don Buel Schuyler. Groups can take a short tour or rent out the singular structure for a reception.
Intriguing outdoor offerings here include Moundville Archaeological Park, part of the Alabama Museum of Natural History, which was the recent recipient of a multimillion-dollar upgrade and is widely acclaimed as one of North America’s important prehistoric Indian settlements and ceremonial settings.
Mountain Region
Executive Vice President Charles Winters of the Huntsville/Madison County CVB touts a burgeoning brewing scene and some lodging-focused developments as refreshing new elements in the region.
“The craft beer industry in Huntsville and Madison is growing by leaps and bounds,” Winters remarks.
He notes that two local breweries are relocating to a former school with a new development called Campus No. 805. Yellowhammer Brewery will be in a newly built facility on the site, and the largest brewery in Huntsville, Straight to Ale, will earn the crown of largest in the state with its expansion, which will transform a gymnasium and part of a school building to a new brewery and tap room.
Winters adds that between the two breweries there will be an alfresco amphitheater along with ample space for food trucks and their customers, plus additional dedicated meeting space and even on-site catering available. He says that with eight local craft breweries, Madison County boasts the most breweries in the state, and adds that a ninth brewery—Green Bus Brewing—plans to debut a cozy “nano-brewery” in downtown Huntsville early next year.
Winters is also enthused about a new Hampton Inn slated to launch in the third quarter of 2016, in the city’s pedestrian-friendly Village of Providence neighborhood, as well as a $70 million downtown Huntsville development dubbed City Centre at Big Spring that will feature a hotel, apartments and retail and restaurant offerings. It is tentatively set to debut in 2016.
Florence/Lauderdale Tourism’s Georgia Carter Turner, the bureau’s communications manager, says her region’s rich musical heritage—known as the “Muscle Shoals Sound”— is a surprise to many newcomers.
“Meeting and event groups can see a lot of this history up close and personally,” she enthuses. “W.C. Handy, who was known as the Father of the Blues, was born in Florence and his home is open for tours. And the Alabama Music Hall of Fame honors music achievers from all over the state and can hold wonderful off-site events.”
