Through the eyes of a meeting planner, the beach is a blank canvas.
Miles of sandy white shorelines freckled with seashells and shaded by palm trees can serve as the perfect setting for anything from an intimate starlit dinner for 10 to a closing celebration for a 500-person incentive group—all with a built-in view that’s hard to beat.
Organizing events in a setting with a body of water steps away also means things like outdoor teambuilding activities, wellness sessions and boat excursions can be seamlessly integrated into group gatherings.
Plus, thanks to beach destinations having forever been a top choice for travelers of all kinds, accommodations are abundant and vary from private beachside cottages to 500-plus-room hotels with ocean views. Being leisure tourism draws, air travel to most popular beach towns is typically easy, too.
The beach may have just as many possibilities for group gatherings as it does grains of sand. Here are just a few ways planners have partnered with properties and CVBs in the West to create one-of-a-kind beach meetings.
[Related: 4 U.S. Beach Destinations for Meetings and Events That Deliver]
Visit Newport Beach
Newport Beach is a sunny coastal city in Southern California about 45 miles south of Los Angeles and less than 20 minutes outside of Irvine.
The city’s CVB, Visit Newport Beach, collaborated with the MPI Southern California Chapter (MPISCC) in reimagining its annual [WE]Con April 10-12 at the Renaissance Newport Beach Hotel.
Together, the CVB and MPISCC had a goal to “surprise and delight experienced planners and suppliers with engaging, destination-defining activities” that foster connection and appeal to attendees’ both personally and professionally.
Tapping into the city’s resources, Visit Newport Beach and MPISCC organized two group activities centered around destination immersion:
MOKE Destination Tour
MOKE electric cars are a throwback to the classic cruisers of the ’60s, beloved by SoCal celebrities like the Beach Boys and Cher. In partnership with Newport Beach MOKE, Visit Newport Beach destination experts chauffeured [WE]Con attendees via a MOKE caravan down the Peninsula to The Wedge, an iconic surf spot.
After a spin through Newport’s boutique amusement park, the Balboa Fun Zone, the group rode across Newport Harbor aboard a local favorite, the auto ferry. The MOKE tour ended with a festive, toes-in-the-sand reception at the Newport Dunes Waterfront Resort & Marina.
Duffy Boat Scavenger Hunt
A Newport Beach original, Duffy boats are small electric crafts typically topped with a colorful canopy. Easy to steer—and the picture-perfect setting for a charcuterie board—these boats have been a local favorite since the ’70s.
For MPISCC, Visit Newport Beach worked with Duffy Electric Boat Rentals at the Balboa Fun Zone to host a waterfront luncheon overlooking the harbor and, following the meal, organized attendees into teams named after one of seven islands in Newport Harbor.
Each team was given a map and tasked to find various points of interest along the shoreline. Once they arrived, players posed with their team pennant and took a photo at the location. The winning team received a gift basket from the MPISCC team.
In late June 2023, Visit Newport Beach also worked with a leading e-commerce corporation client to enhance their three-day event by leveraging the unique coastal assets of the destination.
The company’s top-performing employees stayed at VEA Newport Beach, A Marriott Resort & Spa and were rewarded with a bucket-list series of creative coastal activities and experiences, including:
- A coastal dinner at an iconic beach cottage, the Crystal Cove Historic District, which preserves not only a pristine stretch of the California coastline but an iconic bit of movie history—the cottage from the 1988 film Beaches starring Bette Midler. The venue can accommodate groups of up to 80 people and hosts filmmaking memorabilia from the silver-screen glory days of Crystal Cove.
- A sunset cruise in Newport Harbor with City Experiences, allowing groups the opportunity to charter a vintage yacht once owned by a silver-screen actor or a modern multilevel yacht with a Skydeck. Event participants were welcomed aboard with champagne and live music from a Southern California music icon. Upon casting off for their harbor cruise, attendees enjoyed a buffet with sunset views.
[Related: 4 Group Teambuilding Activities Under the Sun in Newport Beach]
Discover Coronado
Across the San Diego Bay and 15 minutes from the San Diego Airport is Coronado Island, offering five beaches, two bayfronts and near-perfect weather year-round.
The island also offers a wide range of water sports like surfing and paddleboarding, and its beaches are perfect for teambuilding volleyball tournaments, sandcastle-building competitions and seaside scavenger hunts. (They even see training programs for Navy SEALS.)
Groups of all sizes often call Coronado Island’s iconic beachfront property Hotel del Coronado home as the hotel offers nearly 98,000 square feet of meeting space across 80 venues. Some groups have even organized private movie screenings on the beach, steps from where Marilyn Monroe filmed Some Like It Hot.
Working with Discover Coronado, one group organized a clambake celebrating coastal life and community, with a large firepit as the centerpiece and the Pacific Ocean as the backdrop. Guests connected around communal tables decorated with seashells and enjoyed a nautically themed cocktail bar serving beach-inspired beverages like the ocean-blue Mermaid Margarita.
“It was an absolutely enchanting experience,” said Brenda Hansen, a global event strategist with Maritz. “The Hotel del Coronado and Discover Coronado orchestrated a truly exceptional clambake with relaxing live music, perfect for a beach setting. Every culinary delight was meticulously crafted. The remarkable event design allowed us to savor the gourmet feast right on the beach. It felt like dining in a luxurious five-star restaurant, but with the freedom of going barefoot. It was sheer perfection!”
[Related: 5 Outdoor Teambuilding Experiences in Monterey and Santa Cruz, California]
Marina del Rey Tourism Board
Stretching along the Los Angeles coastline, Marina del Rey is a summery seaside playground minutes from the area’s biggest attractions like Santa Monica Pier, Hollywood, Universal Studios and SoFi Stadium. But the marina, while only four miles north of LAX, feels removed from the hustle and bustle of the City of Angels, making it an ideal beach destination for groups to gather.
Here’s how two groups took advantage of Marina del Rey’s beach meetings offerings.
Kayaking and Floating Picnics
Marina del Rey welcomed a 25-person group from Datafy, a technology company based in Ogden, Utah, that stayed at the 111-room Jamaica Bay Inn, Tapestry Collection by Hilton. The laid-back hotel on Marina “Mother’s” Beach completed a guest room renovation in spring 2024 that reflects the property’s proximity to the ocean with nautical colors and textures.
For their first teambuilding activity, the Datafy group went out on the water with ProSUP Shop, a family-owned small business located on Mother’s Beach. The company offers kayak and paddleboard rentals as well as sunset paddle tours and guided kayaking adventures, and groups can also contact ProSUP Shop directly to customize group packages.
The Datafy group also enjoyed a floating picnic with local vendor Marina del Rey Boat Rentals based in Fisherman’s Village. The company offers hourly boat rentals including 21-foot Duffy boats for up to 12 people and easily accommodated the 25-person Datafy group with two boats.
A Catamaran Cruise
A second group that met in Marina del Rey stayed at the dual-property Courtyard and Residence Inn by Marriott in Marina del Rey, offering a combined total of 288 guest rooms and suites and more than 4,200 square feet of indoor and outdoor meeting space. The properties opened in 2021 and are the two newest hotels in the area.
The group, comprised of 30 people from a local marketing company based out of Los Angeles, worked with Blue Pacific Yachting to take two catamarans for a cruise in the harbor and over to Santa Monica Bay. The company offers a full fleet of boats as well as sailing lessons and power boating lessons, which are popular teambuilding activities.
[Related: 9 California Wineries Offering Outdoor Venues for Group Gatherings]
Grand Fiesta Americana Los Cabos All Inclusive Golf & Spa
The boutique beachfront resort by Posadas, Grand Fiesta Americana Los Cabos All Inclusive Golf & Spa, offers 500-plus guest rooms and suites and nearly 17,600 square feet of meeting space on the Baja California peninsula.
The all-inclusive resort also offers unique beach meeting opportunities to make gatherings memorable. “The Barefoot Experience,” for example, is an immersive oceanfront group activity that “tantalizes the senses” while encouraging relaxation and fostering connections.
The experience starts with a grape-stomping session in which attendees squish grapes underfoot and take part in some traditional winemaking practices. Then, attendees are seated in lounge chairs for foot massages by skilled masseuses before enjoying a curated wine-tasting experience as the sun sets, partnered with complimentary hors d’oeuvres.
In the background, live music ranging from smooth jazz to acoustic guitar and classical string melodies can be heard as “The Barefoot Experience” concludes with a plated dinner showcasing local ingredients and culinary artistry.
A second beach gathering at Grand Fiesta Americana Los Cabos All Inclusive Golf & Spa was a closing dinner for a 500-person incentive group. The setting featured a “futuristic ambiance” with lights and night-themed decorations as well as a 500-drone show.
