FloridaMay 1, 2015

Meeting in the Sunshine State Keeps Attendees Beaming From Ear to Ear By
May 1, 2015

Florida

Meeting in the Sunshine State Keeps Attendees Beaming From Ear to Ear
CRDN’s Florida events included a Gilligan's Island-themed evening of fabulous food, live music, costume contest and a glorious sunset on the beach. Credit: Joni Sabo

CRDN’s Florida events included a Gilligan’s Island-themed evening of fabulous food, live music, costume contest and a glorious sunset on the beach. Credit: Joni Sabo

Although Florida’s weather makes it one of the planet’s most popular destinations, the state counts on much more than sunshine to attract meetings. Florida’s array of destinations — from internationally renowned Orlando and Miami to up-and-comers such as Jacksonville and Tampa Bay — continue to build new hotels and resorts, and improve existing ones while adding retail, dining and entertainment venues. Florida’s theme parks are adding more attractions, and the state’s meeting properties offer stellar services to large and small meetings alike.

No wonder the prospect of meeting in Florida excites attendees. “They can’t wait to get here and they get off the plane with smiles on their faces,” says Joe Gutierrez, director of operations and customer service, and meeting planner for Jupiter, Florida-based Jetstream Ground Services. “Half the battle when you put together a meeting is getting buy-in from the group. When that happens, they get so much more out of the meeting.”

Miami

Miami is embellishing its reputation as one of Florida’s premiere destinations. The Miami Beach Convention Center (MBCC) started a $592 million expansion and renovation that will add $600,000 sf of ballroom space upon completion in 2018. The project includes several green features such as solar energy and natural lighting that will decrease the facility’s energy use by 20 percent. A new 6-acre public green space in front of the MBCC will provide an outdoor mingling and networking area.

While the MBCC is popular for large meetings, Miami has an abundance of hotels that cater to small and mid-size meetings, according to Linda Santos, corporate director, continuing medical education, Baptist Health South Florida. Santos and her team plan up to 15 medical meetings a year at South Florida hotels. Meetings range in size from 140 to 450 attendees. Over the last few years, Baptist Health has held meetings at the Trump National Doral; Fontainebleau Miami Beach; Eden Roc Miami Beach; The Biltmore in Coral Gables; Marco Island Marriott Beach Resort, Golf Club & Spa; and the Ritz-Carlton Coconut Grove, Miami.

Santos says she can always find a Florida hotel to meet the varying criteria for each meeting. “Every meeting has a different audience, content, focus, length and personality,” she says. “The meeting leaders and the physicians and clinical employees who attend are different for every meeting. The top factors for choosing a hotel are location, room rates, banquet costs and convenience. We need an enticing hotel with reasonable room rates to attract out-of-town and international attendees, and the location needs to be convenient for local attendees who drive in. We don’t put money into entertainment, in keeping with our not-for-profit status.”

The Fontainebleau met all of those requirements for a four-day meeting that Baptist Health held in February for 450 doctors, nurses, physician assistants and other health care providers. The Fontainebleau also had one other advantage, says Santos. “The hotel and its location have a national and international appeal. That works in our favor. A lot of people came from Canada, New York and Italy.”

Santos says the value provided by the Fontainebleau was comparable to other properties and was as good as can be expected. “You will pay a premium to be anywhere in Florida during the winter, which is when everybody wants to come,” says Santos. “We understand how that works and if resorts can fill hotels, they don’t necessarily want to give deals. We are known as a large institution in our community, but sometimes we are ‘small fish’ in a big sea of meetings when it comes to negotiations.”

Orlando

Although Orlando is known primarily as a large-group destination, it continues to make small groups welcome. “One of the areas where Orlando has stepped up to the plate is catering to small groups,” says Jane Scaletta, general manager, AlliedPRA, Orlando. “When you walk into a large convention hotel with many meetings going on at the same time, the convention service managers are paying close attention to the groups. Hotels do a good job of separating the groups. The layouts of the hotels, especially many of the newer properties, make that possible.”

Many groups visiting Orlando for the first time often return as repeat customers. “There are groups that come annually or every two or four years,” says Scaletta. “They also arrive early and stay later. That is something that we lend ourselves to more than any other destination. You also have the three top theme parks in Orlando. It’s difficult to explore even one park let alone three parks. It keeps people coming back.”

Small groups planning to visit Orlando for the first time include CRDN, a Berkley, Michigan-based textile restorations company. The firm recently scheduled site visits to two Orlando resorts for its 2016 four-day meeting of 350 franchise owners and their salespeople, according to Jeff Schultz, vice president of communications, who also plans meetings for CRDN. “We are looking at Florida resorts because they enable us to let franchise owners provide a reward for their top salespeople,” Schultz says. “I’m optimistic because they’ve both given us really good proposals that came in a little lower than I expected. They are willing to work with us because they have space to fill.”

Orlando has a variety of properties that can accommodate the size of Schultz’s group and its other needs. “Our group isn’t the biggest but it’s not real small, so we have to find locations that can accommodate us and provide flexibility with space,” says Schultz. “For example, we need an open area for a general session. We also do an awards banquet, and we need someplace that doesn’t take the general session area and transform it. We need a different feel going from a general session to an elegant, celebratory awards environment. That’s a big thing for us. We feel the Florida properties can meet our needs.”

We need a different feel going from a general session to an elegant, celebratory awards environment. …We feel the Florida properties can meet our needs.” — Jeff Schultz

In fact, Schultz previously used the Hyatt Regency Coconut Point Resort & Spa in Bonita Springs, Florida, for a successful event. The resort’s access to a private island about 20 minutes away by boat provided great memories and many smiles, too, as the group replicated the characters from Gilligan’s Island for their themed event. “Ginger,” “Skipper” and the rest of the crew had a grand time.

 

More Options for Planners

Orlando’s spending on new meeting-related projects also keeps groups returning. Recently, TV cameras captured daredevil Nik Wallenda walking without a safety net on Orlando’s newest attraction, the 400-foot-tall observation wheel — the Orlando Eye at I-Drive 360, which is the $200-million dollar entertainment complex that blends dining, entertainment, attractions and shopping in an upscale setting. Its courtyard is a special space for outdoor events, and the $1.5 million water show set to music and color-changing lights will delight attendees. Centrally located on International Drive, minutes from the Orange County Convention Center, I-Drive 360 will have plenty for meeting groups to see and do.

Also new are Madame Tussauds, the Sea Life Orlando Aquarium and Skeletons: Animals Unveiled!, which will be open soon and one of the more unique venues to throw a bash surrounded by more than 400 skeletons from the animal kingdom.

Restaurants now open at I-Drive 360 include Yard House, with a myriad of craft beers, and Tin Roof, a great place for live music and Southern-inspired eats. Sugar Factor and Ben & Jerry’s will be open for dessert.

Other restaurants opening this year include Buffalo Wild Wings, Café de Paris, Tapa Toro, Shake Shack, McFadden’s, Naru Restaurant & Sushi Bar and Cowgirls Rockbar Orlando, which will boast a mechanical bull.

Walt Disney World Resort’s multi-year transformation of Downtown Disney into Disney Springs is well underway. The first two restaurants to be announced — The Boathouse, which opened in April, and Morimoto Asia — will include private dining rooms for special events, conventions and presentations. In addition, Disney’s culinary and catering team offers teambuilding sessions dedicated to cooking for groups of up to 50 participants.

A new nighttime spectacular “Rivers of Light” is among the many new entertainment experiences that will be available to groups as part of the largest expansion in the history of Disney’s Animal Kingdom. The multisensory experience will combine live music, floating lanterns, water screens and swirling animal imagery.

Orlando also bustles with options for offsite activities. “A lot of groups do restaurant buyouts,” says Scaletta. “You usually need 200 to 400 people to do that. Some groups do partial buyouts. Quite a few groups do restaurant dine-arounds on what we call the “restaurant row” corridor. The Orlando Harley-Davidson Historic Factory Dealership is fun. For groups with less of a budget, Howl at the Moon live music bar is popular. The Isleworth Golf & Country Club is nice for upper-end groups. The Richard Petty Driving Experience and BB King’s Blues Club are always popular.”

Palm Beach County

Palm Beach County, one of Florida’s best-known upscale destinations, is becoming even more attractive to meeting groups. Discover The Palm Beaches, the county’s convention and visitors bureau, recently announced that it posted a 9.5 percent rise in revenue per available room from $104 to $114 in 2013. The county also recorded an average daily rate of $156, a 6.8 percent increase year-over-year.

Palm Beach County has big plans to further boost its number of visitors. The CVB believes that its new television advertising campaign will help attract 400,000 additional visitors in 2015, bringing the yearly total to 6.6 million. The TV spots, “Unplug and Reconnect in The Palm Beaches” and “Big Break The Palm Beaches, Florida,” have been running nationwide. In addition, the Hilton West Palm Beach is offering incentives for planners who book before the property opens adjacent to the Palm Beach County Convention Center in spring 2016.

In January, Jetstream Ground Ser­vices held a three-day leadership conference at the 179-room Wyndham Grand Jupiter at Harbourside Place, which opened last October and is located about 20 minutes north of Palm Beach. The meeting’s more than 50 attendees took full advantage of Harbourside Place, a 360,000-sf entertainment, restaurant and retail complex that held its grand opening last December. “We had a very nice event one evening using the bars, dining areas and restaurants,” says Gutierrez. “People could go from one venue to another. Another night we hired some drivers and went to the beach for a catered dinner.”

Jetstream selected the Wyndham Grand Jupiter after it made a big impression during site visits. “The hotel really sold itself,” says Gutierrez. “It’s in a great location with the Intracoastal on one side and just a couple of miles from the beach on the other side. The layout is part of what sold it to us. You have a meeting room that overlooks the Intracoastal. Other rooms overlook a nice fountain. Every meeting space has quite a bit of natural light.”

Gutierrez also raves about the Wyndham Grand Jupiter’s service. “Even with a group as small as we are you get the feeling that you are the only group in the hotel because the design of the hotel lends itself to that,” he says. “That adds to the value, which was good even though we had the meeting during the thick of the tourist season. Sometimes you go to large resorts and can go for a whole day without seeing a member of your group because they are so spread out. We are having conversations with the hotel about holding another meeting later this year.”

Jacksonville

This promises to be another banner year for Jacksonville, a unique destination that borders both the St. Johns River and the Atlantic Ocean. Hotel occupancy and rate levels are expected to continue growing after posting a 14th consecutive rise last year, according to Visit Jacksonville, the destination’s convention and visitors bureau. Jacksonville is introducing new hotels, restaurants and meeting venues as well as revitalizing the downtown district.

Jacksonville’s many offsite venues will include the Jessie Ball duPont Center (formerly the Haydon Burns Library), which will reopen in June after a $21 million renovation. The facility will include a conference center, 12 meeting rooms, reception spaces and a green roof garden that will be available for special events. Other popular offsite venues include the Atrium at the Jacksonville Main Library, the rooftop at the Museum of Science and History, the Ritz Theatre and The River Club.

Sandestin

Located along the white-sand beaches on Florida’s northwest coast, Sandestin is one of the top resort communities in Florida. That’s why the Southeast regional office of a company chose the AAA Four Diamond 602-room Hilton Sandestin Beach Golf Resort & Spa for a three-day meeting of 187 managers in January.

The Hilton Sandestin’s coastal location and its 32,000 sf of recently renovated meeting space were major deciding factors for the company’s executive assistant to the president and meeting planner, who plans about seven meetings a year. “I wanted something in a beach area and the Hilton Sandestin had the best meeting facility that I found on the beach,” she says. “Our managers in the Southeast don’t see the beach that much, and beaches along the Atlantic Ocean aren’t like those in the Florida Panhandle.”

The planner was awed by the caliber of Hilton Sandestin’s service. “This year, we tried something new, having managers use their cell phones to answer questions posed by presenters onstage using PowerPoint and display screens,” says the planner. “When we were setting things up, the resort’s technology person was working with my AV person getting things in place and running tests. The hotel’s person saw things that were a little off on the screen and fixed it even before my AV person noticed it. The Hilton staffer sat beside my person throughout the presentations.”

In another instance, the planner says, “We planned fireworks for the beach party and it ended up being cold before we could launch them. The hotel brought out its portable heaters but didn’t have enough. So they borrowed some from other hotels and purchased more. They really went above and beyond to make it perfect.”

Hilton Sandestin Beach Golf Resort & Spa now offers a third, 7,500-sf ballroom, and has expanded and enhanced the award-winning Serenity by the sea Spa. Completed in March, the Coastal Ballroom addition now provides meeting planners with more than 23,000 sf of ballroom and event space on a single level, with approximately 10,000 sf of additional prefunction area. Now with nearly 40,000 sf of indoor meeting space and 20,000 sf of outdoor event space, the resort can now accommodate larger conferences and events, and provide additional flexibility for group activities.

Daytona Beach

Daytona Beach is keeping pace with other Florida destinations by offering more attractions as well as new and improved hotels. The destination is investing more than $1 billion in construction and renovations, including $400 million to expand the Cici and Hyatt Brown Museum of Art and the Daytona International Speedway. The speedway project due for completion in 2016 will include 60 new luxury trackside suites with patios; 11 new football field-size social areas called “neighborhoods”; and 101,000 new grandstand seats.

Daytona Beach hotels also are sprucing up. One of the destination’s signature properties, The Shores Resort & Spa, debuted new paint, carpeting and décor in its 20,000-sf function space as well as wider bandwidth wireless throughout the property. The Shores Resort & Spa also features a new built-in AV package and 80-inch, flat-screen monitor in the Surf Boardroom, an added lobby check-in area and new banquet equipment. All 212 guest rooms and suites feature new beds, new furniture in rooms and on balconies, HDTVs and drapes. There also are plans to build a new Hard Rock Hotel & Cafe, set to open in 2016.

Tampa Bay

The Tampa/St. Petersburg area is trying to cut a higher profile among Florida destinations. Visit Tampa Bay, the city’s CVB, has joined several other Florida destinations in taking to the television airwaves. The CVB premiered its first national television commercial on January 1. The 30-second spot is entitled “Unlock Tampa Bay.” The commercial features a boy who, as he prepares to leave after a family stay in Tampa, experiences a flood of joyful memories that are depicted in the spot. A 15-second version of the commercial ran during the winter.

New & Noteworthy

Orlando continues to expand and improve its formidable supply of hotels. The 1,000-room Loews Sapphire Falls Resort at Universal Orlando is scheduled to open in the summer of 2016 with more than 131,000 sf of meeting space. The property will be located near the Cabana Bay Beach Resort and Loews Royal Pacific Resort, which is set to complete expansion of its meeting space from 85,000 sf to about 140,000 sf this fall. A covered, air-conditioned bridge will connect the two Loews properties, which offer a combined total of 272,000 sf of meeting space.

The Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Hotel is undergoing a $125 million multiphased renovation, the largest makeover in its history. The project includes every guest room in the 758-room Swan Hotel and the 1,509-room Dolphin Hotel. The makeover will be completed by the end of 2017 and will not disrupt service or the availability of the majority of guest rooms and meeting rooms.

The Hard Rock Hotel at Universal Orlando Resort, with 6,000 sf of meeting space, has renovated all of its 650 guest rooms.

The Westgate Lakes Resort & Spa is adding a new development that will feature 32,000 sf of flexible meeting and banquet space, restaurants and a bowling alley. The project is scheduled for completion by the end of 2015.

In Palm Beach County, the upscale 318-room Boca Raton Resort & Club recently completed a $30 million makeover. The Palm Beach Marriott Singer Island Beach Resort & Spa is finishing up renovations on common spaces, including the bar and lobby, as well as new furniture and increased Wi-Fi bandwidth. The Eau Palm Beach Resort & Spa redesigned its 309 guest rooms in partnership with Jonathan Adler, who also designed exclusive new furnishings for the project. The property offers more than 30,000 sf of meeting space.

In Jacksonville, the 963-room Hyatt Regency Jackson­ville Riverfront recently announced a renovation scheduled for completion this fall. The project includes all guest rooms, six new meeting rooms, improvements to the hotel’s rooftop fitness center and Regency Club lounge, which will feature improved networking areas, work stations overlooking the city and a meeting room. The hotel offers 110,000 sf of meeting space.

In South Florida, Miami’s Sun Life Stadium modernization is well underway. Football enthusiasts and corporate groups will experience a refreshed environment and amenities for the 2015 season. The home of the National Football League Miami Dolphins will be remodeled and redesigned. Stadium improvements include new and more comfortable seats as well as expanded room between rows; more seats closer to the playing field; improved concourse and concessions on both the lower and upper levels; and increased number of premium seating areas and enhanced club seating options. By 2016, there will be state-of-the-art video boards in the four corners of the stadium as well as a partial roof over the stadium, providing more shade and weather protection.

The Trump National Doral Miami recently completed the renovation of its Golden Palm golf course, one of five on the property. The facelift was part of a $250 million project that included three new and three revamped ballrooms including the largest — the 24,000-sf Donald J. Trump Grand Ballroom.

Elsewhere in Florida, Hawks Cay Resort in the Florida Keys on Duck Key in the lower Middle Keys, has recreated itself. Walls, carpeting and even fixtures now reflect the aquamarine life located just steps from the meetings area. Walkways and meeting room entrances are now located outside under a covered awning, not buried in an interior hallway corridor, maintaining the connection between water inspiration and experience-sharing as a meeting objective. For the first time, the resort can accommodate large groups of up to 600 people and provide the flexibility of the entire group being able to meet in one room and dine in another. Technology also has been upgraded to ensure desired connectivity outside and in. Groups also may take advantage of new all-inclusive programs. A new Marina Walk serving as an entertainment destination within the resort will include the new Angler and Ale Restaurant later this year.

The Henderson Beach Resort is scheduled to open in Destin in 2016. The property’s 171-rooms will feature views of the Gulf of Mexico, a spa with 11 treatment rooms and 10,000 sf of indoor event space.

Central Florida’s Streamsong Resort, home to two golf courses, has announced plans to build a third course — Streamsong Black. Set to open in autumn 2017, the course will be designed by Gil Hanse, architect of The Olympic Golf Course in Rio de Janeiro and co-designer of Castle Stuart Golf Links in Scotland, among others.

In addition to world-class golf, Streamsong features a 216-room Lodge, with three casual and fine dining restaurants, conference and event facilities, a spa and infinity pool.

The re-designed Sundial Beach Resort & Spa, named the “Best Full-Service Resort” on the Gulf Coast’s Sanibel and Captiva Islands, invested more than $6 million in refreshed amenities. The resort features the new Resort Centre, which is the largest meeting venue on Sanibel Island. Boasting 12,000 sf of flexible space, the center accommodates up to 300 guests and features unique outdoor event space with water views. Newly renovated meeting facilities include nine separate event rooms, all with expansive Gulf views, a full business center and AV capabilities. Wireless Internet is available throughout all meeting rooms.

Sundial Beach Resort & Spa’s new restaurants include the Water­view with floor-to-ceiling windows offering unbeatable views and the Sea Breeze Café, which sports a spacious bar, live music and an outside terrace.

All types of groups can find the Florida destination and property that perfectly matches their needs. That’s why meeting in Florida inspires confidence that attendees will arrive in Florida with smiles on their faces and leave with even bigger ones. C&IT

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