Destination Articles

• Florida Centered

  Greater Central Florida may not be as familiar as its famous heart, the Orlando theme parks, but in destinations from the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic Ocean, your meeting attendees will find affordability, abundant accommodations, several of the best airports in the country and entertainment. “You can typically count on the weather,” adds Susan Katz, director of corporate events and travel for True Value Company, who has planned multiple meetings in Orlando.

• Florida's Northern Exposure

  Orlando is the big kid on the block for Florida meetings with the most meeting space in the state, while three Sunshine State destinations in the north offer small- and medium-size meetings a taste of history and nature in a relaxed setting. St. Augustine, Ponte Vedra and The Beaches combine the country’s oldest city, golf and Atlantic beaches. Tallahassee, Florida’s capital, is a mecca for nature lovers, surrounded by natural attractions such as freshwater springs, a wildlife refuge and arched trees over canopy roads. On Florida’s Panhandle, the emerald waters and white-sand beaches of Destin, Fort Walton Beach and Okaloosa Island nurture conferences in a laid-back atmosphere.

• Capture the Magic

  Dependably sunny skies, world-famous theme parks, a NASCAR speedway, hundreds of golf courses and endless beaches are the main attractions in East Central Florida. Add to that affordable, high-tech meeting and event venues and services, plus top-notch international airport accessibility, and you begin to understand why Orlando, Kissimmee and Daytona Beach are unbeatable for meetings and conventions.

• Florida’s Heartland

  On a map, the area of central Florida defined by Orlando, Daytona Beach and Kissimmee is a pretty narrow triangle. But it offers planners the broadest range of meeting options outside its high-tech convention centers: an oceanfront playground, the world’s most-popular collection of theme parks and simple, back-to-nature Florida. You can put your delegates in hotels streamlined to host conventions or lodgings with décor that plays upon fantasies and dreams. As for the all-important R&R outside the professional development sessions and exhibit halls, planners will need a checklist—there’s hot-air ballooning, ziplining, getting up-close-if-not-quite-personal with alligators, surfing and golfing where the top pros compete. Airlift is among the nation’s best, with no winter storms to close the runways.