Destination Articles

• Big DFW

  If you’ve only switched planes here, Dallas/Fort Worth is just an airport, a sprawling transfer point plopped down somewhere on the Texas plains.

• The Buzz in Big D

  To people who have never spent time in the state of Texas, dusty prairieland, weathered cowboys and a whole lotta nothin’ else is what’s often expected.

• Texas Round-Up: Meeting in the Lone Star State

  It’s no secret that Texas is big. In fact, most of the Atlantic seaboard could fit inside its boundaries. But this is good news for meeting planners—it means more options. “Our hotel rates and food and beverage charges are competitive, and our central location is convenient for companies that fly in delegates from both coasts—or internationally,” says Dean Conwell of the Texas Association of Convention and Visitors Bureaus

• 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.