Second Tier Cities with First Class Appeal

I have been in the conference planning and production business for 25 years, and time and time again companies want to hold their conferences in the same eight cities: Atlanta, Miami, Orlando, Dallas, Phoenix/Tucson, San Francisco, Chicago, and Las Vegas. Obviously, they are all fantastic cities with much to offer to business travelers.

We live in an enormous country and there are many cities that are large enough to have a big airport, convention centers, as well as hotels large enough to accommodate a big group of conference attendees. So, if you are looking to save a little money and offer a unique experience to your attendees, consider one of these great cities.

Austin

Austin bills itself as the Live Music Capital of the World, but it also has a lot to offer for event planners. The Austin Convention Center has 900,000 square feet of space and 6,000 in the downtown area alone. There’s fabulous barbeque, an entertainment district, and maybe the best feature of all, the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport was named “Best Domestic Airport” by travelers.

Denver

Denver is another terrific option. The Mile High City boasts 300 days of sunshine a year, a very appealing feature for event planners and attendees alike. There are 8,400 hotel rooms in walking distance of the convention center, so there’s no need to rent a car. Denver also prides itself as the place to be if you want your meeting to be green. As part of the initiative Greenprint Denver, the city offers “extensive options for sustainable and eco-friendly meetings and conferences.”

Tahoe, St. Petersburg, and Indianapolis

Lake Tahoe and Reno are only an hour apart and served by one international airport. Attendees can extend their visit and ski at Squaw Valley or take in some historic sites of the Old West. It’s only a 23-minute drive from the larger international airport in Tampa to the waterfront city of St. Petersburg. Planners can rely on year-round warm weather, always enticing to northerners yearning to escape the cold. Indianapolis is a terrific option for meeting planners looking for a centrally located spot. The city has a beautiful new JW Marriott hotel that offers over 100,000 square feet of meeting space and one of the largest Marriott ballrooms in the world.