The state already ranks among the top five destinations for corporate and association meetings along with California, Illinois, Texas and New York, according to Meeting Professionals International (MPI), the largest association of meeting professionals, with more than 17,000 members in 64 countries. In cities all around Florida, convention and visitors bureaus, hotels, resorts, convention centers, airports and all the service sectors that support business-away-from-home are expanding, providing a solid base for the corporate travel industry.
The most obvious reason for Florida's popularity as a meeting destination is the same one tourists have cited for generations: good weather and great attractions. The state's sunshine and comfortable climate are legendary. University of Maryland coastal geologist Stephen Leatherman, who researches and rates the nation's beaches on everything from water and sand quality to temperature and beauty, rates Florida's beaches among the finest in the U.S. Sand beaches account for 1,200 miles (1,932 km) of the state's 1,800 miles (2,898 km) of coastline. Florida boasts more golf courses (over 1,100) than any other state in the U.S. The state's historical and themed entertainment attractions are numerous and world-famous.
Ann Shea, president of North Florida MPI, and Jacksonville & the Beaches Convention & Visitors Bureau sales manager, sums it up: "We have culture, we have ecotourism, we have unique things."
Great Expectations
Businesses booking corporate travel look for more than a great leisure destination, however.
Some meetings require a state-of-the-art hotel with translators, audio visual technology and the ability to teleconference, according to Ivy Peterson, president of the Tampa Bay Area chapter of MPI and regional sales manager for Audio Visual Innovations Inc. Past MPI chapter president Shelley Smith-Gonzalez says, "Meeting planners also want good price-value, off-site activities and the ability to stage team-building events -- especially outdoors." Smith-Gonzalez is national sales manager for Radisson Suite Resort on Sand Key.
Kelly Tortoriello, director of marketing services for the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention and Visitors Bureau, says corporate travelers and meeting planners are influenced by every "touch point" -- from the quality of the meeting facilities to the friendliness of hotel staff -- in evaluating a destination.
Corporate travelers and their employers can demand a high level of service because they're spending big dollars to get it. According to the American Express Survey of Business Travel Management, U.S. companies spent an estimated $175 billion on travel and entertainment in 1998. A Meetings & Conventions 1998 Meetings Market Survey found that corporate and association expenditures for meetings totaled a collective $41.7 billion in 1997.
Florida's convention centers, hotels and resort properties, assisted by area convention and visitors' bureaus and the state's meeting planning professionals, are amply prepared to meet that expectation. Meeting, function and exhibit space of all sizes, types and range of flexibility is available all over the state in dozens of different types of venues, from elegant, refurbished historical hotels to enormous high-tech conference centers. Ballrooms as large as 25,000 square feet are available to accommodate groups as large as several thousand. On the other end of the size spectrum, small and elegant boardrooms, some of them penthouses and many of them offering a uniquely Florida view, are available across the state.
Flawless Meetings
Wally Kurlin, president of the Greater Orlando Area chapter of MPI, and director of sales and ground operations for Meetings & Incentives, says that ballrooms, breakout space, well-appointed guest rooms and top amenities are a given in the state's meeting industry.
"Hotels are being built to house conventions," Kurlin says, "because meeting planners want to find everything they need under one roof." He points out that no matter what the size and scope of the hotel or resort property, good connections with area vendors are a key to providing an excellent meeting experience. "Ground transportation, for instance, can make or break a meeting," Kurlin explains.
Brenda Boring, CMP, past president of the North Florida chapter of MPI, says companies are looking for retreats for their executives. "They want their people to relax and work on projects at the same time," she reports. "They want their people pampered. They are looking for a flawless meeting." Boring, an independent meeting planner, owns Events Plus and is a partner in First Coast Arrangements of Florida, in Jacksonville.
Boring says corporate travelers choose the northern part of the state when they are seeking a different Florida experience in a different season.
"April and October are our best seasons," she says. The fact that the Jacksonville area, Amelia Island and the Panhandle are less than fully "discovered" by the corporate traveler creates for the northern part of the state a unique niche, she says. "People relax when they come here. They tell us they breathe a sigh of relief when they get off the plane and find themselves out of the stress and hubbub of big city life."
Small Meetings Matter
"Undiscovered" destinations can be particularly good finds for small meetings, although planners looking for sites to hold small to mid-sized meetings will find them welcome and well-accommodated at properties all over the state.
Visit Florida, the state's official tourism promotion agency, notes that quaint bed and breakfasts along Florida's Treasure Coast offer a serene setting highly appropriate for the most exclusive of meetings, such as executive brainstorming sessions. Small-size training seminars and sales meetings find appropriate settings in inns and intimate corporate retreats, which can be located in unhurried, wildlife-rich regions like Charlotte County in the state's southwest, for example, or in well-developed areas like central Florida. Smaller-groups can avail themselves of meeting venues as unusual as a paddlewheel riverboat, operated by Cypress Gardens south of the Greater Orlando area, or the Antique Car Museum in Tallahassee, which hosts banquets amid vintage automobiles. In short, creative meeting planners will find no shortage of attractive Florida options for the small and mid-sized group.
Conventions Find One-Stop Shopping
Very large groups find comfortable accommodations in Florida, too. Every major city provides excellent convention centers, many of them expanding and refurbishing. The state's convention and visitors bureaus (CVBs) coordinate and promote their area's convention facilities in an effort to make site selection a straightforward and pleasant process for meeting planners inside and outside Florida.
"It's one-stop shopping," says Andy Bergeron, director of meetings and conventions for the St. Petersburg/Clearwater Area Convention & Visitors Bureau. "Meeting planners send us their specs. We select the hotels that meet those specs, receive their bids and forward them to the meeting planner."
When meeting planners are ready to investigate a site in the St. Petersburg/Clearwater area, Bergeron explains, the CVB meets the planner at the airport, arranges complimentary housing, provides an itinerary and escorts the planner on a tour of the area. The CVB's Convention Services Department works with meeting planners to develop spouse and other programs and provides lists of suppliers, maps, brochures and restaurant guides.
Convention center facilities offer options for groups so large that a single hotel might not be able to accommodate them. Isabelle Blainey, senior sales and marketing manager for the Harborview Center in Clearwater, says that big groups needing convention center facilities for their banquets or meetings are often undeterred by the need to house participants in more than one hotel. "Arranging and coordinating bus transportation is a normal part of the planning these meetings require," she says.
Service: Bringing Up the Bar
Many of Florida's CVBs have taken on a leading role in developing a theme for the destination they represent. Kelly Tortoriello says the Greater Fort Lauderdale CVB has created a branded campaign called Greater Fort Lauderdale SUNsational Service. The goal is to educate, train and recognize individuals and organizations at every point of contact with visitors, whether tourist or business traveler. The program envisions a SUNsational Service certificate of completion for hotel workers completing education on a top 10 list of service initiatives, and there are plans to train taxi drivers, through free tours and incentives, to become area ambassadors with specific knowledge of the destination they represent.
Jeff Gold, president of the South Florida chapter of MPI and also president of Platinum Gold Entertainment in Coral Springs, says the objective of this program is similar to that of efforts throughout the state's meeting industry to bring up the bar on service. "It takes service to entice the Fortune 500 companies," he says. "It takes service to entice small-business, too."
Orlando's Kurlin finds that the expectations of corporate meeting planners and attendees are on the rise, not only with respect to the features of meeting space but also as to the quality of entertainment and amenities. Studies show that executives attending conferences spend anywhere from 25% to 70% of their day in meetings, leaving a substantial chunk of time to be spent on recreation and relaxing. "People have discovered that meetings can be more productive when sufficient leisure time is included in the planning," Kurlin says.
Kurlin says that in Orlando the meetings industry is aided by its proximity to the numerous theme attractions in the area. "At one time there was concern that effective meetings could not be held amid all these fun destinations. People now include these attractions as part of their conventions," he says.
All Work and No Play: No Way
Time spent on the golf course or touring a theme park allows meeting attendees to return to work refreshed the next day. In today's efficiency-savvy business environment, it's increasingly recognized that recreation and work can occur simultaneously to good effect. One result is the popularity of team building activities.
Corporate challenges, teamwork and sports events, as well as fitness classes and wellness seminars, can be customized to enhance the themes and goals of meetings or conferences.
Alberto Martinez-Fonts, Jr., director of marketing for Saddlebrook Resort, near Tampa, says, "Groups can have fun while they develop a stronger bond with each other and with their company's mission."
Fitness centers and spas, some of which are open all-hours, are popular amenities at many meeting properties for related reasons. Wellness is no longer a "frills" issue; rather, it's about the ability to perform and prosper. Through spa care and fitness center workouts, people seek to integrate and recharge body and mind.
For example, at Saddlebrook Wellness Center, not only individual guests but meeting groups can participate in customized activities and seminars on the interrelationship of stress, diet and exercise and the way these factors affect a person's ability to live and work.
The Ideal Meeting Environment
While no meeting facility can possibly offer every desired service or amenity, recent expansions and renovations undertaken by Florida's hotel and resort properties reflect careful consideration of their clients' preferences and evolving industry standards.
All over Florida, hotel, resort and convention properties are responding to the call for service with new construction, extensive renovations, on-site and in-room business amenities, and an increasingly wide range of support services and leisure time options for corporate travelers.
Multiple pools and golf courses designed by famous professionals raise the bar for these popular leisure pursuits. Dozens of tennis courts on several different surfaces cater to the active executive. Equestrian centers and extensive marinas are available at some properties, along with sailing or yachting charters.
For the business hours not spent in meetings, properties offer corporate travelers the convenience of an office-away-from-the-office. Guest rooms designed for business people may feature two phones, data ports for personal computers, fax machines and voicemail. State-of-the-art business centers join express check-in and coffeepots as some of the many standard features business travelers have come to expect as a reward for their patronage.
New ideas about chairs, writing surfaces, noise and natural light are high on the list of improvements corporate travelers can expect to find in Florida's business-friendly meeting environments.
Mixing Business with Pleasure
In 1998, nearly 50 million tourists visited the Sunshine State. A large number of these visitors were dividing their time between business and pleasure. Additionally, many business travelers are now accompanied by family members. Tampa Bay's Ivy Peterson says, "Today's leisure traveler is traveling on business."
Travel industry figures support her view.
Nationwide in 1996, 8.8 million business travelers combined business and vacation on a trip, up from 7.5 million business travelers in 1994 and 6.5 million travelers in 1991, according to figures compiled by the Travel Industry Association (TIA).
TIA reports that a total of 24.4 million business trips in America included a child in 1997, compared to the 7.4 million business trips which included a child in 1987, an increase of 230%. TIA's survey also found that 30% of all business travel taken in 1997 included some time for pleasure travel. In addition, 36% of all business travel in 1997 included an overnight weekend stay.
The "Now" Destination
As business travel increasingly blends with vacation time, Florida's meeting planners, convention and visitors bureau professionals and destination property sales offices, are expanding their outreach as well. Their message is that Florida is a "now" destination because its attractions and amenities are diverse enough to meet a wide range of needs.
Visit Florida, for example, takes an integrated approach to publicizing the state's business and vacation attractions. Its consumer Web site includes a link to its official Internet Meeting Planners Site, www.flausameetings.com, where not only professional meeting planners but anyone interested in researching a combined business-pleasure trip will find a wealth of information about sites and facilities.
The Official Meeting Planners Guide (OMPG) published by Visit Florida provides for direct contact between meeting planners and suppliers via automated e-mail or fax. Planners can request specific information or send Requests for Proposals to one or more suppliers for competitive bidding. Replies are sent directly to planners' desktops.
Information in the OMPG is arranged by region, and includes listings of convention and meeting facilities and hotels along with an overview of the region's attractions, a What's New section with updates on new and renovated facilities, advice on nearby leisure activities, a transportation summary and even a Weather Watch to help newcomers pack appropriately.
It's all part of the state's many-faceted effort to publicize everything that Florida has to offer to everyone who needs to know.
Fort Lauderdale's Tortoriello believes that creating a truly memorable experience for corporate travelers and vacationers alike is ultimately dependent on the sincere and committed efforts of many individual people.
"It's personal contact that makes the difference people remember," she says.
All over the Sunshine State, professionals in every aspect of the corporate travel industry are ready to comply. Gold, of South Florida's MPI, says, "We're out to make this the destination of destinations."