Successful Meetings - August 2008 - (Page 76)

Meeting Sites Midwest Meetings Indianapolis skyline; below, Conner Prairie Living History Museum AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL: From the plains of Nebraska to the rolling hills of Ohio, the polite Midwest is a place where groups can get business done without breaking the bank, within a few hours’ flight of the majority of the country. Cities across the region are investing heavily in meetings infrastructure, welcoming groups even as they rebuild from devastating June floods along the Mississippi. The Big News For years, Indianapolis was known as the home of the Indianapolis 500 Motor Speedway, but more recently the city has sped beyond the raceway to truly come into its own. Surprisingly cosmopolitan, Indianapolis is home to a variety of restaurants, nightclubs, hotels, and family-oriented venues. And the downtown is expanding, with the addition of properties such as a 140-room Hotel Indigo by InterContinental Hotels Group opening in 2010. Indianapolis welcomed more than 800,000 meeting and trade show attendees in 2007 and is slated to host 33 conferences in 2008. Twenty city hotels each offer more than 10,000 sf of meeting space, and currently have an occupancy rate of 70 percent. “Indianapolis is a great location. Our attendees are pleased with the safety and ease of getting around mimegasite.com downtown and the variety of dining options,” says Lynn Walters, senior director of meetings for the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), based in Indianapolis. ACSM recently hosted its 55th Annual Meeting at the Indiana Convention Center. PHOTOS: COURTESY INDIANAPOLIS CONVENTION & VISITORS ASSOCIATION FACILITIES UPDATE The city of Springfield, MO, has won an award from the Environmental Protection Agency for sustainable redevelopment of mixed-use Commercial Street downtown. The city has received a $2 million grant to develop more than one million sf of commercial and residential buildings in the 1,000-acre area. In Indianapolis, the multi-use Lucas Oil Stadium will open in mid-Aug, with 183,000 sf of exhibit space and 12 meeting rooms. The Indiana Convention Center is AUGUST 2008 SUCCESSFUL MEETINGS By Laura Gater, Rayna Katz, and Corrie Dosh 76 http://mimegasite.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Successful Meetings - August 2008

Successful Meetings - August 2008
Contents
Editor's Note
Industry Trends
Industry Events
On the Record
Technology
Calendar
Websites of the Month
Personal Success
Technology Talk
Food & Beverage
Pre-Event
On Site
Tools of the Trade
Pre-Event
Crude Awakening
Oil’s Well
Betting on Development
The Stuff Dreams Are Made Of
No Spa, No Dice
New & Improved Bean Counting
Places & Spaces
Cleveland
Palm Springs, Desert Resorts
Midwest Meetings
San Antonio
Yucatan Peninsula
Gurus

Successful Meetings - August 2008