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CORPORATE RETREATS-
October 2003 A Meeting They'll
Never Forget
But if you’re in charge of putting together the company’s annual conference, or getting the team excited about a day of brainstorming, how can you prevent it from turning into another corporate yawner? It may not be as difficult – or expensive – as you think. “The economy has been down, but companies are still willing to invest in their meetings,” said Debbie Ables, one of seven independent business owners who make up The Hive, a network of meeting planners and marketing/fundraising consultants in Kentucky. “I’ve been planning meetings for years, but since 9/11, I have seen a real shift in how they are viewed. Companies who may have had a three-day meeting before, now have a two-day meeting that is more jam-packed with information and events. Instead of silly t-shirts and slogans, they are spending their money on making the meeting as nice and as informative as possible. So they are a little more willing to experiment with unusual settings.” Meeting places are as varied as the imagination, and many are working hard to welcome corporate business, adding new spaces and high-tech connectivity to lure meeting planners. Many of Kentucky’s best tourist destinations are now opening their doors to corporate meetings, offering everything from planning and concierge services to catering, lodging, and high-tech presentation facilities. If it’s unusual settings you’re looking for in a meeting, Kentucky abounds with choices. We’ve outlined some of the more unique settings here, for those who are looking for something new and different in meetings. It is by no means a complete list, but rather a sampling of the more interesting offerings available. Newport Aquarium Want your employees to learn how to swim with the sharks? Then your next meeting should be at the Newport Aquarium, which offers a surprising array of corporate meeting services. Located just over the river from Cincinnati in Newport, Ky., the aquarium offers meetings in its CINergy Theater, Shore Gallery, Lighthouse Café and the entire aquarium. Meetings can be as intimate as 40 people or as large as a 1,000-person reception. The aquarium also offers special programs, such as a “breakfast with the sharks,” “breakfast with the penguins” or custom dive shows.
The state of Kentucky has no fewer than 21 state parks, found in every corner of the state, that have dedicated facilities for large meetings. Most of the parks offer meeting rooms with panoramic natural views for groups large and small, up to several hundred people. All have catering services available, and many have lodges that can house large groups overnight, though these accommodations can vary from a few rustic cottages to hotel suites. The facilities have been updated to include all the latest in AV equipment. But it’s not just the pretty views that bring people to the parks for meetings. It’s the things they can do away from the meeting that are the parks’ main selling point. Many offer use of a marina, and high-quality golf courses, but some are more distinctive. Carter Caves State Resort Park, near Ashland, offers cave tours, hiking, golf, tennis, canoeing and horseback riding. And while it wouldn’t necessarily be your first thought as a business retreat, My Old Kentucky Home State Park in Bardstown offers tours and a new visitors center that mirrors the stately grace of the Federal Hill mansion, with indoor and outdoor banquet facilities, meeting rooms, and an open-air rotunda and colonnade. Cumberland Falls State Resort Park, in Corbin, has banquet and meeting facilities for hundreds of people. It is also one of only two places in the world where, on clear nights with a full moon, you can see the “moon bow” floating above the mists of the majestic Cumberland Falls. The park also offers a variety of teambuilding exercises, from western line dancing to Kentucky trivia games, arts and crafts projects, rock-climbing, bingo, yard golf, Appalachian humor seminars and campfire programs. Frazier Historical
Arms Museum This latest addition to the Louisville museum scene is slated to open in May of 2004 and promises to offer atmosphere unlike any other venue in the state. The Frazier, in collaboration with Royal Armories of Britain, will house some of the world’s most important arms and arms-related artifacts – including the family bible of Daniel Boone, the “big stick” of President Theodore Roosevelt, the bow of Apache warrior Geronimo, and the colt pistols of General George Armstrong Custer. It will also display the armor of kings and knights, the possessions of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I, and many other artifacts that are designed to tell the “complete” story of American history, starting hundreds of years back with its origins in Europe. In addition to 10,000 square feet of exhibition space, it will include educational films and interactive displays, costumed interpreters and a combat ring with live demonstrations of historical armor. Meeting planners will be able to rent out the first floor gallery and hall for receptions and banquets, as well as the roof garden for meetings/events under a tent. After hours, special accommodations for groups can be made in the facility’s 150-seat auditorium and 48-seat movie theatre. Customized programs and special demonstrations can be arranged upon request.
Follow the smell of sour mash through the Bluegrass and you will inevitably come to some of the state’s most beautiful meeting sites. Maker’s Mark Distillery, in Loretto, offers a pastoral atmosphere, with its quaint red shutters and neatly pruned landscaping. Meetings here can be held in a historic house on the site, which can accommodate small groups in each of the rooms or a large group for cocktail parties or dinners. Group tours allow visitors to learn about bourbon production and dip their own bottle in red wax. The Labrot & Graham Distillery, located in Woodford County, is a working distillery that is the only one in the world still using old-fashioned copper pot stills. Their commitment to history does not come lightly, as the site is the oldest historic distillery in the state and the home to distilling greats such as Elijah Pepper. Meeting attendees can enjoy smaller meeting spaces or banquet facilities for more than 100, as well as a tour through the distillery’s history of bourbon making in Kentucky. With sweeping views of the Bluegrass countryside, the site is ideal for indoor and outdoor events. The same can also be said for Buffalo Trace Distillery in Franklin County which offers a two-story clubhouse made from 200-year-old logs pulled from authentic Kentucky log cabins. The clubhouse features onsite catering, a fully equipped kitchen and state-of-the-art presentation facilities, as well as space for up to 150 seated or 300 standing.
Located on 80 acres of lakefront property at the Land Between the Lakes in Grand Rivers, Green Turtle Bay is a full-service resort with 60 luxury condos, a 14-seat executive board room, and three large meetings rooms that interconnect for large events. Catering services range from outdoor picnics to fine dining in the Commonwealth Yacht Club. The broad range of activities – both on site and throughout the nearby area – makes this resort stand out. Fishing guides, rental fishing and ski boats, guided kayak tours, tennis, swimming pools, hiking, biking, and bird watching are part of the natural amenities of the area. Day trips can also be organized for a cocktail cruise on an 1880s riverboat, a day of shopping in the quaint stores of the “Village Between the Lakes,” golf outings at nearby courses, and trolley trips to the Land Between the Lakes for more extensive wildlife watching. Historic Homes
of Louisville If you’ve ever longed for the serenity and grace of the antebellum era, two historic homes can grant your wish – even if it’s only for the duration of your meeting. The Farmington Plantation offers rentals of its Carriage House, which can accommodate 64 people seated or 100 people standing for a reception. It is divided into an upstairs and a downstairs room, perfect for getting the privacy you need for brainstorming sessions. The gardens of the house, with their winding pathways, are also available to guests, as well as catering services. Whitehall, also located in Louisville, rents out its entire mansion, furnished with lush Victorian furniture, to corporate events. The mansion serves the intimate seminar best, with space for 30 seated at round tables or 40 people auditorium style.
Located in Bowling Green, the Corvette Museum is a tourist hotspot that features more than 60 corvettes, including mint-condition, one-of-a-kind prototypes that never made it to production, racetrack champions and more modern design examples. The museum houses an outdoor amphitheatre that is available for events, performances and meeting functions for groups up to 10,000. Lost River Cave
and Valley Kentucky’s only underground boat tour floats through the Lost River Cave, known as the shortest, deepest river in the world. This popular Bowling Green attraction is available for private parties, corporate events and boat tours year round. The cave was once the home of a nightclub, which attracted people and bands from all over the country from the 1930s to the 1960s. Shaker Village
of Pleasant Hill If you’re looking to get away from the hustle and bustle of modern life, Shaker Village offers an authentic diversion. Named one of the top 15 meeting facilities in the Arrington’s 2003 Book of Lists, this museum-village site is located on 2,800 acres of rural farmland between Lexington and Harrodsburg. The Shakers, famous for their simple lifestyles and belief in separation from modern life, built this village using much of the plain line architecture that has made them famous. Each building has been painstakingly restored, and visitors will feel as though they have traveled back to simpler times. Tours of the village, Shaker music programs, horseback carriage rides, village shopping, riverboat cruises and hikes are available upon request. The village can accommodate groups of five to 85 for meetings, with hurricane lamp-lit dinners prepared with simple Shaker recipes. The Kentucky
Derby Museum Nothing quite says Kentucky like Churchill Downs, and the world-famous racetrack is off and running, pouring millions into renovations and additions to better accommodate group meetings. The Kentucky Derby Museum is already well established as an interesting tourist site, offering its award-winning “greatest race” film, historic horseracing exhibits, and fine art. Companies can soak up all the racetrack atmosphere in the recently remodeled museum, while choosing from intimate boardroom space, medium-size galleries, The Derby Café, or the Museum’s great hall, which can seat up to 1,000 people. The Churchill Downs track also offers some interesting options. In addition to a day at the races, the recently renovated Jockey Club offers meeting space for up to 52 guests per room, with full catering service. Corporations can also take advantage of First Turn Village, available in the Fall 2003 and Spring 2004 meets, which includes a chalet on the first turn, box lunches, pari-mutuel wagering windows, bars and a chance to have a race named after their group. Select members of your group can also step into the Winner’s Circle and present the winning trophy, inscribed with your company’s name. The NKU METS
Center for Corporate Learning Sponsored through Northern Kentucky University and located just over the border from the Cincinnati airport, the METS center is a brand new facility that is definitely for the Star Trekkers among us. Why? Because it offers more than $5 million of the world’s latest presentation and information technology for corporate meetings. At 43,600 square feet, the center features a variety of rooms to fit any size gathering, from rooms filled with terminals for computer training to large auditoriums equipped with smart plasma screens, audience response tracking and smart lecterns. (So smart, in fact, that everything projected or digitally written on the presenters screen can be bound and distributed to attendees as they leave the presentation.) Catering services are available for everything from receptions to sit-down dinners, or simultaneously running smaller breakout sessions. The Louisville
Zoo The Louisville Zoo
is more than just a place for family fun…it’s also a place
for an exotic meeting. From small groups to large dinners, outdoor events
and cocktail parties, the zoo provides several customized options. Themed
areas of the zoo, like the new Gorilla Forest, are available for rental,
allowing guests to walk through the exhibits during cocktail parties
and view the animals through windows during dinners. For additional
fun, music, inflatables, games, bingo, scavenger hunts or other entertainment
options are offered by the zoo. Meetings can be as dressed down as safari
shorts or dressed up for black tie events for several hundred. The zoo
also features an outdoor amphitheater with a covered stage and large
lawn that’s available for rent as well.
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Copyright 1996-2003, by Kentucky Business Online. All rights reserved. Editorial content
is copyright 2003, Lane Communications Group The Lane Report is a trademark of Lane Communications Group. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. |
Chances
are you’ve been to one of “those” meetings: the bland
bagels… the rubber chicken boxed lunch… speeches that seem
to drag on forever in a claustrophobic conference room. 
Kentucky
State Resort Parks
The
Kentucky Bourbon Trail
Green
Turtle Bay
National
Corvette Museum