Meetings that Move: Luxury Hotels Introduce Active Meetings Offerings

To keep attendees engaged and promote an overall more productive meeting experience, luxury hotels from coast to coast are introducing new and innovative activities for meeting groups.

• Hotel Madeline Telluride (pictured) in Telluride's Mountain Village offers an exciting menu of team-building adventures in the Colorado Rockies for corporate clientele to choose from, allowing groups to use the San Juan Mountains as their playground. Activities are tailored for collaboration and relationship growth or leadership development and include everything from a Historic Telluride GPS Orienteering Quest–a fast-paced trek to solve riddles and explore the origins of the historic town, to a Winter Rescue Challenge, which combines local activities and modern technologies with classic wilderness protocols such as survival sheltering and litter carries. Additional team building adventures include Box Canyon Amazing Race, San Juan Off-Road Rally and Command Central GPS. At the resort, Hotel Madeline offers almost 4,000-square-feet of versatile meeting space, including a 3,300 square foot ballroom that can be divided into separate meeting spaces and access to the 14,000 square foot Telluride Conference Center, which is just around the corner. Rates begin at $167 per night.

• The Nines hotel in Portland, OR offers a “Meetings in Motion” package for groups. Groups that book the package will receive a map and trail for a walk in Washington Park. The map includes background info, art and interesting facts behind sites spotted along the walk. Groups can also opt to have a tour guide accompany them on their walk. At the conclusion of the walk, the group will partake in a catered picnic at the Rose Garden or Japanese Garden before being transported back to the hotel. Each meeting attendee will receive a welcome amenity that contains a small backpack with healthy snacks and a water bottle for their “walking meeting” and a MAX light rail pass valid for the day of the meeting. “Meetings in Motion” is not an add-on to a larger meeting agenda, but the actual meeting itself. Groups conduct their meeting while taking in the great outdoors of Portland. Rates starting from $289 per night.

• Located in the scenic Blue Ridge Mountains The Omni Grove Park Inn in Asheville, NC is incorporating synergy and exercise into their meetings packages. Get your guests up and moving with one of the innovative team-building programs to help organizations create synergy to build high-performance teams and enjoy interaction with colleagues. From team building activities like a competitive scavenger hunt to head-clearing meditation yoga walks through Inn's newly restored and extended Sunset Trail, the Inn encourages attendees to get them up and moving during their meetings. Rates starting from $249 per night.

• Groups and meetings at Tides Inn, the award-winning waterside retreat in Irvington, VA can escape the boardroom and enjoy the great outdoors with Tides' adventurous teambuilding activities. Located on Carters' Creek, groups can navigate the waterfront with a friendly sailing race. Accompanied by an experienced instructor, groups will put their sailing skills to the test as they work together to complete this fun nautical challenge. Groups can also take part in a thrilling game of “lost and found” with the GPS Geocache. After being dropped off in an unknown location, groups will work together using their pre-programmed GPS navigator to find their way back to a predetermined destination. For additional information about Tides Inn groups and meetings offerings, please contact the main sales office at 480.264.3000 or sales@tidesinn.com