For tours, activities and off-site venues, Atlanta's many faces provide options to suit any interest or theme.
First, there's what Andjela Kessler, president of Atlanta-based Incentive Travel and Meetings (ITM), calls fantasy Atlanta.
"A memorable experience can be created using a private mansion, with menus, music and decor of the era, Rhett and Scarlett look-alikes, and a costumed staff," she says.
For ITM, this theme is especially popular with Europeans, who identify Atlanta with
Gone with the Wind. If she organizes one tour for a European group, it's probably going to be the Civil Rights district, and for a shopping, an expedition to Buckhead is usually on the agenda.
For an educational component, there are opportunities to tie in with corporations and universities, and for health care gatherings, groups can utilize the Centers for Disease Control, Kessler adds, noting there is also no shortage of venues for Olympic-themed team building.
For GWCC conventioneers with little time, Kessler suggests two nearby experiences of modern Atlanta: the 50-minute studio tour of newsgathering mammoth CNN and, of course, Centennial Olympic Park. (Interestingly, CNN promotes its function space as "Prime Time Events" while the World of Coca-Cola uses the tagline "Refreshing Events.")
Olympic Park can accommodate small and large groups, and gatherings can be timed to coincide with free concerts. Destination South USA put together a reception at the park for Microsoft's annual Global Briefing, which was held last summer and attended by 10,000 people. The event included six areas with facades and cuisine representing neighborhoods of Atlanta.
"We showed them what Atlanta has to offer," says Cynthia Alford, president of Destination South.
The company includes among its productions Egyptian-themed events at the Art Deco, Moorish-style Fox Theater and Jurassic Park-themed parties for as many as 600 guests, taking over the entire Ferndale Natural History Museum, which features the Dinosaur Hall.
Susan Henderson, CMP, president of Atlanta Arrangements, another local DMC, talks of Atlanta's great chef-driven restaurants. She has put together dine-around programs for as many as 1,300 people, providing shuttles and a choice of 20 restaurants covering areas such as downtown, Midtown, Buckhead, and Virginia-Highland.
"We have something for all groups, and that allows us to be creative every day," she says.
For excursions, Henderson suggests Stone Mountain for full or half days and Callaway Gardens for full days, as well as a handful of picturesque towns, including Dahlonega, site of a gold rush in 1828 that gave rise to Atlanta as a frontier town.
Sports are another leisure-time highpoint of Atlanta, she adds. In addition to seeing the Braves, Falcons, Hawks, and Thrashers, attendees can take in NASCAR races at the Atlanta Motor Speedway, and there are places to get behind the wheel of a race car or dragster.
Of the state's dozen most-visited attractions, seven are in metro Atlanta: Six Flags over Georgia, Zoo Atlanta, Underground Atlanta, the Civil Rights district, Stone Mountain, the World of Coca-Cola, and Atlanta Braves games.
For More InfoAtlanta Arrangements 404.443.5959 www.atlantaarrange.com
Destination South USA 404.815.3010 www.destinationsouth.com
Incentive Travel and Meetings 404.252.2728 www.usaitm.com