The Triangle, North Carolina

North Carolina's Triangle—encompassing Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill—is an attractive region that boasts several university campuses, aggressive high-tech and biotech research firms, and a rich antebellum heritage, all wrapped in signature Southern charm.

While planners are certainly drawn to these attributes, there's one more that really stands out in the crowd: The Triangle is one of the nation's most affordable places to hold a corporate meeting.

GetThere, the online corporate travel provider, found that the Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill area was the third most affordable place for a corporate meeting in 2003. In its top 10 annual survey released in December, Jacksonville, Fla., achieved No. 1 honors, followed by Columbus, Ohio, and the Triangle, N.C.

Slipping room rates undoubtedly helped the Triangle make the cut, although GetThere takes other costs into account, including transportation and audiovisual fees.

Triangle area hotels, though, have been holding their own and besting the national average: RevPAR was up 0.2 percent for the first 10 months of 2003 compared to a nationwide 0.4 percent slide, thanks to a 2.2 percent occupancy increase to a slightly-above-average 61 percent, according to figures distributed by Henderson, Tenn.-based Smith Travel Research.

Set amid central North Carolina's rolling hills, the Triangle is no stranger to accolades. Among the more than 30 garnered last year were "Best Place to Live," granted by MSN House & Home, and "Best Place to Live and Work," according to Employment Review.

While AARP found it the third "Best Place to Reinvent Your Life," Rolling Stone praised the musical offerings at the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill by placing it fourth among "Campus Scenes That Rock."

The area's identity largely stems from Durham's Research Triangle Park (RTP), which is carved into a pine forest and successfully links the affiliated college campuses of Duke University in Durham, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University in Raleigh. Currently two miles wide and eight miles long, RTP houses more than 100 R&D-related organizations that employ 45,000 people, with IBM and GlaxoSmithKline as its largest employers.

While the Triangle is one metro area, its cities are distinct communities separated by miles. Downtown Raleigh is 23 miles from downtown Durham, while it is 12 miles from Durham across to Chapel Hill, and Chapel Hill is 28 miles from downtown Raleigh.

And there is only one joint Raleigh-Durham venue, the Raleigh-Durham International Airport (RDA), which is served by 16 carriers that offer 400 daily flights. Owned by the two cities and 12 miles from each, the airport will double the size of one of its three terminals; demolition is slated to begin late this year. From most points on the map, the Triangle is close by, as RDA is situated within a two-hour flight and a day's drive from half of the nation's population.

Raleigh

The Tar Heel state's capital has long been called the "City of Oaks." With a healthy tree population, an academic foundation and more than 20 golf courses, it's also known as the city of "tees, trees and PhDs." Another slogan, "Smithsonian of the South," came about after the late '90s construction boom left Raleigh with an impressive lineup of cultural, arts and sporting facilities.

In recent years, more than $400 million (much of it public funds) has also been spent on projects providing alternative meeting and event venues.

Currently in the works is a new and larger convention facility, which is scheduled to replace the existing Raleigh Convention and Conference Center (RC&CC) by 2007.

Architects for the project are in place, and the city is buying land across from the RC&CC to expand the site. At press time, a developer was about to be chosen to work on a 400-plus-room headquarters hotel, which is considered by consultants a crucial project for the center's success. Construction is expected to start midyear.

Dissected by a pedestrian mall and surrounded by downtown's high-rises, the Capitol area and a six-acre park, the RC&CC currently features 130,000 square feet of meeting and exhibit space, and an array of attractions is within walking distance.

Included in the RC&CC complex is the 3-year-old BTI Center for the Performing Arts, with three venues ranging in capacity from the 170-seat Kennedy Theater to the 1,700-seat Meymandi Concert Hall.

Within the past five years, the Exploris interactive museum, IMAX Theater and North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences also opened. Other attractions in Raleigh include the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Gardens; numerous golf courses; the NHL's Carolina Hurricanes; and the Spanish-style City Market, which features restaurants, specialty stores and an antique mall.

For off-site venues, delegates will enjoy the company of two formidable dinosaurs during events at North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, which can accommodate up to 1,600 for receptions. Meanwhile, Exploris, among more than 80 unique venues listed by the Greater Raleigh CVB, offers 8,100 square feet of meeting space.

For large events, the 4-year-old, 21,000-seat RBC Center is home of the Hurricanes and North Carolina State University's Wolfpack basketball team, and  North Carolina State Fairgrounds has buildings that accommodate groups of 100 to 10,000.

"We're a good value," says Martin Armes, the Raleigh CVB's director of communications and marketing. "New attractions add to our appeal. We have a lot to offer as we move forward to build a convention center."

The problem, he adds, has been in holding room rates. Armes notes that the number of rooms—now totaling 13,400 in 121 properties—increased 50 percent during the last four years of the '90s, most in extended-stay and limited-service properties.

A growing sports market, he points out, has helped boost occupancy. Four weeks during November and December, for example, drew seven big sporting events, resulting in 26,000 room nights. Among the events was the 2003 NCAA Women's College Cup, held at the 1-year-old, 7,000-seat SAS Soccer Park, which was instrumental in attracting 280 girls' teams from across the country for an annual regional soccer tournament held around the same time.

Durham

The "City of Medicine," where almost one in three employees are in health-related fields, is home to Duke and North Carolina Central universities, and Research Triangle Park (RTP), which is situated four miles from downtown. RTP is within the city limits except for a small new portion that spills south to Wake County.

"A significant portion of our meetings are medical and technology related," says Shelly Green, the Durham CVB's executive vice president of marketing. "We're accessible; we have access to resources such as speakers; and we have 15 highly rated restaurants, 10 golf courses and high-quality facilities."

The city that presented the world with headache powders way back in 1910, child-proof medicine caps, Astroturf, and the bar code reader lures 4,000 corporate and association meetings per year, many of which are national and international. Rougly 19 percent of attendees fly in.

Nearly half of Durham's hotel rooms carry a AAA Three or Four Diamond rating, and its 7,054 guest rooms in 61 properties split neatly into two clusters: Half are downtown and around Duke, two miles away, and the rest are around RTP's perimeter, concentrated on either side where Interstate 40 crosses the park. The 197-room Radisson Hotel Research Park, which features 8,500 square feet of newly renovated flexible meeting space, is actually in the park. For citywide events that call for both hotel batches, turnkey shuttle service is available to run every 10 minutes at peak hours.

With 102,940 square feet of meeting and exhibit space, the Durham Civic Center in the downtown historic district can handle banquets for up to 1,200 people. The complex also includes three arts and theater facilities, and the Durham Marriott, which features a 14,000-square-foot ballroom.

Seven Durham hotels each have 5,000 square feet or more of meeting space; the 331-room Sheraton Imperial Hotel and Convention Center, located near RTP, has the largest amount of function space, with 34,000 square feet.

Among Durham's attractions are Duke's neo-Gothic chapel, a handful of art museums, the North Carolina Museum of Life and Science, and state historic sites that depict Civil War and African-American history.

Former tobacco warehouses in the Brightleaf Historic District are stacked with restaurants, art galleries and specialty stores. Additionally, construction started last year to convert 16 acres of old buildings in the American Tobacco Historic District into stores, restaurants and, eventually, a hotel.

Chapel Hill

Chapel Hill's meetings history goes back to a convention held in 1788 that led to the Bill of Rights; today the city still attracts important meetings, mainly from the medical and scientific communities.

"We combine features and amenities found in large cities but in a small-town setting," says Linda Ekeland, director of sales for the Chapel Hill/Orange County Visitors Bureau. "We're unique and quaint, but we're a typical college town."

With 1,168 guest rooms in 22 properties, including bed and breakfast establishments, Chapel Hill can handle group events for up to 650 attendees.

The 168-room Sheraton Chapel Hill has 16,000 square feet of meeting space, including a 6,927-square-foot ballroom. The 184-room Carolina Inn on the UNC Chapel Hill campus, just one block from the center of activity and nightlife on Franklin Street, offers 12,500 square feet of meeting space. Meanwhile, the Siena Hotel can handle groups of up to 150 people, and the Holiday Inn Chapel Hill has 2,500 square feet of meeting space.

For larger events, the William and Ida Friday Center for Continuing Education on the UNC Chapel Hill campus has 25,000 square feet of meeting space that includes up to 23 breakout rooms.

For off-session activities, Chapel Hill boasts the 600-acre North Carolina Botanical Garden, the Southeast's largest, as well as the Morehead Planetarium and Science Center, which can host banquets for up to 400 people, and the Ackland Art Museum.