Lake Placid, adirondacks, usa — Now in its fifth year of operation, momentum is building in the meetings market for the Conference Center at Lake Placid as the community welcomes a record number of attendees in 2016, with more than 5,600 people expected during April and May alone.
The Conference Center at Lake Placid opened in 2011, adding much-needed contemporary meeting space under one roof to the destination’s offerings. As the meeting and convention market long-lead sales process typically takes years, the calendar of events is now filling in as meeting planners first contacted when the Center opened are now booking, and the cyclical process continues.
Distance no longer a barrier
The very words “Lake Placid” conjure images of soaring mountain ranges, serene crystal lakes and deep, unspoiled forests. A longtime Adirondack destination, Lake Placid has hosted world-class events including two Olympic Winter Games, intimate meetings and leisure travelers seeking to invent their own perfect day for more than 100 years.
It seems that the pristine environment and unique experience of a meeting in Lake Placid have offset any perception of inconvenient access due to its proximity to large airports. In fact, meeting planners have found that choosing Lake Placid often results in exceeding expected attendance numbers.
Anytime Fitness, which will host its annual conference in Lake Placid in September, is a prime example of that phenomenon. “The Anytime Fitness conference will bring 2,800 people to Lake Placid this fall, and like most groups, they chose our destination for a combination of reasons,” said Maryjane Lawrence, marketing and operations director for the Conference Center. “Unique activities, the gorgeous landscape and the fact that they will essentially have the entire village to themselves have boosted attendance from their international membership.”
Building relationships with the community
Lake Placid is positioned to host very unique team building and corporate challenge activities that connect them to the community as part of a conference experience, including hockey shot contests, curling competitions, extreme tubing at the ski jumps, freestyle aerial shows, and team building exercises such as a bicycle build in which the bikes are then donated to local children.
Many conference groups build strong relationships to the destination, and Renzi Foodservice, which will host over 1,500 attendees at their Food Show April 18-19 at the Conference Center, is an excellent example. In 2014, the company established a charitable foundation partnering with the Northern New York Community Foundation in an effort to formalize their community reinvestment efforts in support of nonprofit organizations and schools. In Lake Placid, that has included donation of food to both the local school and to the food pantry.
The Renzi Foodservice Show is open to the public and will be held on April 18 at the Conference Center, which will simultaneously host the Museum Association of New York conference April 17-18. An complete list of 2016 groups is listed below.
The sales strategy for the Conference Center at Lake Placid is conducted cooperatively by the Regional Office of Sustainable Tourism (ROOST) and the New York State Olympic Regional Development Authority (ORDA). The strategy includes attracting a combination of regional day business, and multi-day, town-wide conferences.
For more information about the Conference Center at Lake Placid, visit meetingslakeplacid.com.
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The Conference Center at Lake Placid opened in the spring of 2011, and was designed with its location in the Adirondacks and contemporary meeting market needs in mind. Technologically savvy and environmentally sound, the Center incorporates optimized energy performance, renewable, recycled materials and natural daylight, and offers over 90,000 square feet of flexible meeting and exhibition space, with a total of 12 breakout rooms available for concurrent sessions, state of the art audio visual technology, a ballroom and a full service production kitchen.