Day Packages
Some hotels, like the Kimpton Cardinal in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, offer day packages for meeting groups that focus primarily on meal services. The hotel features three different day packages: a basic package, a health-conscious package and a hearty-buffet package, which each include breakfast, lunch, break refreshments and all-day beverage service.
“The package takes the guesswork out of it and gives you some very basic but popular items,” said Liza Edgerton, director of sales and marketing at the hotel. “Menus can be overwhelming, especially when you’re trying to put together something that you don’t do every day.”
Typically, break refreshments are priced according to consumption, so when it comes to planners on a budget, it is invaluable to know the price point of each group in advance.
Though the Kimpton Cardinal’s meeting packages are designed for single-day events with 12 or more guests, it is possible to adapt the packages for multiday events.
“If someone comes to us and says, ‘We want this for four days,’ we can customize it for longer meetings so they’re not eating the same menu every day,” said Edgerton.
Since the Kimpton’s packages mainly cover meal services, the hotel’s planning team can usually coordinate the event within a short window of a week to a month, although groups with overnight stays will need to make contact four to six months in advance. The same package is available at several other Kimpton properties, including the Kimpton Sawyer in Sacramento, California.
Team-Building Packages
Surrounded by Colorado’s rich, mountainous landscape, Cheyenne Mountain Resort in Colorado Springs strives to inspire and challenge meeting groups through a unique selection of team-building experiences.
“Getting people together as a team to problem-solve and work together as a team goes a long way,” said Tom Walker, director of sales at the resort. “There’s so much to learn outside the four walls of the meeting space.”
As an IACC-certified conference center, the resort guarantees meeting groups a top-quality bundle of guest accommodations, flexible event space, unlimited break refreshments and lavish buffet meals three times per day. In addition, groups can customize the package with a variety of creative team-building activities, from Giant Jenga to Glow Golf and Build-a-Canoe.
“We have a group that does the Build-a-Canoe package every year,” said Walker. “The teams are provided a number of materials — swimming noodles, cardboard, aluminum cans — and then they do what they can to build a boat that can carry at least one person.”
Another popular package is the Amazing Race challenge, during which attendees divide into teams and then race to solve clues at various points across the property.
“We can build the clues into a decided theme. It could be questions about the area or questions about the company itself, such as a new product that the company is rolling out,” said Walker.
Planners must book 10 or more rooms to qualify for Cheyenne Mountain Resort’s CMP. Once the contract has been signed, the resort assigns the group a dedicated planning professional to handle event preparations.
“All of the culinary needs, AV needs — everything is taken care of by us. It’s truly a turnkey experience when you take advantage of a resort like us,” said Walker. “We find that when people come for a meeting, many times they come back again with their family because of the great experience they had.”
