Mississippi’s small towns are known for their culinary chops, rich musical legacy and outdoor adventures, making them prime locations for meeting groups wanting to plan more intimate events. Attendees at events in these five small Mississippi towns will want to tack on additional days to their stay to learn more about Elvis, play on white sand beaches or immerse themselves in the state’s rich cultural heritage and the town’s long local history.
Starkville
The home of Mississippi State University, Starkville doubles in population when school is in session. Despite the influx of students, the town maintains its small-town feel but with many amenities a town of 25,000 would not normally have access to.
The vibrant downtown is undergoing revitalization, including new sidewalks to make it more pedestrian friendly, restaurants with outdoor seating, boutique shops, and places where residents can live, work and play.
The Mill at MSU is the town’s largest event venue with 12,000 square feet of event space and a capacity of 1,000 attendees. A former cotton mill, the facility features wide plank pine floors, a grand ballroom and several breakout rooms. It is connected to a 104-room Courtyard by Marriott.
Davis Wade Stadium has several event spaces, including M-Club, Floyd Wade Jr. Club and The Gridiron, a field-level club that allows attendees to walk outside and stand behind one of the end zones. Colvard Student Union also can host conferences or events.
Several branded hotels in the area offer meeting spaces, including the 105-room Hilton Garden Inn. Off-site venues include PKL Row, an indoor pickleball facility with a restaurant and bar. Groups can rent the entire facility, the patio or just a couple of pickleball courts for team building.
For fun, groups can visit the Ulysses S. Grant Presidential Library on the MSU campus, explore The Frank and Virginia Williams Collection of Lincolniana or take a tour of the MAFES cheese store at MSU, where agricultural students make and sell cheese.
Tupelo
Tupelo is the birthplace of Elvis Presley, and the King is the town’s “hook, our main attractor,” said Jennie Bradford Curlee, deputy director of the Tupelo Convention & Visitors Bureau. At the Elvis Presley Birthplace, meeting groups can gather at the event center, visit his childhood home and museum, explore the beautifully manicured grounds and step inside the Assembly of God Church where he learned to play guitar and to love gospel music.
The event center can seat 160 for a banquet. The space can be split into one large room and one small room that can host up to 60 people, and a small theater can seat 126 for performances or keynote speeches.
Tupelo’s largest venue is the recently renamed Huntington Bank Arena and Conference Center, formerly Cadence Bank Arena and Conference Center. The arena offers 10,000 seats and 32,000 square feet of event space, and the conference center has more than 22,000 square feet of multiuse space.
Tupelo has more than 2,200 hotel rooms. One standout is the 79-room Hotel Tupelo, a boutique hotel downtown that can host smaller events for up to 30. Off-site venues include Queen’s Reward Meadery, Tupelo Cotton Mill and The Depot, a multipurpose facility that hosts the Tupelo Farmers Market. In their free time, groups can take Elvis’ Tupelo Driving Tour, visiting 15 different locations that were an important part of his childhood, or they can take a drive on the historic Natchez Trace Parkway that runs just west of town. The $60 million Chickasaw Heritage Center, which opens next spring, will feature an exhibit gallery, gift shop, art gallery, and meeting and event space.
Meridian
Meridian celebrates its music, arts and cultural scene with six world-class museums downtown. The Jimmie Rodgers Museum showcases the life and legacy of the father of country music, who hailed from Meridian. Mississippi Arts + Entertainment Experience, called The MAX, highlights the works of Mississippi artists, and the Soulé Steam Museum is an industrial heritage museum built in a turn-of-the-century former steam engine factory.
The area is a great way for meeting groups to tap into the history of the state with Civil Rights and Civil War heritage trails, two retro theaters and the state’s oldest live music scene.
The MSU Riley Center is a cultural center for performing arts and music that offers 30,000 square feet of event space, including 15-plus spaces for nine to 900 guests. The facility includes a historic 1890 opera house that has been lovingly restored.
There are many restaurants within walking distance of the Riley Center, including the state’s oldest restaurant, Weidmann’s, which has been open since 1870. The restaurant is famous for its Black Bottom Pie and peanut butter crocks on the tables. It also makes a nice off-site venue for smaller groups of 50 to 80 people.
The town has 2,020 hotel rooms, including The Threefoot Hotel, Meridian, a boutique hotel that originally served as office spaces. “It is Meridian’s skyscraper, the tallest building in our downtown,” said Laura Carmichael, executive director of Visit Meridian. It is next to the Riley Center and features 131 rooms and smaller meeting spaces.
Southaven
Located in DeSoto County in the northwest corner of Mississippi, Southaven is about 20 minutes from downtown Memphis, Tennessee. Along with its neighboring towns of Hernando, Horn Lake, Olive Branch and Walls, which are all within 20 minutes of each other, DeSoto County is known for its many festivals, its history and its outdoor experiences.
BankPlus Amphitheater at Snowden Grove and Landers Center are the two largest event spaces in Southaven. The outdoor amphitheater, which hosts big name acts, can seat 11,000. It has a small meeting space that can hold up to 75 attendees.
Landers Center is an indoor event center that is home to the Memphis Hustle basketball team and Mid-South Professional Hockey team. It is adding a convention hall that will be able to accommodate groups of up to 300, “which was something we needed in DeSoto County,” said Alison Mitchell, director of tourism for the DeSoto County Convention & Visitors Bureau. The facility is scheduled for completion in October.
The county has 600 hotel rooms and several new hotels in the works. Unique venues include The Gin at Nesbit, which has 13,000 square feet of elegant event space, and Bangers Pickleball, which can host groups of up to 300. Groups holding events there can rent pickleball courts and cabanas, cornhole boards and ping pong tables.
Groups coming to town for an event will enjoy hiking and biking along local trails, boating and fishing on nearby lakes, or playing a round of golf.
Biloxi and Coastal Mississippi
Once known as the “Seafood Capital of the World,” Biloxi has earned its newer reputation as a family-friendly destination with beautiful white sand beaches, marshes that are home to birds and alligators and other wildlife, and endless opportunities for fun on the water. Meeting groups hosting events in the area will want to partake in its robust culinary scene, visit one of the area’s many casinos or play a round of golf.
In their downtime, attendees can visit the Biloxi Lighthouse, explore the Maritime & Seafood Industry Museum or follow Mississippi History trails to learn about the area’s musical legacy and the role it played in the Civil Rights Movement.
There are nearly 16,000 hotel rooms in Coastal Mississippi’s 12 communities and plenty of event venues to choose from. The Mississippi Coast Coliseum & Convention Center is the largest with 400,000 square feet of event space. Groups can also host events at Beau Rivage Resort & Casino, which has 1,740 guest rooms and 50,000 square feet of event space. The Hard Rock Hotel & Casino has 479 guest rooms. Hard Rock Live offers 13,000 square feet of event space that can accommodate up to 1,000 guests. The hotel’s Rock ‘N’ Roll meeting venue can seat 100 in a theater setup.
Unique venues include the Maritime & Seafood Industry Museum, Ohr-O’Keefe Museum of Art and the Coastal Mississippi Mardi Gras Museum.
