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Conferencing goes old school

 


The Conference Center at Saint Vincent College’s building has been lauded for its green efforts.
Courtesy Conference Center at Saint Vincent College


The Conference Center at 
Saint Vincent College

Latrobe, Pa.
When it comes to hometown heroes, the University of Alabama has nothing on a small Catholic college in rural western Pennsylvania. It claims Mister Rogers, Arnold Palmer and banana splits as native sons.

The Conference Center at Saint Vincent College is among several entities housed in the two-story Fred M. Rogers Center, built in 2008 and Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Gold certified.

Some groups have used Mister Rogers as a theme for their meetings, asking everyone to wear a cardigan or wrapping sessions around a neighborhood concept. Sometimes, trolley cookies are on the lunch menu. Occasionally, there’s a banana split bar. The sundae was invented in Latrobe by pharmacist David Strickler.

Optimal meeting size is 100, said Kathleen Pantalone, the center’s director. “We have some corporate meetings, but mostly nonprofits and associations.”

A large banquet room with 30-foot ceilings and natural light can be divided, and there are six breakout rooms. The center is equipped with SMART Podiums and 52-inch liquid crystal display screens; information technology staff provide support.

“The staff is well trained, and there are 20 part-time students on staff. People like interacting with them,” Pantalone said.

Clients come mostly from western Pennsylvania and include one that has arrived every summer for 46 years: the Pittsburgh Steelers football team.

“They have their training camp here from late July to mid-August,” Pantalone said. “While they’re here, the conference center is used mostly for their food and hospitality.”

Accommodations are a mile or two from campus and include a new SpringHill Suites by Marriott and a Wingate Inn.

724-532-5030
www.stvincent.edu/events

The Marriott Inn and Conference Center

University of Maryland University College, Adelphi, Md.
Accommodations are front and center at the University of Maryland University College (UMUC). It has its own International Association of Conference Centers-certified conference center/hotel combo run by Marriott with 39,000 square feet of meeting space, 226 guest rooms and free parking 10 minutes from downtown Washington, D.C.

The school also has 90,000 students, but you’re not likely to see a single one. UMUC, an independent college, is one of the nation’s largest providers of online bachelor’s and graduate degree programs. It educates 30,000 Marylanders and 50,000 active-duty service members at more than 130 military installations, including in Afghanistan.

Although UMUC is adjacent to the University of Maryland and began as the adult evening course branch of that university, UMUC became independent in 1988.

The inn and conference center are two buildings — the conference building, constructed in 1962, and the hotel building, constructed in 2004. A major renovation underway now will change the looks of both buildings, inside and out.

A covered walkway is being built to connect them and interiors are being revamped. An 8,000-square-foot ballroom is being redone, an auditorium is being converted to a second ballroom, and 28 smaller meeting rooms are under renovation.

Work will be completed in mid-May and an open house will be held on June 5.

The inn will also add a restaurant, a great room in the lobby and a budget-friendly conference dining area.

About half of the inn’s rooms, 111 of them, are being converted into New York boutique-style rooms that are smaller, trendy, modern and equipped with amenities like refrigerators, bathrooms cloaked in black smoke glass and support for the latest technology, including iPod docking and free wireless Internet.

With its near-D.C. location, UMUC draws meeting clients from the pharmaceutical industry and government agencies, as well as sports groups and travelers doing business with the University of Maryland, which does not have its own conference center.

The average meeting size is 400 to 500, although the optimum size for a multiday meeting is 150.

301-985-7300
www.marriott.com