Distinctive Venues
For a unique alternative, the International Quilt Study Center and Museum hosts groups. The building’s bowed, three-story facade of glass panels is stitched together to create a large-scale pattern. The museum contains public galleries filled with innovative and colorful quilts, plus two meeting spaces totaling 3,500 square feet.
In southwest Lincoln, the newly opened Defy Gravity trampoline park offers team-building sessions. Activities include trampoline basketball, dodgeball and relay races. The 24-foot-high dual climbing wall invites competition, as does the laser maze’s Vault Challenge, where players maneuver through lasers to reach the bank vault filled with holographic money. Full catering and private party and breakout rooms complete the package.
Just minutes outside the city, groups get down to business in a relaxed setting or enjoy a day of camaraderie at Prairie Creek Inn, which is situated on 100 acres. The inn’s renovated three-season barn seats 299 people in 1,750 square feet of space for conferences, meetings or catered dinners. On property, the historic Leavitt House, the Cottage House, and the Lakeside Cabin offer 10 bed-and-breakfast rooms. All who visit can enjoy the winding trails, lake and creek on the prairie landscape.
James Arthur Vineyards, Nebraska’s largest winery, is located 15 minutes north of Lincoln. The St. Croix Room accommodates up to 40 people in 1,000 square feet for a sit-down gathering that includes breakfast, lunch or dinner and an optional postmeeting cheese and wine tasting. The room overlooks the vineyards as well as the indoor wine production. Wine dinners, tastings and receptions are easily executed in this room, which features a stone fireplace, a wine-tasting bar, a catering kitchen and French doors leading to a private deck. Access to two decks and gazebos provide gathering spots during breaks. Quarterly murder-mystery dinners and May’s annual Renaissance Festival, where the current year’s mead wine is released to the public, round out events.
Top-Tier Hotels
Lincoln offers three full-service hotels with meeting and conference space. The Cornhusker, a Marriott Hotel, recently completed an $11 million renovation of its 300 rooms and 46,000 square feet of flexible meeting space. Options include the 10,545 square-foot Grand Ballroom and the 5,964 square-foot Lancaster ballroom.
Across the street from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln campus and the Lied Center for the Performing Arts, the Embassy Suites Lincoln contains 252 rooms and 20,000 square feet of meeting space and 16 separate meeting rooms, including Lincoln’s largest ballroom at 12,000 square feet, which easily accommodates as many as 1,500 guests. There are also two boardrooms and atrium dining for 250 people.
The 231-room Holiday Inn Downtown is located in the Historic Haymarket Entertainment District and within walking distance of Nebraska’s State Capitol, the University of Nebraska and legendary Memorial Stadium. It has more than 12,000 square feet of meeting space and 10 meeting rooms; the largest contiguous space seats up to 500.
Service With a Smile
The Lincoln Convention and Visitors Bureau provides a multitude of free services for meeting planners: on-site staff registration assistance, name badges, banners, an information booth and information bags with promotional items for conference attendees. Staffers can also help obtain transportation bids and organize itineraries. The CVB can assist in scheduling dignitaries to speak.
“We’re happy to work with meeting planners to help them get in front of local or statewide media, in print, radio and television,” said Feyerherm. “We can also help promote events via our website Lincoln.org, monthly television segments on city TV and weekly radio spots done by our executive director.”
For meeting planners or decision-makers that haven’t traveled to Lincoln, the CVB provides site visits to proposed hotels and meeting facilities. Depending on the size of the event, CVB staff will travel to the prior year’s conference and answer questions regarding Lincoln. Financial assistance for organizations, based on need and overall event size, is also available.
Lincoln, Nebraska
Location:
Southeastern Nebraska, approximately 35 minutes from Omaha
Access:
Lincoln Airport (serviced by United and Delta Airlines), Omaha’s Eppley Airport
Major meeting spaces:
Pinnacle Bank Arena, The Lancaster Event Center
Hotel Rooms:
66 lodging properties with 5,014 total rooms. In 2016, five more hotels will open, adding 380 rooms
Offsite Venues:
The Rococo Theatre, the Barn at Prairie Creek Inn, the Nebraska Innovation Campus Conference Center
Contact Info:
Lincoln Convention and Visitors Bureau
800-423-8212
www.lincoln.org
