America’s Heartland continues to be a major destination for meeting planners looking for new and interesting places to host their events. Here are five new venues that offer plenty of meeting space and amenities, including three hotels, a cultural center and the College Baseball Hall of Fame.
The H Hotel
Midland, Michigan
The H Hotel, a AAA Four Diamond property in the heart of downtown Midland, Michigan, has been in the city for 31 years but has changed hands many times. Most recently, it was a branded Wyndham Hotels and Resorts property. In October 2023, Wyndham turned over management of the hotel to Charlestowne Hotels. That means, for the first time in its history, the hotel is not associated with any brand.
The hotel’s success is driven by its central downtown location, which places it close to shopping and restaurants, as well as to Dow Diamond baseball stadium, home of the Great Lakes Loons, and The Tridge, a three-legged wooden footbridge that spans the confluence of the Tittabawassee and Chippewa rivers in Chippewassee Park.
The hotel has 103 guest rooms, more than 10,000 square feet of indoor meeting space and 15,000 square feet of outdoor green space. The largest space can accommodate up to 300 guests. The H has dedicated event planners to assist groups with every detail of their conference planning, from logistics to on-site coordination, and all its meeting spaces have built-in projection and an on-site A/V technician.
Groups that host events at the hotel can add experiences, such as iron chef competitions or bourbon tastings. The hotel has two on-site restaurants. One Eighteen is a modern American restaurant that offers classic dishes with a contemporary twist, and Café Zinc is a European-inspired café that offers breakfast, lunch and dinner. The Oxygen Lounge features innovative cocktails, light bites, happy hour and an outdoor patio.
College Baseball Hall of Fame
Overland Park, Kansas
The College Baseball Hall of Fame has been in the works for some time. The College Baseball Foundation, which was founded in 2004 in Lubbock, Texas, has always wanted a physical location to celebrate the annual inductees. It ended up choosing Overland Park, Kansas, because of its great central location and strong baseball presence with the nearby Kansas City Royals and the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.
The hall of fame is taking over a 9,000-square-foot exhibition space within the Museum at Prairiefire. The facility is being designed by Populous, a Kansas City-based company. It will include a space dedicated to the college hall of famers and their stories. Other galleries will spotlight the winners of several annual awards, including All-Americans across all divisions.
The foundation also wants the space to be fun, engaging and interactive. It will have a theater and batting simulators. The hall of fame is expected to open during the first quarter of 2026. Groups will be able to rent out various spaces throughout the Museum at Prairiefire, especially the Great Hall, which is its main event space. Groups renting space will be able to include entrance to the hall of fame.
mlb.com/college-baseball-hall-of-fame
The Well House Hamilton
Hamilton, Ohio
The Well House Hamilton opened in December 2024 in a Hamilton, Ohio, structure that originally was built as a hotel in 1927. It served as a hotel until the 1960s, and then became apartments and most recently a senior living facility. Hilton bought the property in 2022 and spent two years on a renovation project.
The Well House, which has 54 guest rooms and 528 square feet of event space across two meeting rooms, was named in tribute to Hamilton’s history. About 30 yards from the hotel’s front door, deep underground, is the original freshwater well that the town’s earliest settlers dug back in the 1790s.
One of the meeting rooms is an executive conference room that seats 10. The Bourbon Room, with dark, rich leathers and soft seating, can serve as a hospitality suite. There is an on-site restaurant, The Lucky Well Irish Pub and Eatery, which has indoor and outdoor seating. The lobby — complete with a water feature — is a place where guests can collaborate and work together, and Hilton has partnered with the Butler County Historical Society to incorporate historical artifacts throughout.
TownPlace Suites Wentzville
Wentzville, Missouri
TownePlace Suites in Wentzville, Missouri, opened as an extended-stay hotel in March 2024. It was built on a bluff overlooking the forest canopy and the Wentzville Bluffs. The hotel has 96 guest rooms and one 456-square-foot executive boardroom that can seat 15 guests.
Every guest room offers beautiful views of the surrounding woods. Stone Summit Steak and Seafood restaurant is within walking distance of the hotel and partners with it for group events. Groups of up to 36 people can rent the restaurant’s private dining room for meetings, banquets or special events. The hotel also features an on-site fitness center with cardio equipment, free weights and other workout machines.
The St. Charles Convention Center is 20 miles from the new hotel, offering 154,000 square feet of flexible event space. The facility can host banquets for up to 2,500 guests or exhibitions with 250 booths.
Just 41 miles from St. Louis, Wentzville is also home to the National Horseshoe Pitchers Hall of Fame, which features 16 indoor and 16 outdoor horseshoe courts and a large museum. TownePlace Suites is the host hotel for several large equestrian events that take place at the National Equestrian Center in nearby Lake St. Louis. The city is also the location of a General Motors assembly plant, which manufactures mid-size trucks and full-size vans.
Mulva Cultural Center
De Pere, Wisconsin
The Mulva Cultural Center is a 75,000-square-foot cultural destination on the Fox River in De Pere, Wisconsin, that hosts traveling exhibits from around the world. Designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, the center opened in December 2023 and has already taken home an AIA Chicago Lerch Bates People’s Choice Award for best cultural architecture.
The center’s next exhibition, Unofficial Galaxies, will run January 25–April 27 and is one of the largest private collections of Star Wars memorabilia in the world. It includes 142 collected items from the Star Wars universe, including a life-size Landspeeder, a Princess Leia costume, young Anakin Skywalker’s desk and chair from the film “The Phantom Menace” and a sculpture of Baby Yoda from “The Mandalorian.”
Meeting planners have their pick of choice meeting spots at the center. The 200-seat auditorium can be used for lectures or presentations, while two multipurpose learning spaces can accommodate up to 90 for lectures, meetings or special occasions. The atrium, which includes exhibit space, is two stories high and can host 350 for a cocktail reception or 200 for a plated dinner or buffet. A boardroom can hold 20 and is equipped with state-of-the-art A/V equipment.
The on-site restaurant can seat 100 for lunch or dinner, and the center’s patio works well for cocktail receptions. Groups can also tour the exhibits as part of their events.
