Beyond Downtown
“Two hotels beyond the downtown are also important for meeting planners,” said Oliver. “Embassy Suites near the airport has 273 suites and 20,000 square feet of meeting space. It consistently ranks tops within its brand.”
And the Hilton North Raleigh/Midtown, she said, has 30,000 square feet of meeting space that can be divided into 20 rooms.
Raleigh is also home to one of two North Carolina hotels that hold both Forbes Five-Star and AAA Five Diamond ratings. The Umstead Hotel and Spa on 12 beautifully landscaped acres might be perfect for a high-end meeting or event. It has 10,200 square feet of meeting space, art exhibits that change every six months and suites that open onto a lawn.
Venue with Regional Flair
A compact city where you can get anywhere, including the airport, in about 20 minutes, Raleigh also has meeting, reception and event venues that reflect the region.
The Angus Barn, Pavilion and Wine Cellar, a 54-year Raleigh tradition, mimics a barn with hay feeders, farm implements and gingham tablecloths.
But just downstairs from its 650-seat restaurant is a wine cellar that for the last 20 years has won Wine Spectator’s Grand Award for having one of the world’s top-100 wine lists; it’s 83 pages long with 1,800 items. There are 25,000 bottles in that wine cellar, including an 1880 Madeira that costs $5,000. Two private rooms are available for tastings and dinners for groups of 12 to 36 people.
Upstairs, there’s a private dining room for 100 and a cigar lounge with its own steward.
Eight years ago, the Angus Barn added a pavilion that can seat 350. Three of its walls retract to the open air overlooking a lake with a fountain. The fireplace is built of cobblestones that once paved Fayetteville Street, and trusses overhead came from a pre-Civil War munitions factory.
“An outdoor patio can hold 300 for a reception,” said event coordinator Kelly Joslin. “We can do anything here from mechanical bulls to casinos.”
On the campus of North Carolina State University, the McKimmon Conference and Training Center is geared for educational meetings. It has 37,000 square feet of meeting space, including 23 flexible breakout rooms, and 700 free parking spaces. The center can host meetings for 12 to 1,200.
When not being used for the state fair in October, the 344-acre North Carolina State Fairgrounds offers 398,000 square feet of space, indoors and outdoors, for events and trade shows. The 7,610-seat Dorton Arena, designed by Polish architect Maciej Nowicki, features an extraterrestrial, saddle-shaped roof supported by steel cables.
Smithsonian of the South
Over the years, Raleigh has earned the moniker “Smithsonian of the South” for its renowned museums. Most are free; they also host meetings and events.
Rodin’s “Naked Muse, Without Arms” greets guests at the North Carolina Museum of Art; it has the second-largest collection of Rodin sculptures in the country.
The nation’s first state-funded art museum moved to its 164-acre art park in the 1980s and added a second building of galleries in 2010.
“Art starts the conversation here,” said Morgan Greer, director of special events, who coordinates everything from meetings in the museum’s 272-seat auditorium to receptions and dinners for several hundred people in areas adjacent to the galleries.
The North Carolina Museum of Natural Science’s new wing, the Nature Research Center, is hard to miss with its three-story globe, the Daily Planet.
A fourth-floor conference center accommodates meetings for 15 to 200 in four rooms. Receptions in the conference center’s foyer overlook a green roof terrace and a swooping 90-foot “flash ribbon” that electronically portrays the patterns from raindrops to flocking birds.
The museum also has an auditorium for 260 and a 3D theater.
After hours, the museum will host receptions for 250 or dinners for 120 amidst natural wonders like a gigantic shark jaw, whale skeletons and a live seahorse exhibit.
