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The Group Travel Leader Going on Faith Select Traveler

Southern College Towns

Knoxville, Tennessee

Knoxville, Tennessee, is a “super awesome, culturally diverse city, and we’ve grown a lot in the past five years,” said Sarah Rowan, senior director of sales for Visit Knoxville.

Although the University of Tennessee is a major part of the city’s scene — visitors will see thousands of tailgaters supporting the Tennessee Volunteers on a football weekend in the fall — when it’s an off week or when school’s out, “we still have a lot going on,” she said, including a huge music scene, lots of craft breweries and world-class theaters that draw both national and international acts.

The UT Conference Center sits a few blocks off campus in the heart of downtown, next to the Knoxville Convention Center. The conference facility has a 4,300-square-foot ballroom that can seat up to 300 for dinners, a 150-seat auditorium and a private suite for up to 50 attendees, as well as a dining room, an executive conference room, several small meeting rooms and an atrium for breaks or receptions.

Neyland Stadium, where the Tennessee Volunteers football team plays, has several event spaces, including the Wolf-Kaplan Center for up to 225 people and the Tennessee Terrace, with indoor-outdoor space that can accommodate 300 guests. Depending on availability, groups may also be able to arrange for stadium tours, Rowan said.

The McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture on campus is free to visitors and can be reserved for events.

Groups can also incorporate campus tours to see UT icons such as The Rock, a giant boulder-turned-community-billboard in the middle of campus that anybody can paint, and the statue of Pat Summitt, the former Lady Vols basketball coach who led the program to eight national titles and 18 Final Four appearances.

www.visitknoxville.com

Tuscaloosa, Alabama

The University of Alabama’s (UA’s) famed Crimson Tide football tradition means pretty much everyone knows where to find Tuscaloosa. The university has put the city of 100,000 residents in the spotlight, and “you’ll hear a lot of times that people identify Tuscaloosa as the home of the University of Alabama,” said Jasmine Rainey, director of tourism development for Tuscaloosa Tourism and Sports.

Even if they’re meeting off campus, most planners want to incorporate the university in some way, often with a tour of the famous Bryant-Denny Stadium. But for on-campus meetings, the Bryant Conference Center is UA’s dedicated event venue, with more than 30,000 square feet of flexible meeting space, the largest of which is the 9,700-square-foot Sellers Auditorium, which can seat 1,000 people theater-style.

“A great thing about that venue is it is literally right next to the only hotel on campus,” Rainey said.

Hotel Capstone is a full-service property with 150 guest rooms and 12,000 square feet of event space, along with the on-site Legends Bistro restaurant, an outdoor pool, a coffee shop and a lounge.

Also on campus, the Alabama Museum of Natural History is in the 1910 Beaux Arts Smith Hall and is available for after-hours rentals. Guests can mingle in the 2,300-square-foot Grand Gallery, which features a barrel-vaulted ceiling, a wraparound mezzanine and a soaring Basilosaurus cetoides dinosaur fossil. The Bryant Museum is another way for groups to “Roll Tide.” The lobby can accommodate after-hours receptions for 150 guests, and rental includes access to exhibits of the Crimson Tide’s legacy from 1892 to the present.

www.visittuscaloosa.com