Courtesy Mason Inn
Clients from nearby and far away
Located in a leafy suburb west of Washington, the conference center draws primarily from the Mid-Atlantic. Government clients, as well as corporations located in burgeoning Northern Virginia, make up much of its business.
Free campus shuttles take guests from the hotel to the nearby Vienna Metro station for the brief ride to Washington on Metro’s Orange Line.
GMU, an international university, also draws researchers from all over the world in fields like global climate change, cyberinformation systems and cybersecurity, and sustainability. The international complexion is also reflected in hotel staff, who proudly tout their national origins — Mexico, Thailand, Colombia — on their nametags.
Benefits of a college campus
Meeting on a college campus provides meeting planners with perks: expertise and interesting speakers, options for team building, off-site venues and downtime diversions.
“This is an entrepreneurial place,” said Tom Reynolds, director of external affairs for GMU’s College of Visual and Performing Arts. “It’s a new university as universities go. People are willing to experiment, to try things.”
For example, the Mason Speakers is a group of 150 faculty members and alumni who share their interests and expertise with community and meeting groups. Coordinated by the university’s Office of Community Relations and listed on an Internet database, speakers cover topics as wide-ranging as the science of happiness and meaning in life, Arab-Israeli relations and business globalization.
Conference center staff can lead team building, or planners can work with the Edge, George Mason’s Center for Team and Organizational Learning, a start-up on GMU’s Prince William campus, 30 minutes away.
Executive development and leadership training can be customized by the university’s School of Management, with an office in the conference center.
A wealth of resources
The university’s Center for the Arts, “across the [Mason] pond” from the hotel, offers music, dance, theater and opera during the school year. Banquets and luncheons can be held in its lobby; its Grand Tier 3 lobby that overlooks the woods and pond works well for receptions for up to 200.
Circuses, boxing matches and bull-riding competitions are among the events held at the 10,000-seat green-and-gold Patriot Center, home to GMU basketball. The center has also been used for large private events.
Hotel guests can get a free pass to use the university’s fitness facilities, which include the new Recreation and Athletic Complex, known as the RAC. A short walk from the hotel, it has basketball, tennis, squash and racquetball courts and a full complement of weight and cardio equipment.
A 10-minute walk or shuttle ride from campus, the Aquatics and Fitness Center has an Olympic-size swimming pool, a warm-water recreation pool, a whirlpool and a sauna. It operates on student time, staying open until 11 p.m. weeknights.
For just about anything else, there’s the student union building. The sprawling Johnson Center, known as JC, is home to everything from a convenience store and the bookstore to a food court, a movie theater and the invigorating energy of students.
Tucked behind trees, the Mason Inn and Conference Center is a place to get away from it all for a meeting and still be in the thick of things.
www.themasoninnva.com
