Dubuque, Iowa
As Iowa’s oldest community, Dubuque’s deep heritage is still front and center today with historic homes lining the riverside bluffs. This ambiance is a major draw for planners, who often name the beauty of the community as one of their biggest reasons for bringing their meetings to Dubuque, according to Julie Kronlage, director of sales for the Dubuque Area Convention and Visitors Bureau.
In the past 15 years, Dubuque’s Mississippi Riverfront has become one of the city’s most scenic areas thanks in part to nearly $400 million in building and revitalization of the waterfront. The 86,000-square-foot Grand River Center offers the best of the town’s history and natural beauty, with one side facing the river and the bluff-top homes in the west, and the opposite side facing downtown, where Main Street and the historic Millwork District have recently undergone revitalizations of their own.
“We can shut down streets in the district and do an outdoor dinner for up to 600, and we’ve got a courtyard in the Millwork for 100 to 125,” said Kronlage. “Dubuque is great for outdoor events May through mid-October.”
Directly along the waterfront, the National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium, an interpretive center dedicated to the history of the river and how it has shaped the local areas and the nation, can host up to 1,500 for a dinner with the fish after hours and 150 to 200 people in private event spaces for daytime meetings. The historic Hotel Julien, which completed a $32 million renovation in 2009, also has views of the Mississippi from its ballroom, which can accommodate up to 400.
Northern Kentucky
In addition to having prime access to the waterfront of the Ohio River, northern Kentucky also offers the best views of the Cincinnati skyline and its iconic Roebling Suspension Bridge, which was the model for the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City.
The riverfront on the Cincinnati side is dotted with sports stadiums and entertainment complexes, but northern Kentucky offers the area’s only true waterfront meeting space.
“It’s a key differentiator,” said Stefanie Wyckoff, the Northern Kentucky Convention and Visitors Bureau’s business development manager. “And when we say you have access to Cincinnati, it’s really right here. People think it’s miles, but it’s an eight-minute walk.”
The Northern Kentucky Convention Center has 110,000 square feet of meeting space, and the attached Cincinnati Marriott at RiverCenter’s own 8,000 square feet of event space includes a ballroom with views of the Cincinnati skyline and the bridge that can accommodate up to 120 seated guests.
The adjacent Embassy Suites RiverCenter also has a river-view ballroom for up to 150, and the nearby Radisson Cincinnati Riverfront, which features a 360-degree rotating restaurant with the best views across the river to Cincinnati, is now undergoing a full renovation that is scheduled for completion at the end of this year.
Madison, Wisconsin
When it comes to water access, Madison is enormously blessed both for a city of its size and for a state capital, with five lakes within the city limits. The entire downtown area is also housed on an isthmus between Lake Monona and Lake Mendota, ensuring that you’re close to the water almost anywhere you choose to meet.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison Memorial Union on the waterfront is one of the city’s most popular event spaces, and its 1,300-seat theater, terrace, ballroom, English-style pub and smaller meeting rooms are also open to noncampus groups. The Edgewater, a boutique hotel on the waterfront dating back to the 1940s, features its own pier on Lake Mendota; the hotel completed a multimillion-dollar renovation in 2014.
“What’s really great about our geographic advantages is that our lakes and our water proximity is superaccessible, even for people who are here for a business purpose,” said Judy Frankel, director of public relations and communications at the Greater Madison Convention and Visitors Bureau. “Even if you only have an hour of free time, it’s easy to get out on the water and put distance between yourself and the urbanism of Madison.”
Meeting groups can take their whole event outside on the water with Betty Lou Cruises, which offers varying sizes and purposes of boats for everything from a sunset cruise to a meeting on a yacht with food and beverages. Brittingham Boats offers smaller groups opportunities to get much more experiential, with activities from canoeing and kayaking to yoga and water polo on stand-up paddleboards.
