Your Resource for Planning Meetings, Conventions and Tradeshows in Wisconsin.

MEETINGS MEAN BUSINESS FOR WISCONSIN

Bricks and Mortar Improvements - Now It’s Time to Fill Those Spaces

More to Wisconsin Tourism than Vacations

Wisconsin’s tourism industry, long known for its vacation offerings, has done its part to diversify, building the meetings & conventions segment of its business into a significant economic force.  Top-notch facilities, good value and wholesome destination are all working in Wisconsin’s favor, which means company leaders should rightly be applauded for choosing to keep their meetings here.  Imagine how many more employees a company could include in productive face-to-face meetings simply by choosing Wisconsin. 

 New Square Footage and Extreme Makeovers

Here’s an alphabetical snapshot of meeting facilities that are newly built or newly renovated in just the last five years.

Eau Claire Area The Plaza Hotel and Suites put $1 million into an upgrade of its property, with continued upgrades to sleeping rooms and conference space on the docket.  The Metropolis Hotel, which opened in 2007, was designed with business travelers in mind and offers high-tech function spaces.  

Elkhart Lake The expansion at The Osthoff Resort added 96 sleeping rooms and a 10,000 square foot conference center.

Fox Cities Neenah’s downtown Holiday Inn Neenah Riverwalk finished a first round of hotel upgrades with additional renovations scheduled. Completed upgrades include banquet and meeting spaces providing an additional 13,000 square feet.  The Radisson Paper Valley Hotel in Appleton is the only hotel in Wisconsin to employ four certified meeting professionals.

Green Bay Area Tundra Lodge opened its new 10,500 square foot conference center in 2008. The two-story center can be broken down into 16 different combinations and also features two executive boardrooms. Full-service banquet facilities are available here. Hotel Sierra in downtown Green Bay underwent a $6.6 million refresh; it is attached to the 43,000 square foot KI Convention Center.

Kohler The newly renovated Inn on Woodlake in Kohler remodeled its banquet and conference facility on the lower level, giving the community another unique setting for meetings and team building experiences. 

La Crosse There has been considerable investment in infrastructure in 2009-2010 alone. The La Crosse Center has totally refurbished the North Exhibition Hall and upgraded the Grand Ballroom.  The La Crosse Radisson Hotel, connected via sky walk to the La Crosse Center, has completely refurbished all its guest rooms and an upgrade of the hotel’s public areas will be completed in 2010.  The new 92-room La Crosse Candlewood Suites in the historic downtown district is set to open in May.

Lake Geneva Area Four major resorts in Walworth County - Grand Geneva and The Lodge at Geneva Ridge, both in Lake Geneva, The Abbey in Fontana, and Lake Lawn in Delavan - have invested millions of dollars in renovations over the past three years. The four resorts alone have a combined 150,000 square feet of space.  Lake Lawn Resort specifically underwent a $4.1 million renovation of meeting and public spaces and can now accommodate groups of up to 500.

Madison The 226-room Crowne Plaza Madison completed a $5.5 million renovation last year which added 10,300 square feet of new meeting space.  Built in 1871, the 219-room Best Western Inn on the Park Capitol Square in Madison recently wrapped up a renovation of guest rooms which now feature re-created 1870s-style furniture.  Inn on the Park has flexible corporate and event space and 15 multi-use conference rooms. Some 17 new hotel properties have opened in the market, adding 1,900 new rooms and over 38,000 square feet of additional meeting rooms and conference space.  Newest is the 151-room Hyatt Place Madison/Downtown now under construction and set to open this spring. The Hyatt Place Madison features 2,500 square feet of meeting space.  Madison continues to attract developer attention, with two significant downtown hotel projects under consideration to enhance options available to convention attendees.

Milwaukee Recent renovations to Milwaukee’s convention hotels include $12 million at the Hilton Milwaukee City Center and $18 million for a complete facelift of the Hyatt Regency Milwaukee. Added to the mix of downtown hotels, including the legendary Pfister Hotel, is the boutique Iron Horse Hotel which opened in 2008 and the $27 million Aloft Hotel which opened in 2009. Art deco Hotel Metro was the first hotel to receive Wisconsin’s Travel Green certification, followed by the chic InterContinental Milwaukee. New in 2008 the Crowne Plaza Milwaukee-Wauwatosa features 7,000 square feet of meeting space. Three new hotels have been added to the airport area, along with major renovations to the Crowne Plaza Milwaukee Airport, Ramada Plaza Airport, and Best Western Milwaukee Airport. Unique meeting venues include the $75 million Harley-Davidson Museum opened in 2008, featuring over 16,000 square feet of event space, along with Potawatomi Bingo Casino, which opened a $240 million expansion including the 9,000 square-foot Woodland Dreams ballroom.  Further west in Delafield is The Delafield Hotel which opened in 2006 and features more than 5,500 square feet of space in three different venues and professional planners to coordinate events. 

Oshkosh The Oshkosh Convention Center went through a $2.8 million renovation in 2008 and now features state-of-the-art audio/visual and a remarkable view of the Fox River. It offers 18,500 square feet of flexible space and is connected to the City Center Hotel.  Opened in 2008, The Waters is a recently restored meeting and event facility located along the shores of Lake Winnebago.  

Stevens Point The Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired Holiday Inn Hotel & Convention Center opened five years ago with 35,000 square feet of meeting & convention space and banquet capabilities for up to 2,000 people.

Washington County Opened in 2008, the $2 million Washington County Fair Park Ziegler Family Exposition Center has 25,000 square feet of dividable exhibit floor space and can be set up for a connected walkway to the Pavilion building – a 42,000 square foot multi-purpose complex. Both buildings have professional sound systems and wireless access, and parking is free.

Waukesha and Pewaukee The Clarke Hotel, a boutique luxury hotel in downtown Waukesha, opened at the end of 2008 with 22 individually designed guestrooms, a 1,750 square foot ballroom and three smaller, private meeting rooms in the lower level.  The Executive Learning Center at the Country Springs Hotel is tailored to training and education sessions with four separate learning suites, tables with TI data ports, a digital document camera and wall-to-wall whiteboards.

Wausau Wausau’s Fairfield Inn & Suites opened in 2006, featuring a total of 4,500 square feet of meeting space. 

Wisconsin Dells During the past five years the Wisconsin Dells area has seen the addition of nearly 167,000 square feet of meeting and event space. The Wilderness Resort added 31,471 square feet of event space to its Glacier Canyon Lodge conference center in 2008. Chula Vista Resort added 25,000 square feet of event space in 2006, a 90,000 square foot multi-purpose facility that can hold 450 exhibit booths in 2007, and an additional 20,000 square feet of event space in 2008.

Adding Up Rooms and Square Footage