Atlanta Experiences Growth In Conference Center Market

The growth and ongoing development of half a dozen major conference centers in Atlanta has shown just how strong the demand for such services is in the city.

Planners can choose among several top-tier facilities within the metropolitan area to hold corporate meetings, training sessions and incentive functions.

"I'm not saying we are all booked up all the time," said Lori Richardson, director of sales and marketing for the Emory Conference Center Hotel. "But what I am saying is that we've all more or less developed our own niche, our own place in the market, and the fact that so many conference centers exist here now means that customers who may have been turned away before can now find what they are looking for."

When Emory University began planning a conference center five years ago, the idea was that university-sponsored medical conferences and educators' meetings would supply the bulk of the center's business until enough corporate meetings and conferences could be booked to turn the facility into a true commercial conference center. Now, three years after the Emory Conference Center Hotel began operations, the plan has borne fruit.

"We are now doing about 70 percent corporate meetings, training seminars and conferences, and about 30 percent university-related business," Richardson said. "And that's exactly how we had envisioned that our business could develop once we got the word out in the corporate community as to what we have to offer."

The hotel and meeting complex offers 198 guest rooms, three suites and 20,000 square feet of meeting space, including a 5,500-square-foot ballroom, a 228-seat amphitheater and the Garden Overlook, a 10,000-square-foot meeting area overlooking a serene botanical garden.

The Peachtree Executive Conference Center, which was the first such facility in Atlanta when it opened in 1987, has been popular with Fortune 100 corporate groups, with companies like Proctor & Gamble and General Electric holding regular training sessions and sales meetings there.

The center, which sits on 19 wooded acres, features 250 guest rooms, 25,000 square feet of meeting space, 24 meeting rooms with state-of-the-art support systems, a 200-seat amphitheater, a health club, three dining facilities, golf, health club, 64 miles of jogging and walking paths and the Peachtree Adventure Course, a permanent ropes course designed for team-building activities. (Proctor & Gamble, for example, has put 2,600 of its salespeople through the course.)

The Aberdeen Woods Conference Center, originally developed in the early 1980s as the national training center for Pitney Bowes, has evolved into one of America's premier facilities of its type, with a widespread corporate following that includes regular training and conference programs by companies like BellSouth, ABF Freight Systems, Southern Co. and Union Camp.

Located in suburban Peachtree City, about half an hour south of Atlanta, Aberdeen Woods sits on 38 acres of pristine forest land dotted by small lakes. With 233 guest rooms and a wide range of amenities like a lakefront restaurant, Aberdeen Woods offers luxury on a par with any resort.

Another facility, The Evergreen Conference Center and Resort, is located about a half-hour drive from Hartsfield International Airport. "This is a very strategic location," said Ross Powell, director of sales and marketing. "Because of Hartsfield International Airport and its position as a major air travel hub, it's convenient and economical to fly in and out of here. And with the large number of national and regional corporate headquarters in Atlanta, we have a big corporate community that makes this a logical place for conference and training facilities."

While the 249-room Evergreen acquits itself well as a resort, it's also a first-class conference center, with 31,000 square feet of meeting space, 35 meeting rooms complete with the latest in audiovisual, lighting and computer support systems; personal conference consultants assigned to each meeting group, a flexible computer lab setup, a computer room for individual use, a 126-seat amphitheater, a 9,400-square-foot ballroom--which can be divided into seven sections--and two executive boardrooms. Each of the two floors in the guest room section has its own conference service desk.

Other major Atlanta conference centers include Chateau Elan, offering 26,000 square feet of meeting space; and the Marietta Conference Center & Resort, which features an 82,000-square-foot conference center, including meeting rooms, boardrooms and a 200-room hotel.

Gail Burnette Drouillard, director of sales, marketing and conference planning for Aberdeen Woods, said the competitive nature of the Atlanta marketplace should put the area's conference centers in the vanguard of the industry for years to come.

"It goes without saying here that you've got to be a full-service, customer-oriented conference center merely to compete, and I think that high level of competition means that a lot of the future innovations in our industry will come from right here in Georgia," she said.