Sunshine Matters

During the 2013-14 fiscal year, VISIT FLORIDA traveled to six key domestic markets for Very Important Planner (VIP) events which included Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Minneapolis, New York City and Washington D.C.  Each of these markets have a strong base of corporate and national association planners that source Florida for meetings and conventions, and have been highly successful in marketing Florida’s diverse and immense meetings opportunities.

The final event in the series recently took place in New York City and was attended by eleven VISIT FLORIDA industry partners and fifty meeting planners.  Dubbed “Pies the Limit” and held at the Institute of Culinary Education in the artsy Flatiron District, the sold-out pizza-pie themed networking event  was a great way to build relationships between the hosted meeting planners and Florida suppliers.  Participants got to know one another by showing off their cooking skills as each guest was challenged to make their best pizza pie with the Sunshine State in mind.

With business travel accounting for nearly 9 million of Florida’s domestic visitors, and conventions, meetings, seminars and training events making up 58 percent of business travel to the Sunshine State, creating memorable events that educate planners on all our state has to offer truly is very important.  For this upcoming 2014-2015 fiscal year, VISIT FLORIDA will be expanding our VIP event program to include a seventh market – Dallas – which is now tied with Georgia as Florida’s top origin state for meeting travelers.

In the coming weeks, VISIT FLORIDA will finish planning our 2014-2015 fiscal year meetings and convention initiatives.  As our new events become finalized, you can visit our online Marketing Planner on VISITFLORIDA.org  to view details or contact me at chatcher@visitflorida.org.