Anyone who’s ever been to the beach knows how fun and relaxing it can be. Those who live on the coast may take it for granted from time to time, but for those of us in landlocked states, the first time visiting the beach can be an exciting and cathartic experience.
Beachfront destinations can also provide a great backdrop for meetings and business events, with slow, melodic waves creating the perfect underscore for a relaxing incentive getaway, an executive teambuilding trip or large-scale conference.
Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and Fort Lauderdale, Florida are no exceptions. These two destinations have a lot to offer to planners, and they are quickly becoming go-to locations for a variety of organizations and associations looking for their next event destination.
Here are some of the major benefits of hosting your next meeting or event in beach destinations, with Myrtle Beach or Fort Lauderdale as prime examples.
Attendance Boost
Hannah Lorance is the owner of the association management company TEAL Management and helps plan conferences and other meetings for four associations in the South Carolina area. Lorance says having her events at a beachfront destination like Myrtle Beach can be a big draw for attendees.
“It just automatically boosts attendance by having it in Myrtle Beach,” Lorance explained. “I mean, who doesn’t want to come to the beach?”
Lorance emphasized the fact that Myrtle Beach is an “easy sell” to a lot of her attendees and stakeholders, and it’s one of the reasons she’s continued to host events in Myrtle Beach.
Other beachfront destinations can pose similar draws for attendees.
Marisa Sterling-Abram is the director of meetings for the National Conference of State Legislators (NCSL), a government meeting that serves as the largest gathering of state lawmakers and staff in the country. The conference typically rotates cities each year, with Sterling-Abram booking the 2028 event in Fort Lauderdale, shooting for a July or August timeframe. This is the first time the group has done a beach meeting for the summit, but Sterling-Abram is excited and optimistic about the new marketing possibilities that hosting the conference in a destination like Fort Lauderdale offers.
“I’m excited to see how we can change our marketing plan to get people excited,” Sterling-Abram said. “We want to emphasize the meeting, but I think there’s some good opportunities in a marketing plan to highlight the beautiful location.”
Great Venues and Properties
Another benefit of hosting an event at a beachfront destination is the wide variety of meeting venues and hotel properties that can accommodate a range of meeting sizes. Lorance said that her typical meeting can range from 50 to 400 attendees, while Sterling-Abram’s average attendance is around 5,500.
Both Myrtle Beach and Fort Lauderdale offer venues to accommodate groups of various sizes and serve many functions. Some of Lorance’s favorite hotel properties in Myrtle Beach include the Marriott Myrtle Beach Resort & Spa at Grande Dunes, which has over 35,000 square feet of meeting space and can accommodate up to 1,665 attendees; the Marina Inn at Grande Dunes, which has 15,000 square feet of total meeting space and can accommodate up to 400 attendees; and the Sheraton Myrtle Beach, which has access to over 130,000 square feet of meeting space due to its connection to the Myrtle Beach Convention Center.
[Related: 4 Major Reasons Festive Fort Lauderdale Is Coming Into Its Own]
Sterling-Abram is also excited to utilize a variety of hotels in Fort Lauderdale, with her upcoming event already booking between 14 and 16 hotels in addition to the Broward County Convention Center, which can accommodate up to 23,473 attendees in its 348,040 square feet of exhibit space. The convention center is also in the process of a $1.3 billion expansion project that is set to be completed in late 2025 and will add an additional 525,000 square feet of space to the center. This expansion is part of what drew Sterling-Abram to Fort Lauderdale for her 2028 bid.
“I always thought [Fort Lauderdale] was too small, but I had heard that they had been working on the convention center. And lo and behold, they’ve pretty much doubled the size of the convention center,” Sterling-Abram explained. “I thought all of the hotels, whether they were in the marina by the convention center or they were by the beach, all looked really good and fresh.”
Sterling-Abram is also excited about the possibility of using more unique event spaces in Fort Lauderdale, especially outdoor event spaces to take advantage of some of the nice weather that comes with meeting in a beach destination.
“We’re just thinking of all the cool opportunities that are available when you’re in a city located by the beach with a beachfront,” Sterling-Abram said. “We have hotels in our block that have great special event spaces. I think there’s a lot of good opportunities there, and it seems like Fort Lauderdale’s doing a lot to build more outdoor event spaces, which is great. It seems like there’s a lot of opportunity for alternative venues that aren’t just a big hotel ballroom.”
[Related: 4 U.S. Beach Destinations for Meetings and Events That Deliver]
Work and Play
Another advantage to hosting an event at a beachfront destination is the opportunity to incorporate the beach and other destination activities into the event programming. For some of her association’s events in Myrtle Beach, Lorance has incorporated activities like cocktail hours, golf tournaments and ocean fishing trips as part of her conference programming.
Sterling-Abram even thinks that some attendees may take the opportunity to bring their families with them to create a combined “bleisure” experience out of their trip to Fort Lauderdale. She’s even thought about creating less programming during some of the tail-end days of the event to give attendees more time to enjoy the destination or spend time with their families.
“Our event is right before kids start school, and I think it could be that some of our attendees who are parents are like ‘OK, do I do the family vacation before school goes back, or do I do this conference?’ And this could potentially be a way for them to combine both, so you get that family time but you’re also attending a big event for the legislative policy industry.”
[Related: Fun Offsite Activities for Groups in Myrtle Beach]
Positive Partnerships
One of the main factors that keeps planners coming back to any destination is the hospitality and friendliness of the area’s partners. Lorance and Sterling-Abram were extremely happy with how the properties in Myrtle Beach and Fort Lauderdale, along with the area CVBs, were willing to work with and accommodate their groups.
“I feel like they do want your business and they want us to bring meetings there,” Lorance explained. “I find that with the Myrtle Beach properties, they do a great job of checking on us and making sure we’re good while the meeting is going on and even afterwards…They make sure our events run smooth, and that definitely shows.”
Sterling-Abram also found that many of the hotels in Fort Lauderdale were willing to work with her and presented a lot of options to make the destination more affordable.
“When you hear about a beach property, you’re always like ‘OK, there’s going to be a huge resort fee and they’re never going to waive it. And there’s going to be all these extra add-ons,’” Sterling-Abram said. “I think [Fort Lauderdale] is very willing to work with big groups.”
Connections
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