From sunny weather to top hotels, attractions and restaurants, we spoke to planners about the many reasons they choose Florida for events—and why you should, too.
Spudtastic Scenes in Orlando
From January 8-10, almost 2,200 attendees and 200 exhibitors checked in to the Orlando World Center Marriott for Potato Expo 2025, the largest conference and tradeshow in North America for the potato industry. The two-day event brought together growers, suppliers and industry experts to connect, grow and share ideas.
“This was our 17th year, and we broke all attendance records—the second-largest turnout after last year’s event in Austin,” said Hollee Alexander, vice president of industry relations and events for the Washington, D.C.-based National Potato Council.
Potato Expo 2025 kicked off with a Flock to Florida event welcome reception, replete with papas huancaina shooters, deviled potatoes and pappa rellena bites as appetizers. (Marriott’s chefs also had some fun with this event, including their innovative Fry-Day salad bar and baked potato bar with toppings inspired by Cuban cuisine.)
“The chefs worked overtime on the menus,” Alexander noted.
The event tapped into some of Florida’s ties to the industry. One panel discussion featured Fresh from Florida, a program that promotes Florida farmers and fishers through consumer marketing campaigns, retail partnerships and industry outreach conducted by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. Panelists included a potato farmer from Hastings, Florida (Yes, potatoes are grown in Florida!) and an agricultural economist to discuss the business of potato farming.
Daytime educations were followed by lighter activities, like Totally Tater Trivia, a beer garden with seemingly endless potato chips, This Spuds for You Happy Hour, Meet and Potatoes Lounge for networking and the Flock to Florida: The Happy Potato Showdown cooking competition sponsored by the Little Potato Company using the company’s recipe for microwaved little potatoes with hot honey.
The Orlando World Center Marriott also hosted the Potato LEAF 5K Fun Run around the Hawk’s Landing Golf Course. The charity run funds the Potato LEAF foundation, which fosters leadership development in the potato industry.
The final night was on the pool terrace at the Marriott with a local musician playing yacht rock in the background. The menu was an assortment of—you guessed it—unique potato apps like tater tot skewers, potato herb croquettes, chocolate-covered mashed potato truffles and others.
Alexander appreciated the property’s size to accommodate all of the event’s activities. “The great thing about Florida is the weather, so you can have an event outside, and Marriott World Center is large enough for us to have everything under one roof,” she said. “We have heard nothing but positive reviews about the conference.”
And while potatoes are serious business—it’s a $100 billion industry responsible for 714,000 jobs domestically—attendees also like to have a bit of fun outside of the event. And what better place than Orlando to do it?
“We were fortunate the hotel offered us the conference rate three days before and three days after the event so guests could travel with their families,” Alexander said.
There was nothing half-baked about this conference. Potato Expo will be back in Orlando in 2028!
[Related: The Latest Property Openings and Renovations in Florida]
All-in-One Fun
Haley Brust, senior account executive for Talley Management Group, a New Jersey-based full-service association management company, has been bringing groups to The Don CeSar on St. Pete Beach for about 15 years.
She—and her groups—never tire of it.
“I hardly ever look at any other resort in Florida. I manage four associations, and I’ve brought three of them to the Don CeSar for board meetings and larger, annual meetings. Unfortunately, one of my groups is too big for the Don and another was about to outgrow it, but now with their new ballroom, we’ll be back,” she said.
One of the amenities Brust says her group enjoys is the 11,000-square-foot Spa Oceana.
“I have a women’s group that takes full advantage of it, and my group of bankers, while it’s mostly men who are in meetings all day, the wives love it. There’s nothing like having a massage while looking out at the beach,” Brust said.
Brust likes the two pools where one of her groups meets for three days in their bathing suits, drinks in hand. “They get a lot done,” she quipped.
“We’ve also used the Presidential Suite and the outside patio and we love the shops, including the ice cream parlor, on the ground floor—so basically we’ve used the hotel from top to bottom.”
Brust enjoys the cuisine at Maritana and other restaurants on property, as well.
“The food is fabulous and the staff, some who have been there for years, remember us year after year,” she said.
“St. Pete in general is easy to get to via Tampa International Airport. Flights are affordable and it only takes about 30 minutes to get to the Don from the airport by car service or Uber,” she added. “St. Pete Beach also has Free Beach Ride up and down Gulf Boulevard, so if guests want to venture out to any one of several restaurants in the area, they don’t need a car.
“One of my groups had a final night dinner on the patio with fabulous decorations, great food with buffets and bars set up with a band and the amazing beach views,” Brust continued. “It’s a lovable place.”
Big Fish in West Palm Beach
When Chicago-based ASUG, the largest IT professional association of SAP professionals in North America, held its annual meeting Tech Connect 2024 for 1,200 attendees and sponsors, they basically took over West Palm Beach. The annual meeting included a tradeshow, educational tracks and keynote speakers.
The meeting brought in attendees from all over the country and most flew into Palm Beach International Airport, about 15 minutes to the host hotel.
“It’s a small airport, but so easy to get in and out of,” said Erin DeFouw, events director. “Some of the hotels offered a free shuttle, which attendees appreciate—saving both time and money on transportation to and from the airport. We used the entire Palm Beach County Convention Center, which helped attendees connect with each other. They treated us like a citywide. We don’t get that kind of attention in larger cities.”
“The outdoor patio at the center was one of our main networking spots where people could compare notes while basking in the Florida sun,” she added.
The group utilized a number of hotels.
“Our headquarters hotel was the Hilton West Palm Beach, but we also used the West Palm Beach Marriott, Canopy by Hilton West Palm Beach Downtown and Hyatt Place West Palm Beach,” she said. “On free evenings, attendees ventured out and would run into other attendees, speakers and sponsors from the show. It was really a community event. The weather was perfect; our attendees loved getting out and exploring the destination and checking out some of the rooftop spaces.
“The CVB [The Palm Beaches] helped us with arrival branding and securing attendee welcome gifts from a local company, Boarderie, known to locals as the place to get cheese and charcuterie boards. Giving a local gift was a nice touch,” DeFouw added.
The closing night was a highlight, with the theme of Palm Beach Brights and Croquet Whites where The National Croquet Center played host, as attendees sipped cocktails and played croquet before dinner.
“Overall, we had a 92% satisfaction rate on our surveys, up 4% from last year, which I believe was due to the destination,” DeFouw said. “We had a lot of people come in from up north and I believe having the conference in November, a lot of people thought it might be their last opportunity to have some sun before the winter kicked in.
Repeat Business on the Gulf Coast
Located along the shores of Florida’s Gulf Coast, the Hilton Sandestin Beach Golf Resort & Spa provided a perfect setting for the Mississippi Osteopathic Medical Association. The resort features white-sand beaches, various dining options and golf courses.
As the largest full-service beachfront resort in Northwest Florida, it offers amenities alongside the natural beauty of its surroundings, making it a viable location for conferences and conventions.
“The Hilton Sandestin Beach Golf Resort & Spa has to be the most desirable place to host a conference in the Gulf South,” said Dr. Makayla L. Merritt, PhD, executive director. “Our association was the first group to contract an event at the property before the resort even opened. We are now preparing for our 44th Annual conference to be held at the newly refreshed Hilton Sandestin.
“Our team has continued to select hosting at the Hilton Sandestin for decades because of the beautiful location, amenities at the resort, and most of all, because of the excellent events team that work on our behalf so that we can deliver an amazing conference to our attendees,” she continued. “We are so fortunate to get to work with such an amazing team at the resort, with many of the employees having worked with us for decades as well! The staff are friendly and helpful, and they remember what we need from year to year—sometimes better than we do! I truly feel that our conferences would not be as successful as they are if we were in a different location.”
And, she adds, her attendees wouldn’t be happy if they switched locations.
“They have come to enjoy extending as a combined bleisure experience.”
Posh Palm Beach
The Fortune 1000 company that Jerry Rosenthal, global account executive for Conference Direct, works with is so discreet he can’t reveal the five-star hotels the company took over for a February meeting in Palm Beach. But he can say the group was wowed with champagne as soon as they arrived at the hotel, and the VIP treatment for these 400 attendees and their spouses didn’t stop until they left five days later.
Palm Beach had allure for multiple reasons, outside of the hotels.
“First, we had to pick a city that had two airports, one for commercial and one regional that could accommodate all the corporate jets that would be flying in,” Rosenthal said.
A pre-con meeting was held at Mar-a-Lago, which Rosenthal found impeccable.
“I heard Trump has the stones on the path from the main house the pool removed and polished,” he said.
The first night was a beach party and an offsite gathering was held at Ragtops Motorcars, which houses a classic car dealership and vintage car museum.
“They also played several rounds of golf on the Blue Monster at Trump National Doral Golf Club, and we chartered yachts for fishing,” he added.
Shopping is the name of the game on famous Worth Avenue, and the group reaped the benefits.
[Related: Quintessential Group Experiences in Florida’s Palm Beach and Treasure Coast]
“We handed out American Express gift cards and took them on a shopping spree. There were 70 spouses, both male and female. Later we did a fashion show on the beach—where many of the wives modeled—and ended up buying what they wore at the show,” Rosenthal said.
Cultural Immersion in Miami
Lakesha Moore, events associate for the Washington, D.C.-based Chiefs for Change, said simply, “I love Florida for meetings. You can always have an outdoor event in October. You can’t do that in Washington, D.C.!
“Our last event for our internal team was a teambuilding event held at the Miami Marriott Biscayne Bay. I just love that the city is heavy on diversity and the fact that it’s heavily inspired by Cuban culture, and food is a plus. When I’m planning an event, I want the flair and flavor of the city. We’re not coming to a destination just to sit in a meeting room. Why not be immersed in all the different cultures?”
A notable event of the meeting was a Top Chef-style cooking competition held at Tuyo restaurant, located on the top floor of Miami Dade College’s Miami Culinary Institute, which serves as a training center for culinary students.
“We did as a teambuilding exercise and a true competition where we broke up in teams. We had so much fun,” Moore said.
Moore also liked the ease of travel into Miami.
“We’re mostly coming from the East Coast, and so we can get direct flights right into Miami and it was super easy to get to the hotel from the airport.
“The thing that stood out for me is even though we were a small group of 17, we never felt like we were a small fish,” she added. “They were so welcoming. Everyone in the city of Miami is so friendly.”
[Related: The Latest Developments in South Florida Locales Miami and Fort Lauderdale]
Fort Lauderdale Finds
Tanya Baker, senior director, global accounts, HelmsBriscoe, has been planning meetings for more than 20 years and has 26 clients.
She says they love Florida.
“The majority of my clients are from New York and New Jersey, so they want to come to Florida for the weather, specifically the beaches,” she said. “Some areas in Florida we’ve used in the past have, unfortunately, priced themselves out of the market or are saving their rooms at high season for their higher paying transient business,” Baker added, “so we decided to look at Fort Lauderdale.”
Following a visit to tour the city, Baker arranged two different association conferences at the Marriott Harbor Beach Resort.
Additionally, a site visit has been scheduled for one of Baker’s large medical groups to evaluate the Omni Fort Lauderdale Hotel, Marriott Harbor Beach Resort and The Diplomat as potential venues for a 2028 conference.
“On our site visit we spent some of our time touring Las Olas Boulevard where there’s lots of shopping and restaurants,” she said. “Our attendees want walkable—or at least an Uber ride—from the hotel. They want to break off into smaller group to meet. That’s where business is being done these days.”
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