The words “conference,” “convention” and “team meeting” are enough to fill just about anyone with dread. Most of us have sat through plenty of boring speakers and lame activities, but what if your next convention could actually be fun and worthwhile? Here are five reasons why your next event should be held at Walt Disney World:
1. You have an array of venues to choose from.
If your boss wants numbers, here’s some: Walt Disney World has over 700,000 square feet of dedicated convention space across several resorts for 10 to 10,000 attendees. The spaces include everything from breakout rooms to ballrooms at Disney’s BoardWalk Inn, Disney’s Contemporary Resort, Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort, Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa, Disney’s Yacht & Beach Club Resort and even the Swan and Dolphin Resort.
2. You get Disney’s amenities.
If your guests stay at Disney hotels, there’s no worry about transportation to the resort with Disney’s Magical Express. This can save plenty of time and money. There’s also free transportation around the resort grounds and Disney Springs as well as free wi-fi.
And speaking of hotel rooms, team members can get them at discounted rates, and Disney will typically allow them to keep that special pricing for the days before and after a conference. You could actually get upgraded rooms for the price of standard rooms, and some event organizers and other company leaders have reported getting concierge suites for the same price as regular resort rooms.
Meeting- and convention-goers can also receive 10 percent off their full-day park tickets of two days or longer and they also get an added bonus — admission to Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon Water Park, Disney’s Blizzard Beach Water Park, or the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex, or rounds of golf at Disney’s Winter Summerland or Fantasia miniature golf courses or Disney’s Oak Trail Golf Course. There are also After 3 p.m. Meeting/Convention Tickets available for a lower price too, though these might not be worth it during slow months of the year like September and January, when parks typically close around 6 p.m. More information about specially priced convention tickets is available here.
Even if the boss doesn’t want to spring for park tickets, a team can still get a taste of Disney at the dozens of restaurants, entertainment venues and shops at Disney Springs as well as their own resort. There are bars at both Disney Springs and most resorts for after-hours networking.
And an event planner can book their own event speakers and presentations, as well as take advantage of the services of the Disney Institute. Speakers representing one of the most popular, profitable and enduring companies in the world can teach your team how Disney thinks by offering a keynote presentation or half-day, full-day or multi-day programs. There’s also a “Business Behind the Magic Tour” that will take a team into rarely seen areas of the theme parks to learn how magic happens there every day.
3. You can build your team in ways that are actually fun.
There’s no walking-over-hot-coals or trust-fall team-building activities here. With all of the options available at their fingertips, the Disney Meetings gurus have put together some not-to-be-missed events, like the Wild Africa Trek at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, where groups are led on a three-hour safari and get up close with wildlife. Part of the experience calls for crossing a rope bridge above a river filled with animals. A team can help encourage each other over the shaky structure and get back to safety.
Disney also recently added a new event that’s only for corporate groups. Since “escape rooms” have gotten so popular, Disney has created its own. And there’s not one specific place where teams can participate in “The Escape Challenge” — it can be set up in most of Disney’s convention rooms or even in theme park meeting spaces depending on a group’s size, budget and time. The group is split up into small teams and brought into two themed rooms (the first is the captain’s quarters of an old pirate ship and the second, harder, room is a mad scientist’s lab), and teams will have to work together to solve the increasingly-more-difficult puzzles in order to escape.
4. You’re in good company.
Some of the groups that have held events at Walt Disney World include the American Nurses Association and the National PTA, and even the Selected Independent Funeral Homes organization is planning its 98th annual meeting at the Grand Floridian this year.
And Disney will help a group promote its event with videos, microsites, fliers and even social media copy.
Your group will want to book the event as soon as possible to secure the venue, but most private events can’t be contracted until six months (and sometimes just 90 days) before their date. And each venue has its own pricetag: For example, it can cost around $150 to $500 to rent space for a dessert party at IllumiNations at Epcot, and there are also food and beverage minimums (up to around $2,500 for the Epcot event, depending on the specific location). But events like this can also be attended by guests without a theme park admission. A viewing fee for the dessert party would be around $15 per person who doesn’t have a theme park ticket.
5. You can extend your work trip into a real vacation.
Unlike holding a meeting in the Midwest, for example, there will likely be many more takers if it’s held in sunny Florida. (No offense to Midwesterners, but they probably would rather be at Walt Disney World too!) Disney meetings also promote a work-life balance by offering a chance to get together for business but also for fun with family and friends. While Walt Disney World isn’t just for children, a boss can help employees forget about work stresses for a while.
Hopefully, this guide will help convince your boss that it’s definitely worth it to be a ConventionEar. If you’ve attended a meeting or conference at Walt Disney World, share your experiences below!
