ADVERTISING SECTION
Meeting and Conference Destinations:
Virginia Beach

Meet among the sun and sand
With 38 miles of Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic Ocean shoreline, a three-mile boardwalk and a vibrant beachfront, Virginia Beach is a popular visitor destination. Located within a day’s drive of two-thirds of the U.S. population, it is easy to reach Virginia Beach by car. Virginia’s most populous city offers a variety of attractions, including museums and lighthouses, seafood and a waterfront that’s perfect for swimming, boating, biking and fishing – plenty for conference goers to entertain themselves with after long meetings. In addition, high-end retail is increasing throughout the city.

The second phase of the Virginia Beach Convention Center opens next year, offering more than 200,000 square feet of meeting, exhibition and ballroom space. The facility will offer high-tech meeting equipment, including audio-visual systems, wireless and wired Internet activity and video walls. The first phase of the convention center opened in June 2005. Virginia Beach also offers unique meeting locations, such as Virginia’s Jewel, the city’s luxury dining yacht, the Association for Research and Enlightenment and the Contemporary Art Center of Virginia.

Virginia Beach Convention and Visitors Bureau
2101 Parks Ave.
Suite 500
Virginia Beach, VA 23451
(800) 700-7702
www.vbfun.com
Contact: Al Hutchinson, director of convention sales
ahutchin@vbgov.com

Convention Hotels

The Founders Inn and Spa (view PDF ad)
5641 Indian River Road
Virginia Beach, VA 23464
(888) 609-2323
www.foundersmeetings.com
Contact: Tade Allen, senior sales manager
tallen@benchmarkmanagement.com

One of Virginia Beach’s premier hotels, The Founders Inn and Spa offers complete luxury, from its 240 guest rooms furnished to exude warm hospitality in Colonial-era architecture, to its exquisite dining facility, the Swan Terrace, and its delicately landscaped 26 acres, to its pampering spa. The Founders Inn provides some of the most technologically advanced meeting area in the mid-Atlantic region in its 26,000 square feet of meeting space in 20 rooms. Conference amenities include a personal conference concierge, worldwide video teleconferencing, high speed and wireless Internet and high-tech audiovisual equipment. The facility’s largest meeting room can hold 1,000 people for a banquet and 1,400 when set up theater style.

The Founders Inn recently opened its Flowering Almond Spa, the only full-service, resort-style spa in South Hampton Roads. Part of a $5 million expansion that includes a new indoor pool, aquatic activity complex and renovated fitness center, the Flowering Almond Spa offers blissful full-body treatments, tranquil massages and indulgent manicures and pedicures using time-honored rejuvenation techniques of the Orient to create soothing luxury that touches the soul.

Hilton Virginia Beach Oceanfront (view PDF ad)
3001 Atlantic Ave.
Virginia Beach, VA 23451
(757) 213-3001
www.hiltonvb.com
Contact: Mary Kelly, director of sales
mary_kelly@hiltonvb.com

Towering 21-floors above the Atlantic Ocean, the Hilton Virginia Beach Oceanfront offers guests some of Virginia Beach’s best city and ocean views from its 291 rooms. Resort amenities include a rooftop, zero-edge indoor pool, a fitness center, two exceptional restaurants and a Sky Bar on top of the hotel. The hotel is also connected to shops by a climate-controlled walkway above Atlantic Avenue.

Each guest room includes a 32-inch flat-screen TV, high-speed Internet and a work desk with ergonomic chairs. Rooms on the hotel’s top three floors, the Empyrean Club Levels, offer the hotel’s most spectacular views and were designed for the corporate traveler or distinct leisure guests. These lavish rooms include a 42-inch plasma screen TV, private baths with a 10-inch TV and cordless telephones. Guests are pampered to every last detail, including lighted make-up mirrors, plush cotton robes, bottled water, puff sponges and satin hangers.

The hotel offers 17,326 square feet of meeting space, and its largest room can hold 540 people for a banquet and 832 when set up in theater style. The Hilton offers conferences a private online group page so meeting planners can communicate easily with conference attendees.

Virginia Beach Resort Hotel & Conference Center (view PDF ad)
2800 Shore Drive
Virginia Beach, VA 23451
(757) 481-9000
www.virginiabeachresort.com
Contact: Stacey Patrick, general manager
spatrick@virginiabeachresort.com

Meeting planners can provide the perfect combination of work and pleasure at the Virginia Beach Resort Hotel & Conference Center. With 16,000 square feet of meeting space, the conference center can accommodate small, high-level executive meetings to a conference of 450 people. The hotel’s eight meeting rooms and top three floors were recently upgraded, including the four penthouse suites.

The hotel offers 256 suite-style rooms. Each has a view of the hotel’s private beach, where the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean meet. In addition to swimming at the private beach, guests can entertain themselves at the hotel’s indoor-outdoor swimming pool, sauna, whirlpool and health club. The health club also offers a professional massage service and a chance to unwind in the HydroSonic Infrasound Relaxation System. All guests have complimentary use of the outdoor tennis courts at the Virginia Beach Tennis & Country Club for an hour and a half each day. Guests can also dine at Tradewinds Restaurant, which offers an award-winning Sunday brunch.

Room Report

Virginia Beach offers about 11,000 hotel rooms, with about 8,000 rooms along the oceanfront. About 3,500 rooms are within a two-mile radius of the convention center. The Westin Virginia Beach Town Center, opening fall 2007, will include 236 guest rooms and 10,000 square feet of meeting space.

Airports

Norfolk International Airport
Located just 20 minutes from Virginia Beach, the airport offers nonstop service to 22 cities in the United States. In 2005, the airport served more than 3.8 million passengers.

Attractions

Adam Thoroughgood House
Association for Research and Enlightenment
Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge
Cape Henry Lighthouses
Contemporary Art Center of Virginia
False Cape State Park
First Landing State Park
Verizon Wireless Virginia Beach Amphitheater
Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center

Shopping

Hilltop Area
Hilton Retail Shops
Lynnhaven Mall
Pembroke Mall
Resort Area
Town Center