Plan Your Meetings

Fort Lauderdale guide meeting destinations travel
photo by Dawn Ashley.

Fort Lauderdale: The Venice of the South

By Kristi Casey Sanders

Want to shake up a meal function?

The Hard Rock Café Hollywood has a living museum of rock ‘n’ roll memorabilia and three function spaces for music-themed meetings and events, including a stage for live music. The entire venue can accommodate up to 300 guests reception-style. If it’s comedy you’re after, hire a comic through the Improv Comedy Club & Dinner Theatre.

Want to surround your group with culture?

The Broward Center for the Performing Arts hosts touring Broadway shows and has several rental spaces for elegant affairs, including the 2,688-seat Au-Rene Theater, the 582-seat Amaturo Theater, the Abdo New River Room, the Peck Couryard and the 1,100-seat Parker Playhouse. The theater is part of the Riverwalk district, which has a large concentration of cultural venues, including the Museum of Discovery & Science, the Museum of Art and the Old Fort Lauderdale Museum of History.

Want to team-build?

Wannado City is an indoor role-playing theme park where guests get to try on different occupations. The 140,000-sq. ft. “city” is available for corporate buy-outs; package rates can include scavenger hunts and team-building activities. Let Salsabor set up a Latin Combo Boot Camp to give attendees (and spouses) a crash course on salsa, mambo, cha-cha-bachata and merengue.

Want group dining?

Give attendees a chance to dine overlooking the Intracoastal Waterway at Grille 66 & Bar. The Himmarshee Bar & Grille has an upstairs party loft and an outdoor terrace for group events. It’s connected to the Side Bar, which has a dance floor, live music and DJs. Tarpon Bend has an in-house party planner; groups can take over the main dining room, reserve the private upstairs bar or dine on the patio. The Jungle Queen is a 550-passenger riverboat offering all you can eat barbecue dinners and sightseeing tours. Along Las Olas Boulevard, planners will find several restaurants, including the elegant Mark’s on Las Olas and the colorful Samba Room. Shake things up by creating a progressive dining event, shuttling attendees between restaurants by water taxi. Chima Brazilian Steakhouse has private dining for small and large groups; and waiters dressed in traditional gaucho (cowboy) attire, who roam the room offering a selection of 16 rotisserie meats. In addition to menu options, there’s also a salad bar.

Want to put attendees in touch with nature?

Travel down Alligator Alley to the Big Cyprus Reservation, where members of the Seminole Tribe of Florida operate Billie Swamp Safari tours through the Everglades. Overnight accommodations, hunting trips, dining and tours of the Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum are also available. North of Fort Lauderdale on the A1A, the Bonnet House Museum & Gardens sits on a barrier island surrounded by five distinct ecosystems, including beach and dune, mangrove wetlands and a maritime forest. The gardens include one of the largest collections of orchids in the Southeast. Outdoor reception space and group tours of the historic home and 55-acre estate are available.

Want nightlife?

Revolution, in the Downtown Himmarshee/Riverwalk area, has an indoor event venue with two bars that holds 1,100 patrons. Its outdoor space has room for 2,000, a VIP area and a covered stage. Voodoo Lounge is a swanky dance club with three party venues, including a VIP lounge and a 2,500-sq. ft. outdoor deck/bar area. In Hollywood, nightlife revolves around the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, which offers gaming, dining and live entertainment.

Want sports venues?

MLB Baltimore Orioles hold spring training and exposition games at the Fort Lauderdale Stadium. Nova Southeastern University is where the NFL Miami Dolphins train. Other campus sports venues include the AD Griffin Sports Complex (softball), the NSU Baseball Complex, “The Shark Tank” volleyball and basketball arena, and the NSU Soccer Complex.

Want spousal programs?

Discovery Cruise Line has one-day cruises from Fort Lauderdale to the Bahamas. Guests enjoy all-you-can-eat buffets, a casino, live music, indoor and outdoor games and three hours on the beach on Grand Bahama Island. Create a shopping and dining tour of Las Olas Boulevard, downtown Hollywood, downtown Himmarshee or the Riverwalk. The Historic Stranahan House offers a River Ghost tour, which includes a tour of the home and a river cruise. Golf and spa programs are other options.

Destinations (MAP)

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What you should know

Greater Fort Lauderdale is a sophisticated meetings destination with more than 4,000 restaurants, multiple shopping and entertainment districts, and intriguing cultural venues. The Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport is only three miles from the Greater Fort Lauderdale/Broward County Convention Center and Port Everglades, one of the world's busiest cruise ship ports. A few exits south of Fort Lauderdale on I-95 is the town of Hollywood, a hip enclave of nightclubs and entertainment venues. If you're looking for luxury, the Lauderdale Luxe collection of resorts offer the utmost in accommodations, attentive service, fine dining and luxury spas; check with the CVB for more information.

What will surprise you

The city has 300 miles of sparkling waterways and canals, hence the comparisons to Venice, Italy. Inventive transportation options include water taxi, yacht, catamaran and riverboat. Proximity to the Everglades means groups don't have far to travel to find eco-adventures. The Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention and Visitors Bureau has a free in-house hotel reservation service for planners booking more than 600 rooms in at least two hotels. Book at least 600 rooms August-September 2009 or 2010, and the convention center will waive exhibit hall rental fees, and some hotels will waive attrition fees.

The 411
  • 600,000 square feet in the convention center
  • 33,000 hotel rooms
  • 4,000+ restaurants
  • 300 miles of waterways
  • 50+ golf courses
  • 23 miles of beach
  • 15 cruise lines at Port Evergaldes
Meeting responsibly

Several local hotels have become Certified Florida Green Lodgings. The Greater Fort Lauderdale/Broward County Convention Center is applying for LEED Certification; it has extensive recycling and energy saving initiatives in place. Leftover banquet food is donated to the local food bank. For a complete list of Fort Lauderdale's green properties, vendors and initiatives, visit sunny.org/greenbroward. The convention and visitors bureau also encourages groups to add a volunteer activity to the agenda; planners can choose from a list of non-profit organizations and community programs.