Is the sellers’ market for hotels forcing you to consider secondary choices for cities? Have you found any pleasant surprises regarding venues, prices, services?

I encourage you to consider one of the many fine second or third tier cities that surround major metropolitan areas. You can find some real gems if you are flexible and open to fantastic surprises. This is especially true of your small to mid size corporate meetings. Just think of all the great towns not too far from San Francisco, for example: Napa Valley, Monterey, Santa Barbara (if you don’t mind a little further south). In the past year, a great new meeting and event facility opened just outside Denver in Broomfield, Colorado. Never heard of Broomfield? It is about fifteen minutes outside the city, and the brand new facility is just off the highway.You can find these destinations around every major metro area.