Every hotel tries to capitalize on its location to create experiences for its guests and meeting attendees.
For the Hilton Cocoa Beach Oceanfront, a unique blend of nearby attractions and exceptional creativity has created some learning, teambuilding, and recreational options that have been a hit withmeeting professionals.
For starters, the hotel is located just a few miles from Cape Canaveral and the Kennedy Space Center, launch site for the Space Shuttle and many other space missions. Just south of the hotel is one of largest nesting grounds for sea turtles. And of course the hotel is adjacent to miles of pristine Atlantic seaboard beachfront.
So what does this mean for meeting professionals? Jason McKee, Director of Sales and Marketing for the Hilton Cocoa Beach Oceanfront, explains that the hotel has developed a rocket launch team-building program, a remote-control dune buggy racing program, and partnerships with the nearby Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge to offer meeting experiences unique to the hotel.
He reports that many engineering organizations meet at the hotel, which was part of inspiration for creating the rocket launch program, where teams of 4-5 meeting attendees work together to build and launch model rockets.
“It is very competitive as far as designs go,” McKee says. “Engineers with multiple advanced degrees get so enthusiastic about building these kids’ toys and launching them. It really is a team-building exercise and has been a tremendous success for us. But it’s not just for engineers – we have had every type of organization do it. They take a real sense of pride in building the rockets, recovering them, and relaunching them. It builds a real sense of camaraderie, increases the competition level, and it is fun to watch adults turn into kids again.” The experience is often enhanced by a session with an astronaut who talks about the team-building required to make a Shuttle space launch happen.
“We always ask what the mission of the group is to help tailor the presentation,” McKee explains. “In a space launch there is always a mission. We convey the organization mission to the astronaut who comes to speak.”
Several teams around the world work together to make a space launch happen, so the astronauts always have many perspectives and lessons to talk about. Besides the team at the Kennedy Space Center, there is a support team in Houston, teams in Spain, France, and Australia for potential emergency landings, and a team in California in case weather in Florida or other factors require an alternate landing site.
“Tens of thousands of people work together to get six people in space and back again,” McKee says. When he joined the hotel a few years ago, he knew nothing about the space program, but is now well-versed in many aspects of it after listening to astronauts speak and visiting Cape Canaveral.
Another exciting option is for meeting attendees to witness a Space Shuttle launch. McKee has his own personal experience with this, watching a launch from a spot two miles away (the closest you can get to witness a launch) with his four-year-old son.
“He talks nonstop all the time,” McKee says, “but after we watched the launch and had our clothes blown back by the noise, all he could say for the next 15 minutes was ‘whoa.’”
Only a few more Shuttle launches are scheduled before the National Aeronautic and Space Administration moves into its new Constellation program, but he notes that 24-26 unmanned launches are planned in 2010-11, and the hotel can arrange VIP tours of the Kennedy Space Center if a launch is not happening.
When meeting professionals, inspired by the rocket launch program, began asking for more activities, McKee and his team partnered with a local hobby shop and created the remote-controlled dune buggy racing competition, where attendees race dune buggies through an obstacle course on the beach.
“Each team has to complete at least one lap,” he says. “They get points based on speed, traversing all the obstacles, and having the fewest crashes.”
“Our hotel is also a phenomenal place for ecology tourism and ecological groups,” McKee says, since one of largest nesting grounds for sea turtles is only a few miles south of the property.
Tours include many nature preserves with wildlife and walking trails. Turtles, bald eagles, and osprey are just a few of the wildlife that can be seen. The hotel partners with the Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge to conduct private tours during the turtle nesting season. The Caribbean Conservation Corporation, which works to protect the turtles, explains the life cycle of sea turtles and how humans affect them and how the seacoast community has helped them.
Airboat rides and kayaking are also available near the hotel.
The Hilton Cocoa Beach Oceanfront also offers guests a chance to earn a deluxe breakfast by volunteering to go out and do early-morning beach cleanup, offering meeting attendees a chance to support green initiatives.
The hotel is located 45 miles from Orlando International Airport. “It’s a one-hour trip from baggage claim at the airport to our front desk,” McKee says. The hotel also provide hurricane insurance in case an event is affected by a named storm – groups can rebook within 12 months with no penalties.
